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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6423.txt b/6423.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c036e62 --- /dev/null +++ b/6423.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13293 @@ +Project Gutenberg's History of American Literature, by Reuben Post Halleck + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: History of American Literature + +Author: Reuben Post Halleck + +Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6423] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 10, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN LITERATURE *** + + + + +Produced by Tom Allen, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +HISTORY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE + +BY REUBEN POST HALLECK, M.A. (YALE) +AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE" + +[Illustration: THE RETURN OF RIP VAN WINKLE] + + + + +PREFACE + +The wide use of the author's _History of English Literature_, the favor +with which it has been received in all parts of the United States, and the +number of earnest requests for a _History of American Literature_ on the +same plan, have led to the writing of this book. It has not appeared sooner +because the author has followed his rule of making a careful first-hand +study, not only of all the matter discussed, but also of a far greater +amount, which, although it must be omitted from a condensed textbook, is, +nevertheless, necessary as a background for judgment and selection. + +The following chapters describe the greatest achievements in American +literature from the earliest times until the present. Many pupils fail to +obtain a clear idea of great American authors and literary movements +because textbook writers and teachers ignore the element of truth in the +old adage, "The half is greater than the whole," and dwell too much on +minor authors and details, which could reasonably be expected to interest +only a specialist. In the following pages especial attention has been paid, +not only to the individual work of great authors, but also to literary +movements, ideals, and animating principles, and to the relation of all +these to English literature. + +The author has further aimed to make this work both interesting and +suggestive. He has endeavored to present the subject in a way that +necessitates the comparison of authors and movements, and leads to +stimulating thinking. He has tried to communicate enough of the spirit of +our literature to make students eager for a first-hand acquaintance with +it, to cause them to investigate for themselves this remarkable American +record of spirituality, initiative, and democratic accomplishment. As a +guide to such study, there have been placed at the end of each chapter +_Suggested Readings_ and still further hints, called _Questions and +Suggestions_. In _A Glance Backward_, the author emphasizes in brief +compass the most important truths that American literature teaches, truths +that have resulted in raising the ideals of Americans and in arousing them +to greater activity. + +Any one who makes an original study of American literature will not be a +mere apologist for it. He will marvel at the greatness of the moral +lesson, at the fidelity of the presentation of the thought which has +molded this nation, and at the peculiar aptness which its great authors +have displayed in ministering to the special needs and aspirations of +Americans. He will realize that the youth who stops with the indispensable +study of English literature is not prepared for American citizenship, +because our literature is needed to present the ideals of American life. +There may be greater literatures, but none of them can possibly take the +place of ours for citizens of this democracy. + +The moral element, the most impressive quality in American literature, is +continuous from the earliest colonial days until the present. Teachers +should be careful not to obscure this quality. As the English scientist, +John Tyndall, has shown in the case of Emerson, this moral stimulus is +capable of adding immeasurably to the achievement of the young. + +The temptation to slight the colonial period should be resisted. It has +too often been the fashion to ask, Why should the student not begin the +study of American literature with Washington Irving, the first author +read for pure pleasure? The answer is that the student would not then +comprehend the stages of growth of the new world ideals, that he would +not view our later literature through the proper atmosphere, and that he +would lack certain elements necessary for a sympathetic comprehension of +the subject. + +The seven years employed in the preparation of this work would have been +insufficient, had not the author been assisted by his wife, to whom he is +indebted not only for invaluable criticism but also for the direct +authorship of some of the best matter in this book. + +R. P. H. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I +COLONIAL LITERATURE + +CHAPTER II +THE EMERGENCE OF A NATION + +CHAPTER III +THE NEW YORK GROUP + +CHAPTER IV +THE NEW ENGLAND GROUP + +CHAPTER V +SOUTHERN LITERATURE + +CHAPTER VI +WESTERN LITERATURE + +CHAPTER VII +THE EASTERN REALISTS +A GLANCE BACKWARD + + * * * * * + +SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF AUTHORS AND THEIR CHIEF WORKS + +INDEX + +[Transcriber's note: +Index not included in this electronic version.] + + + + +HISTORY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +COLONIAL LITERATURE + + +RELATION TO ENGLISH LITERATURE.--The literature produced in that part of +America known as the United States did not begin as an independent +literature. The early colonists were Englishmen who brought with them their +own language, books, and modes of thought. England had a world-famous +literature before her sons established a permanent settlement across the +Atlantic. Shakespeare had died four years before the Pilgrims landed at +Plymouth. When an American goes to Paris he can neither read the books, nor +converse with the citizens, if he knows no language but his own. Let him +cross to London, and he will find that, although more than three hundred +years have elapsed since the first colonists came to America, he +immediately feels at home, so far as the language and literature are +concerned. + +For nearly two hundred years after the first English settlements in +America, the majority of the works read there were written by English +authors. The hard struggle necessary to obtain a foothold in a wilderness +is not favorable to the early development of a literature. Those who +remained in England could not clear away the forest, till the soil, and +conquer the Indians, but they could write the books and send them across +the ocean. The early settlers were for the most part content to allow +English authors to do this. For these reasons it would be surprising if +early American literature could vie with that produced in England during +the same period. + +When Americans began to write in larger numbers, there was at first close +adherence to English models. For a while it seemed as if American +literature would be only a feeble imitation of these models, but a change +finally came, as will be shown in later chapters. It is to be hoped, +however, that American writers of the future will never cease to learn from +Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, and Wordsworth. + +AMERICAN LITERATURE AN IMPORTANT STUDY.--We should not begin the study of +American literature in an apologetic spirit. There should be no attempt to +minimize the debt that America owes to English literature, nor to conceal +the fact that American literature is young and has not had time to produce +as many masterpieces as England gave to the world during a thousand years. +However, it is now time also to record the fact that the literature of +England gained something from America. Cultivated Englishmen to-day +willingly admit that without a study of Cooper, Poe, and Hawthorne no one +could give an adequate account of the landmarks of achievement in fiction, +written in our common tongue. French critics have even gone so far as to +canonize Poe. In a certain field he and Hawthorne occupy a unique place in +the world's achievement. Again, men like Bret Harte and Mark Twain are not +common in any literature. Foreigners have had American books translated +into all the leading languages of the world. It is now more than one +hundred years since Franklin, the great American philosopher of the +practical, died, and yet several European nations reprint nearly every year +some of his sayings, which continue to influence the masses. English +critics, like John Addington Symonds, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edward +Dowden, have testified to the power of the democratic element in our +literature and have given the dictum that it cannot be neglected. + +Some of the reasons why American literature developed along original lines +and thus conveyed a message of its own to the world are to be found in the +changed environment and the varying problems and ideals of American life. +Even more important than the changed ways of earning a living and the +difference in climate, animals, and scenery were the struggles leading to +the Revolutionary War, the formation and guidance of the Republic, and the +Civil War. All these combined to give individuality to American thought and +literature. + +Taken as a whole, American literature has accomplished more than might +reasonably have been expected. Its study is especially important for us, +since the deeds associated with our birthplace must mean more to us than +more remarkable achievements of men born under other skies. Our literature, +even in its humble beginnings, contains a lesson that no American can +afford to miss. Unless we know its ideals and moral aims and are swayed by +them, we cannot keep our heritage. + +WHY VIRGINIA WAS COLONIZED.--In 1607 the first permanent English colony +within the present limits of the United States was planted at Jamestown in +Virginia. The colony was founded for commercial reasons by the London +Company, an organization formed to secure profits from colonization. The +colonists and the company that furnished their ship and outfit expected +large profits from the gold mines and the precious stones which were +believed to await discovery. Of course, the adventurers were also +influenced by the honor and the romantic interest which they thought would +result from a successful settlement. + +When the expedition sailed from England in December, 1606, Michael Drayton, +an Elizabethan poet, wrote verses dedicated "To the Virginian Voyage." +These stanzas show the reason for sending the colonizers to Virginia:-- + + "You brave heroic minds, + Worthy your country's name, + That honor still pursue, + Whilst loit'ring hinds + Lurk here at home with shame, + Go and subdue. + * * * * * + And cheerfully at sea, + Success you still entice, + To get the pearl and gold; + And ours to hold + Virginia, + Earth's only paradise." + +The majority of the early Virginian colonists were unfit for their task. +Contemporary accounts tell of the "many unruly gallants, packed hither by +their friends to escape ill destinies." Beggars, vagabonds, indentured +servants, kidnapped girls, even convicts, were sent to Jamestown and became +the ancestors of some of the "poor white trash" of the South. After the +execution of Charles I. in 1649, and the setting up of the Puritan +Commonwealth, many of the royalists, or Cavaliers, as they were called, +came to Virginia to escape the obnoxious Puritan rule. They became the +ancestors of Presidents and statesmen, and of many of the aristocratic +families of the South. + +The ideals expressed by Captain John Smith, the leader and preserver of the +Jamestown colony, are worthy to rank beside those of the colonizers of New +England. Looking back at his achievement in Virginia, he wrote, "Then +seeing we are not born for ourselves but each to help other ... Seeing +honor is our lives' ambition ... and seeing by no means would we be abated +of the dignities and glories of our predecessors; let us imitate their +virtues to be worthily their successors." + +WHY THE PURITANS COLONIZED NEW ENGLAND.--During the period from 1620 to +1640, large numbers of Englishmen migrated to that part of America now +known as New England. These emigrants were not impelled by hope of wealth, +or ease, or pleasure. They were called Puritans because they wished to +purify the Church of England from what seemed to them great abuses; and the +purpose of these men in emigrating to America was to lay the foundations of +a state built upon their religious principles. These people came for an +intangible something--liberty of conscience, a fuller life of the +spirit--which has never commanded a price on any stock exchange in the +world. They looked beyond + + "Things done that took the eye and had the price; + O'er which, from level stand, + The low world laid its hand, + Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice." + +These Puritans had been more than one century in the making. We hear of +them in the time of Wycliffe (1324-1384). Their religion was a constant +command to put the unseen above the seen, the eternal above the temporal, +to satisfy the aspiration of the spirit. James I. (reign, 1603-1625) told +them that he would harry them out of the kingdom unless they conformed to +the rites of the Established Church. His son and successor Charles I. +(reign, 1625-1649) called to his aid Archbishop Laud (1573-1645), a bigoted +official of that church. Laud hunted the dissenting clergy like wild +beasts, threw them into prison, whipped them in the pillory, branded them, +slit their nostrils, and mutilated their ears. JOHN COTTON, pastor of the +church of Boston, England, was told that if he had been guilty only of an +infraction of certain of the Ten Commandments, he might have been pardoned, +but since his crime was Puritanism, he must suffer. He had great trouble in +escaping on a ship bound for the New England Boston. + +[Illustration: JOHN COTTON] + +Professor Tyler says: "New England has perhaps never quite appreciated its +great obligations to Archbishop Laud. It was his overmastering hate of +nonconformity, it was the vigilance and vigor and consecrated cruelty with +which he scoured his own diocese and afterward all England, and hunted down +and hunted out the ministers who were committing the unpardonable sin of +dissent, that conferred upon the principal colonies of New England their +ablest and noblest men." + +It should be noted that the Puritan colonization of New England took place +in a comparatively brief space of time, during the twenty years from 1620 +to 1640. Until 1640 persecution drove the Puritans to New England in +multitudes, but in that year they suddenly stopped coming. "During the one +hundred and twenty-five years following that date, more persons, it is +supposed, went back from the New to the Old England than came from the Old +England to the New," says Professor Tyler. The year 1640 marks the +assembling of the Long Parliament, which finally brought to the block both +Archbishop Laud (1645) and King Charles I. (1649), and chose the great +Puritan, Oliver Cromwell, to lead the Commonwealth. + +ELIZABETHAN TRAITS.--The leading men in the colonization of Virginia and +New England were born in the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603), and they +and their descendants showed on this side of the Atlantic those +characteristics which made the Elizabethan age preeminent. + +In the first place, the Elizabethans possessed initiative. This power +consists, first, in having ideas, and secondly, in passing from the ideas +to the suggested action. Some people merely dream. The Elizabethans dreamed +glorious dreams, which they translated into action. They defeated the +Spanish Armada; they circumnavigated the globe; they made it possible for +Shakespeare's pen to mold the thought and to influence the actions of the +world. + +If we except those indentured servants and apprentices who came to America +merely because others brought them, we shall find not only that the first +colonists were born in an age distinguished for its initiative, but also +that they came because they possessed this characteristic in a greater +degree than those who remained behind. It was easier for the majority to +stay with their friends; hence England was not depopulated. The few came, +those who had sufficient initiative to cross three thousand miles of +unknown sea, who had the power to dream dreams of a new commonwealth, and +the will to embody those dreams in action. + +In the second place, the Elizabethans were ingenious, that is, they were +imaginative and resourceful. Impelled by the mighty forces of the +Reformation and the Revival of Learning which the England of Elizabeth +alone felt at one and the same time, the Elizabethans craved and obtained +variety of experience, which kept the fountainhead of ingenuity filled. It +is instructive to follow the lives of Elizabethans as different as Sir +Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain John Smith, +and John Winthrop, and to note the varied experiences of each. Yankee +ingenuity had an Elizabethan ancestry. The hard conditions of the New World +merely gave an opportunity to exercise to the utmost an ingenuity which the +colonists brought with them. + +In the third place, the Elizabethans were unusually democratic; that is, +the different classes mingled together in a marked degree, more than in +modern England, more even than in the United States to-day. This +intermingling was due in part to increased travel, to the desire born of +the New Learning to live as varied and as complete a life as possible, and +to the absence of overspecialization among individuals. This chance for +varied experience with all sorts and conditions of men enabled Shakespeare +to speak to all humanity. All England was represented in his plays. When +the Rev. Thomas Hooker, born in the last half of Elizabeth's reign, was +made pastor at Hartford, Connecticut, he suggested to his flock a +democratic form of government much like that under which we now live. + +Let us remember that American life and literature owe their most +interesting traits to these three Elizabethan qualities--initiative, +ingenuity, and democracy. Let us not forget that the Cambridge University +graduate, the cooper, cloth-maker, printer, and blacksmith had the +initiative to set out for the New World, the ingenuity to deal with its +varied exigencies, and the democratic spirit that enabled them to work side +by side, no matter how diverse their former trades, modes of life, and +social condition. + + +CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, 1579-1631 + +[Illustration: JOHN SMITH] + +The hero of the Jamestown colony, and its savior during the first two +years, was Captain John Smith, born in Willoughby, Lincolnshire, in 1579, +twenty-four years before the death of Elizabeth and thirty-seven before the +death of Shakespeare. Smith was a man of Elizabethan stamp,--active, +ingenious, imaginative, craving new experiences. While a mere boy, he could +not stand the tediousness of ordinary life, and so betook himself to the +forest where he could hunt and play knight. + +In the first part of his young manhood he crossed the Channel, voyaged in +the Mediterranean, fought the Turks, killing three of them in single +combat, was taken prisoner and enslaved by the Tartars, killed his inhuman +master, escaped into Russia, went thence through Europe to Africa, was in +desperate naval battles, returned to England, sailing thence for Virginia, +which he reached at the age of twenty-eight. + +He soon became president of the Jamestown colony and labored strenuously +for its preservation. The first product of his pen in America was _A True +Relation of Virginia_, written in 1608, the year in which John Milton was +born. The last work written by Smith in America is entitled: _A Map of +Virginia, with a Description of the Country, the Commodities, People, +Government, and Religion_. His description of the Indians shows his +capacity for quickly noting their traits:-- + + "They are inconstant in everything, but what fear constraineth them to + keep. Crafty, timorous, quick of apprehension and very ingenious. Some + are of disposition fearful, some bold, most cautious, all savage. + Generally covetous of copper, beads, and such like trash. They are soon + moved to anger, and so malicious that they seldom forget an injury: they + seldom steal one from another, lest their conjurors should reveal it, and + so they be pursued and punished. That they are thus feared is certain, + but that any can reveal their offences by conjuration I am doubtful." + +Smith has often been accused of boasting, and some have said that he was +guilty of great exaggeration or something worse, but it is certain that he +repeatedly braved hardships, extreme dangers, and captivity among the +Indians to provide food for the colony and to survey Virginia. After +carefully editing _Captain John Smith's Works_ in a volume of 983 pages, +Professor Edwin Arber says: "For [our] own part, beginning with +doubtfulness and wariness we have gradually come to the unhesitating +conviction, not only of Smith's truthfulness, but also that, in regard to +all personal matters, he systematically understates rather than exaggerates +anything he did." + +Although by far the greater part of Smith's literary work was done after he +returned to England, yet his two booklets written in America entitle him to +a place in colonial literature. He had the Elizabethan love of achievement, +and he records his admiration for those whose 'pens writ what their swords +did.' He was not an artist with his pen, but our early colonial literature +is the richer for his rough narrative and for the description of Virginia +and the Indians. + +In one sense he gave the Indian to literature, and that is his greatest +achievement in literary history. Who has not heard the story of his capture +by the Indians, of his rescue from torture and death, by the beautiful +Indian maiden, Pocahontas, of her risking her life to save him a second +time from Indian treachery, of her bringing corn and preserving the colony +from famine, of her visit to England in 1616, a few weeks after the death +of Shakespeare, of her royal reception as a princess, the daughter of an +Indian king, of Smith's meeting her again in London, where their romantic +story aroused the admiration of the court and the citizens for the +brown-eyed princess? It would be difficult to say how many tales of Indian +adventure this romantic story of Pocahontas has suggested. It has the honor +of being the first of its kind written in the English tongue. + +Did Pocahontas actually rescue Captain Smith? In his account of his +adventures, written in Virginia in 1608, he does not mention this rescue, +but in his later writings he relates it as an actual occurrence. When +Pocahontas visited London, this story was current, and there is no evidence +that she denied it. Professor Arber says, "To deny the truth of the +Pocahontas incident is to create more difficulties than are involved in its +acceptance." But literature does not need to ask whether the story of +Hamlet or of Pocahontas is true. If this unique story of American adventure +is a product of Captain Smith's creative imagination, the literary critic +must admit the captain's superior ability in producing a tale of such +vitality. If the story is true, then our literature does well to remember +whose pen made this truth one of the most persistent of our early romantic +heritages. He is as well known for the story of Pocahontas as for all of +his other achievements. The man who saved the Virginia colony and who first +suggested a new field to the writer of American romance is rightly +considered one of the most striking figures in our early history, even if +he did return to England in less than three years and end his days there in +1631. + + +LITERARY ACTIVITY IN VIRGINIA COLONY + +A POSSIBLE SUGGESTION FOR SHAKESPEARE'S TEMPEST.--WILLIAM STRACHEY, a +contemporary of Shakespeare and secretary of the Virginian colony, wrote at +Jamestown and sent to London in 1610 the manuscript of _A True Repertory of +the Wrack and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Kt., upon and from the +Islands of the Bermudas_. This is a story of shipwreck on the Bermudas and +of escape in small boats. The book is memorable for the description of a +storm at sea, and it is possible that it may even have furnished +suggestions to Shakespeare for _The Tempest_. If so, it is interesting to +compare these with what they produced in Shakespeare's mind. Strachey tells +how "the sea swelled above the clouds and gave battle unto heaven." He +speaks of "an apparition of a little round light, like a faint star, +trembling and streaming along with a sparkling blaze, half the height upon +the main mast, and shooting sometimes from shroud to shroud." Ariel says to +Prospero:-- + + "I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, + Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, + I flam'd amazement: Sometimes I'ld divide, + And burn in many places; on the topmast, + The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, + Then meet and join." + +Strachey voices the current belief that the Bermudas were harassed by +tempests, devils, wicked spirits, and other fearful objects. Shakespeare +has Ferdinand with fewer words intensify Strachey's picture:-- + + "Hell is empty, + And all the devils are here." + +The possibility that incidents arising out of Virginian colonization may +have turned Shakespeare's attention to "the still vex'd Bermoothes" and +given him suggestions for one of his great plays lends added interest to +Strachey's True Repertory. But, aside from Shakespeare, this has an +interest of its own. It has the Anglo-Saxon touch in depicting the wrath of +the sea, and it shows the character of the early American colonists who +braved a wrath like this. + +[Illustration: GEORGE SANDYS] + +POETRY IN THE VIRGINIA COLONY.--GEORGE SANDYS (1577-1644), during his +stay in the colony as its treasurer, translated ten books of Ovid's +_Metamorphoses_, sometimes working by the light of a pine knot. This work +is rescued from the class of mere translation by its literary art and +imaginative interpretation, and it possesses for us an additional interest +because of its nativity amid such surroundings. Two lines telling how +Philemon + + "Took down a flitch of bacon with a prung, + That long had in the smoky chimney hung," + +show that his environment aided him somewhat in the translation. He himself +says of this version that it was "bred in the new world, whereof it cannot +but participate, especially having wars and tumults to bring it to light, +instead of the muses." He was read by both Dryden and Pope in their +boyhood, and the form of their verse shows his influence. + +The only original poem which merits our attention in the early Virginian +colony was found soon after the Revolutionary War in a collection of +manuscripts, known as the _Burwell Papers_. This poem is an elegy on the +death of Nathaniel Bacon (1676), a young Virginian patriot and military +hero, who resisted the despotic governor, Sir William Berkeley. It was +popularly believed that Bacon's mysterious death was due to poison. An +unknown friend wrote the elegy in defense of Bacon and his rebellion. These +lines from that elegy show a strength unusual in colonial poetry:-- + + "Virginia's foes, + To whom, for secret crimes, just vengeance owes + Deserved plagues, dreading their just desert, + Corrupted death by Paracelsian art, + Him to destroy . . . + Our arms, though ne'er so strong, + Will want the aid of his commanding tongue, + Which conquered more than Caesar." + + +DESCRIPTIONS OF VIRGINIA.--ROBERT BEVERLY, clerk of the Council of +Virginia, published in London in 1705 a _History and Present State of +Virginia_. This is today a readable account of the colony and its people in +the first part of the eighteenth century. This selection shows that in +those early days Virginians were noted for what has come to be known as +southern hospitality:-- + + "The inhabitants are very courteous to travellers, who need no other + recommendation, but the being human creatures. A stranger has no more to + do, but to inquire upon the road where any gentleman or good housekeeper + lives, and there he may depend upon being received with hospitality. This + good nature is so general among their people, that the gentry, when they + go abroad, order their principal servant to entertain all visitors with + everything the plantation affords. And the poor planters who have but one + bed, will very often sit up, or lie upon a form or couch all night, to + make room for a weary traveller to repose himself after his journey." + +[Illustration: WILLIAM BYRD] + +COLONEL WILLIAM BYRD (1674-1744), a wealthy Virginian, wrote a _History of +the Dividing Line run in the Year 1728_. He was commissioned by the +Virginian colony to run a line between it and North Carolina. This book is +a record of personal experiences, and is as interesting as its title is +forbidding. This selection describes the Dismal Swamp, through which the +line ran:-- + + "Since the surveyors had entered the Dismal they had laid eyes on no + living creature; neither bird nor beast, insect nor reptile came in view. + Doubtless the eternal shade that broods over this mighty bog and hinders + the sunbeams from blessing the ground, makes it an uncomfortable + habitation for anything that has life. Not so much as a Zealand frog + could endure so aguish a situation. It had one beauty, however, that + delighted the eye, though at the expense of all the other senses: the + moisture of the soil preserves a continual verdure, and makes every plant + an evergreen, but at the same time the foul damps ascend without ceasing, + corrupt the air, and render it unfit for respiration. Not even a turkey + buzzard will venture to fly over it, no more than the Italian vultures + will fly over the filthy lake Avernus or the birds in the Holy Land over + the salt sea where Sodom and Gomorrah formerly stood. + + "In these sad circumstances the kindest thing we could do for our + suffering friends was to give them a place in the Litany. Our chaplain + for his part did his office and rubbed us up with a seasonable sermon. + This was quite a new thing to our brethren of North Carolina, who live in + a climate where no clergyman can breathe, any more than spiders in + Ireland." + +These two selections show that American literature, even before the +Revolution, came to be something more than an imitation of English +literature. They are the product of our soil, and no critic could say that +they might as well have been written in London as in Virginia. They also +show how much eighteenth-century prose had improved in form. Even in +England, modern prose may almost be said to begin with John Dryden, who +died at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In addition to improvement +in form, we may note the appearance of a new quality--humor. Our earliest +writers have few traces of humor because colonization was a serious life +and death affair to them. + +DIFFERENT LINES OF DEVELOPMENT OF VIRGINIA AND NEW ENGLAND.--As we now go +back more than a hundred years to the founding of the Plymouth colony in +1620, we may note that Virginia and New England developed along different +lines. We shall find more dwellers in towns, more democracy and mingling of +all classes, more popular education, and more literature in New England. +The ruling classes of Virginia were mostly descendants of the Cavaliers who +had sympathized with monarchy, while the Puritans had fought the Stuart +kings and had approved a Commonwealth. In Virginia a wealthy class of +landed gentry came to be an increasing power in the political history of +the country. The ancestors of George Washington and many others who did +inestimable service to the nation were among this class. It was long the +fashion for this aristocracy to send their children to England to be +educated, while the Puritans trained theirs at home. + +[Illustration: EARLY PRINTING PRESS] + +New England started a printing press, and was printing books by 1640. In +1671 Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, wrote, "I thank God there +are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these +hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects +into the world, and printing has developed them." + +Producers of literature need the stimulus of town life. The South was +chiefly agricultural. The plantations were large, and the people lived in +far greater isolation than in New England, where not only the town, but +more especially the church, developed a close social unit. + +One other reason served to make it difficult for a poet of the plowman +type, like Robert Burns, or for an author from the general working class, +like Benjamin Franklin, to arise in the South. Labor was thought degrading, +and the laborer did not find the same chance as at the North to learn from +close association with the intelligent class. + +The reason for this is given by Colonel William Byrd, from whom we have +quoted in the preceding section. He wrote in 1736 of the leading men of the +South:-- + + "They import so many negroes hither, that I fear this Colony will some + time or other be confirmed by the name of New Guinea. I am sensible of + many bad consequences of multiplying these Ethiopians amongst us. They + blow up the pride and ruin the industry of our white people, who seeing a + rank of poor creatures below them, detest work, for fear it should make + them look like slaves." + + +WILLIAM BRADFORD, 1590-1657 + +William Bradford was born in 1590 in the Pilgrim district of England, in +the Yorkshire village of Austerfield, two miles north of Scrooby. While a +child, he attended the religious meetings of the Puritans. At the age of +eighteen he gave up a good position in the post service of England, and +crossed to Holland to escape religious persecution. His _History of +Plymouth Plantation_ is not a record of the Puritans as a whole, but only +of that branch known as the Pilgrims, who left England for Holland in 1607 +and 1608, and who, after remaining there for nearly twelve years, had the +initiative to be the first of their band to come to the New World, and to +settle at Plymouth in 1620. + +For more than thirty years he was governor of the Plymouth colony, and he +managed its affairs with the discretion of a Washington and the zeal of a +Cromwell. His _History_ tells the story of the Pilgrim Fathers from the +time of the formation of their two congregations in England, until 1647. + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF FIRST PARAGRAPH OF BRADFORD'S "HISTORY OF +PLYMOUTH PLANTATION"] + +In 1897 the United States for the first time came into possession of the +manuscript of this famous _History of Plymouth Plantation_, which had in +some mysterious manner been taken from Boston in colonial times and had +found its way into the library of the Lord Bishop of London. Few of the +English seem to have read it. Even its custodian miscalled it The Log of +the Mayflower, although after the ship finally cleared from England, only +five incidents of the voyage are briefly mentioned: the death of a young +seaman who cursed the Pilgrims on the voyage and made sport of their +misery; the cracking of one of the main beams of the ship; the washing +overboard in a storm of a good young man who was providentially saved; the +death of a servant; and the sight of Cape Cod. On petition, the Lord Bishop +of London generously gave this manuscript of 270 pages to the Commonwealth +of Massachusetts. In a speech at the time of its formal reception, Senator +Hoar eloquently summed up the subject matter of the volume as follows:-- + + "I do not think many Americans will gaze upon it without a little + trembling of the lips and a little gathering of mist in the eyes, as they + think of the story of suffering, of sorrow, of peril, of exile, of death, + and of lofty triumph which that book tells,--which the hand of the great + leader and founder of America has traced on those pages. There is nothing + like it in human annals since the story of Bethlehem. These Englishmen + and English women going out from their homes in beautiful Lincoln and + York, wife separated from husband and mother from child in that hurried + embarkation for Holland, pursued to the beach by English horsemen; the + thirteen years of exile; the life at Amsterdam, 'in alley foul and lane + obscure'; the dwelling at Leyden; the embarkation at Delfthaven; the + farewell of Robinson; the terrible voyage across the Atlantic; the + compact in the harbor; the landing on the rock; the dreadful first + winter; the death roll of more than half the number; the days of + suffering and of famine; the wakeful night, listening for the yell of + wild beast and the war whoop of the savage; the building of the State on + those sure foundations which no wave or tempest has ever shaken; the + breaking of the new light; the dawning of the new day; the beginning of + the new life; the enjoyment of peace with liberty,--of all these things + this is the original record by the hand of our beloved father and + founder." + +In addition to giving matter of unique historical importance, Bradford +entertains his readers with an account of Squanto, the Pilgrims' tame +Indian, of Miles Standish capturing the "lord of misrule" at Merrymount, +and of the failure of an experiment in tilling the soil in common. Bradford +says that there was immediate improvement when each family received the +full returns from working its own individual plot of ground. He thus +philosophizes about this social experiment of the Pilgrims:-- + + "The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried + sundry years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the + vanity of that conceit of Plato's and other ancients, applauded by some + of later times;----that the taking away of property and bringing in + community into a common wealth would make them happy and flourishing.... + Let none object this is men's corruption, and nothing to the course + itself. I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in his + wisdom saw another course fitter for them." + +America need not be ashamed of either the form or the subject matter of her +early colonial prose in comparison with that produced in England at the +same time. + + +JOHN WINTHROP, 1588-1649 + +[Illustration: JOHN WINTHROP] + +On March 29, 1630, John Winthrop made the first entry in his _Journal_ on +board the ship Arbella, before she left the Isle of Wight for Massachusetts +Bay. This _Journal_ was to continue until a few months before his death in +1649, and was in after times to receive the dignified name of _History of +New England_, although it might more properly still be called his +_Journal_, as its latest editor does indeed style it. + +John Winthrop was born in the County of Suffolk, England, in 1588, the year +of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. He was a wealthy, well-educated +Puritan, the owner of broad estates. As he paced the deck of the _Arbella_, +the night before he sailed for Massachusetts, he knew that he was leaving +comfort, home, friends, position, all for liberty of conscience. Few men +have ever voluntarily abandoned more than Winthrop, or clung more +tenaciously to their ideals. + +After a voyage lasting more than two months, he settled with a large number +of Puritans on the site of modern Boston. For the principal part of the +time from his arrival in 1630 until his death in 1649, he served as +governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Not many civil leaders of any age +have shown more sagacity, patriotism, and tireless devotion to duty than +John Winthrop. + +His _Journal_ is a record of contemporaneous events from 1630 to 1648. +The early part of this work might with some justice have been called the +_Log of the Arbella_. + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF BEGINNING OF MS. OF WINTHROP'S "JOURNAL"] + +TRANSLITERATION OF FACSIMILE OF WINTHROP'S "JOURNAL" + + "ANNO DOMINI 1630, MARCH 29, MONDAY. + "EASTER MONDAY. + + "Riding at the Cowes, near the Isle of Wight, in the _Arbella_, + a ship of 350 tons, whereof Capt. Peter Milborne was master, being + manned with 52 seamen, and 28 pieces of ordnance, (the wind coming to + the N. by W. the evening before,) in the morning there came aboard us + Mr. Cradock, the late governor, and the masters of his 2 ships, Capt. + John Lowe, master of the _Ambrose_, and Mr. Nicholas Hurlston, + master of the _Jewel_, and Mr. Thomas Beecher, master of the + _Talbot_." + + +The entry for Monday, April 12, 1630, is:-- + + "The wind more large to the N. a stiff gale, with fair weather. In the + afternoon less wind, and our people began to grow well again. Our + children and others, that were sick and lay groaning in the cabins, we + fetched out, and having stretched a rope from the steerage to the + main-mast, we made them stand, some of one side and some of the other, + and sway it up and down till they were warm, and by this means they soon + grew well and merry." + +The following entry for June 5, 1644, reflects an interesting side light on +the government of Harvard, our first American college:-- + + "Two of our ministers' sons, being students in the college, robbed two + dwelling houses in the night of some fifteen pounds. Being found out, + they were ordered by the governors of the college to be there whipped, + which was performed by the president himself--yet they were about twenty + years of age; and after they were brought into the court and ordered to + twofold satisfaction, or to serve so long for it. We had yet no + particular punishment for burglary." + +Another entry for 1644 tells of one William Franklin, condemned for causing +the death of his apprentice:-- + + "The case was this. He had taken to apprentice one Nathaniel Sewell, one + of those children sent over the last year for the country; the boy had + the scurvy and was withal very noisome, and otherwise ill disposed. His + master used him with continual rigour and unmerciful correction, and + exposed him many times to much cold and wet in the winter season, and + used divers acts of rigour towards him, as hanging him in the chimney, + etc., and the boy being very poor and weak, he tied him upon an horse and + so brought him (sometimes sitting and sometimes hanging down) to Boston, + being five miles off, to the magistrates, and by the way the boy calling + much for water, would give him none, though he came close by it, so as + the boy was near dead when he came to Boston, and died within a few hours + after." + +Winthrop relates how Franklin appealed the case when he was found guilty, +and how the Puritans inflicted the death penalty on him after searching the +_Bible_ for a rule on which to base their decision. The most noticeable +qualities of this terrible story are its simplicity, its repression, its +lack of striving after effect. Winthrop, Bradford, and Bunyan had learned +from the 1611 version of the _Bible_ to be content to present any situation +as simply as possible and to rely on the facts themselves to secure the +effect. + +Winthrop's finest piece of prose, _Concerning Liberty,_ appears in an entry +for the year 1645. He defines liberty as the power "to do that which is +good, just, and honest. This liberty you are to stand for, with the hazard, +not only of your goods, but of your lives, if need be." Winthrop saw +clearly what many since his day have failed to see, that a government +conducted by the people could not endure, if liberty meant more than this. + +Winthrop's _Journal_ records almost anything which seemed important to the +colonists. Thus, he tells about storms, fires, peculiar deaths of animals, +crimes, trials, Indians, labor troubles, arrival of ships, trading +expeditions, troubles with England about the charter, politics, church +matters, events that would point a moral, like the selfish refusal of the +authorities to loan a quantity of gunpowder to the Plymouth colony and the +subsequent destruction of that same powder by an explosion, or the drowning +of a child in the well while the parents were visiting on Sunday. In short, +this _Journal_ gives valuable information about the civil, religious, and +domestic life of the early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The art of +modern prose writing was known neither in England nor in America in +Winthrop's time. The wonder is that he told the story of this colony in +such good form and that he still holds the interest of the reader so well. + + +THE RELIGIOUS IDEAL + +William Bradford and John Winthrop were governors of two religious +commonwealths. We must not forget that the Puritans came to America to +secure a higher form of spiritual life. In the reign of Elizabeth, it was +thought that the Revival of Learning would cure all ills and unlock the +gates of happiness. This hope had met with disappointment. Then Puritanism +came, and ushered in a new era of spiritual aspiration for something +better, nobler, and more satisfying than mere intellectual attainments or +wealth or earthly power had been able to secure. + +The Puritans chose the _Bible_ as the guidebook to their Promised Land. The +long sermons to which they listened were chiefly biblical expositions. The +Puritans considered the saving of the soul the most important matter, and +they neglected whatever form of culture did not directly tend toward that +result. They thought that entertaining reading and other forms of amusement +were contrivances of the devil to turn the soul's attention away from the +_Bible_. Even beauty and art were considered handmaids of the Evil One. The +_Bible_ was read, reread, and constantly studied, and it took the place of +secular poetry and prose. + +The New England Puritan believed in the theology of John Calvin, who died +in 1564. His creed, known as Calvinism, emphasized the importance of the +individual, of life's continuous moral struggle, which would land each soul +in heaven or hell for all eternity. In the _New England Primer_, the +children were taught the first article of belief, as they learned the +letter A:-- + +[Illustration: LETTER "A" IN NEW ENGLAND PRIMER"] + + "In Adam's fall, + We sinned all." + +Calvinism stressed the doctrine of foreordination, that certain ones, "the +elect," had been foreordained to be saved. THOMAS SHEPHARD (1605-1649), one +of the great Puritan clergy, fixed the mathematical ratio of the damned to +the elect as "a thousand to one." On the physical side, scientists have +pointed out a close correspondence between Calvin's creed and the theory of +evolution, which emphasizes the desperate struggle resulting from the +survival of the fittest. The "fittest" are the "elect"; those who perish in +the contest, the "damned." In the evolutionary struggle, only the few +survive, while untold numbers of the unfit, no matter whether seeds of +plants, eggs of fish, human beings, or any other form of life, go to the +wall. + +In spite of the apparent contradiction between free will and +foreordination, each individual felt himself fully responsible for the +saving of his soul. A firm belief in this tremendous responsibility made +each one rise the stronger to meet the other responsibilities of life. +Civil responsibility seemed easier to one reared in this school. The +initiative bequeathed by Elizabethan times was increased by the Puritans' +religion. + +Although there were probably as many university men in proportion to the +population in early colonial Massachusetts as in England, the strength and +direction of their religious ideals helped to turn their energy into +activities outside the field of pure literature. In course of time, +however, Nathaniel Hawthorne appeared to give lasting literary expression +to this life. + +THE NEW ENGLAND CLERGY.--The clergy occupied a leading place in both the +civil and religious life of New England. They were men of energy and +ability, who could lead their congregations to Holland or to the wilds of +New England. For the purpose in hand the world has never seen superior +leaders. Many of them were graduates of Cambridge University, England. +Their great authority was based on character, education, and natural +ability. A contemporary historian said of John Cotton, who came as pastor +from the old to the new Boston in 1633, that whatever he "delivered in the +pulpit was soon put into an order of court ... or set up as a practice in +the church." + +The sermons, from two to four hours long, took the place of magazines, +newspapers, and modern musical and theatrical entertainments. The church +members were accustomed to hard thinking and they enjoyed it as a mental +exercise. Their minds had not been rendered flabby by such a diet of +miscellaneous trash or sensational matter as confronts modern readers. Many +of the congregation went with notebooks to record the different heads and +the most striking thoughts in the sermon, such, for instance, as the +following on the dangers of idleness:-- + + "Whilst the stream keeps running, it keeps clear; but let it stand still, + it breeds frogs and toads and all manner of filth. So while you keep + going, you keep clear." + +The sermons were often doctrinal, metaphysical, and extremely dry, but it +is a mistake to conclude that the clergy did not speak on topics of current +interest. Winthrop in his _Journal_ for 1639 relates how the Rev. John +Cotton discussed whether a certain shopkeeper, who had been arraigned +before the court for extortion, for having taken "in some small things, +above two for one," was guilty of sin and should be excommunicated from the +church, or only publicly admonished. Cotton prescribed admonition and he +laid down a code of ethics for the guidance of sellers. + +With the exception of Roger Williams (1604?-1683), who had the modern point +of view in insisting on complete "soul liberty," on the right of every man +to think as he pleased on matters of religion, the Puritan clergy were not +tolerant of other forms of worship. They said that they came to New England +in order to worship God as they pleased. They never made the slightest +pretense of establishing a commonwealth where another could worship as he +pleased, because they feared that such a privilege might lead to a return +of the persecution from which they had fled. If those came who thought +differently about religion, they were told that there was sufficient room +elsewhere, in Rhode Island, for instance, whither Roger Williams went after +he was banished from Salem. The history of the Puritan clergy would have +been more pleasing had they been more tolerant, less narrow, more modern, +like Roger Williams. Yet perhaps it is best not to complain overmuch of the +strange and somewhat repellent architecture of the bridge which bore us +over the stream dividing the desert of royal and ecclesiastical tyranny +from the Promised Land of our Republic. Let us not forget that the clergy +insisted on popular education; that wherever there was a clergyman, there +was almost certain to be a school, even if he had to teach it himself, and +that the clergy generally spoke and acted as if they would rather be "free +among the dead than slaves among the living." + + +POETRY + +The trend of Puritan theology and the hard conditions of life did not +encourage the production of poetry. The Puritans even wondered if singing +in church was not an exercise which turned the mind from God. The Rev. John +Cotton investigated the question carefully under four main heads and six +subheads, and he cited scriptural authority to show that Paul and Silas +(_Acts_, xvi., 25) had sung a _Psalm_ in the prison. Cotton therefore +concluded that the _Psalms_ might be sung in church. + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF TITLE-PAGE TO "BAY PSALM BOOK"] + +BAY PSALM BOOK.--"The divines in the country" joined to translate "into +English metre" the whole book of _Psalms_ from the original Hebrew, and +they probably made the worst metrical translation in existence. In their +preface to this work, known as the _Bay Psalm Book_ (1640), the first book +of verse printed in the British American colonies, they explained that they +did not strive for a more poetic translation because "God's altar needs not +our polishings." The following verses from _Psalm_ cxxxvii. are a sample of +the so-called metrical translation which the Puritans sang:-- + + "1. The rivers on of Babilon + there-when wee did sit downe: + yea even then wee mourned, when + wee remembred Sion. + + "2. Our Harps wee did it hang amid, + upon the willow tree. + + "3. Because there they that us away + led in captivitee, + Requir'd of us a song, & thus + askt mirth: us waste who laid, + sing us among a Sion's song, + unto us then they said." + +MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH (1631-1705).--This Harvard graduate and Puritan +preacher published in 1662 a poem setting forth some of the tenets of +Calvinistic theology. This poem, entitled _The Day of Doom, or a Poetical +Description of the Great and Last Judgment_, had the largest circulation of +any colonial poem. The following lines represent a throng of infants at the +left hand of the final Judge, pleading against the sentence of infant +damnation:-- + + "'Not we, but he ate of the tree, + whose fruit was interdicted; + Yet on us all of his sad fall + the punishment's inflicted. + How could we sin that had not been, + or how is his sin our, + Without consent, which to prevent + we never had the pow'r?'" + +Wigglesworth represents the Almighty as replying:-- + + "'You sinners are, and such a share + as sinners may expect; + Such you shall have, for I do save + none but mine own Elect. + Yet to compare your sin with their + who liv'd a longer time, + I do confess yours is much less, + though every sin's a crime. + + "'A crime it is, therefore in bliss + you may not hope to dwell; + But unto you I shall allow + the easiest room in Hell.'" + +When we read verse like this, we realize how fortunate the Puritanism of +Old England was to have one great poet schooled in the love of both +morality and beauty. John Milton's poetry shows not only his sublimity and +high ideals, but also his admiration for beauty, music, and art. +Wigglesworth's verse is inferior to much of the ballad doggerel, but it has +a swing and a directness fitted to catch the popular ear and to lodge in +the memory. While some of his work seems humorous to us, it would not have +made that impression on the early Puritans. At the same time, we must not +rely on verse like this for our understanding of their outlook on life and +death. Beside Wigglesworth's lines we should place the epitaph, "Reserved +for a Glorious Resurrection," composed by the great orthodox Puritan +clergyman, Cotton Mather (p. 46), for his own infant, which died unbaptized +when four days old. It is well to remember that both the Puritans and their +clergy had a quiet way of believing that God had reserved to himself the +final interpretation of his own word. + +ANNE BRADSTREET (1612-1672).--Colonial New England's best poet, or "The +Tenth Muse," as she was called by her friends, was a daughter of the +Puritan governor, Thomas Dudley, and became the wife of another Puritan +governor, Simon Bradstreet, with whom she came to New England in 1630. +Although she was born before the death of Shakespeare, she seems never to +have studied the works of that great dramatist. Her models were what Milton +called the "fantastics," a school of poets who mistook for manifestations +of poetic power, far-fetched and strained metaphors, oddities of +expression, remote comparisons, conceits, and strange groupings of thought. +She had especially studied Sylvester's paraphrase of _The Divine Weeks and +Works_ of the French poet Du Bartas, and probably also the works of poets +like George Herbert (1593-1633), of the English fantastic school. This +paraphrase of Du Bartas was published in a folio of 1215 pages, a few years +before Mrs. Bradstreet came to America. This book shows the taste which +prevailed in England in the latter part of the first third of the +seventeenth century, before Milton came into the ascendency. The fantastic +comparison between the "Spirit Eternal," brooding upon chaos, and a hen, is +shown in these lines from Du Bartas:-- + + "Or as a Hen that fain would hatch a brood + (Some of her own, some of adoptive blood) + Sits close thereon, and with her lively heat, + Of yellow-white balls, doth live birds beget: + Even in such sort seemed the Spirit Eternal + To brood upon this Gulf with care paternal." + +A contemporary critic thought that he was giving her early work high praise +when he called her "a right Du Bartas girl." One of her early poems is _The +Four Elements_, where Fire, Air, Earth, and Water + + "... did contest + Which was the strongest, noblest, and the best, + Who was of greatest use and mightiest force." + +Such a debate could never be decided, but the subject was well suited to +the fantastic school of poets because it afforded an opportunity for much +ingenuity of argument and for far-fetched comparisons, which led nowhere. + +Late in life, in her poem, _Contemplations_, she wrote some genuine poetry, +little marred by imitation of the fantastic school. Spenser seems to have +become her master in later years. No one without genuine poetic ability +could have written such lines as:-- + + "I heard the merry grasshopper then sing, + The black-clad cricket bear a second part, + They kept one tune, and played on the same string, + Seeming to glory in their little art." + +These lines show both poetic ease and power:-- + + "The mariner that on smooth waves doth glide + Sings merrily, and steers his bark with ease, + As if he had command of wind and tide, + And now become great master of the seas." + +The comparative excellence of her work in such an atmosphere and amid the +domestic cares incident to rearing eight children is remarkable. + + +NATHANIEL WARD, 1578?-1652 + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF TITLE PAGE TO WARD'S +"SIMPLE COBBLER OF AGAWAM"] + +In 1647 Nathaniel Ward, who had been educated for the law, but who +afterward became a clergyman, published a strange work known as _The Simple +Cobbler of Agawam, in America_ "willing," as the sub-title continues, "to +help mend his native country, lamentably tattered, both in the upper +leather and sole, with all the honest stitches he can take." He had been +assistant pastor at Agawam (Ipswich) until ill health caused him to resign. +He then busied himself in compiling a code of laws and in other writing +before he returned to England in 1647. The following two sentences from his +unique book show two points of the religious faith of the Puritans: (1) the +belief in a personal devil always actively seeking the destruction of +mankind, and (2) the assumption that the vitals of the "elect" are safe +from the mortal sting of sin. + + "Satan is now in his passions, he feels his passion approaching, he loves + to fish in roiled waters. Though that dragon cannot sting the vitals of + the elect mortally, yet that Beelzebub can fly-blow their intellectuals + miserably." + +He is often a bitter satirist, a sort of colonial Carlyle, as this attack +on woman shows:-- + + "I honor the woman that can honor herself with her attire; a good text + always deserves a fair margent; I am not much offended if I see a trim + far trimmer than she that wears it. In a word, whatever Christianity or + civility will allow, I can afford with London measure: but when I hear a + nugiperous gentledame inquire what dress the Queen is in this week: what + the nudiustertian fashion of the Court; I mean the very newest; with egg + to be in it in all haste, whatever it be; I look at her as the very + gizzard of a trifle, the product of a quarter of a cipher, the epitome of + nothing, fitter to be kicked, if she were of a kickable substance, than + either honored or humored." + +He does not hesitate to coin a word. The preceding short selection +introduces us to "nugiperous" and "nudiustertian." Next, he calls the +women's tailor-made gowns "the very pettitoes of infirmity, the giblets of +perquisquilian toys." + +The spirit of a reformer always sees work to be done, and Ward emphasized +three remedies for mid-seventeenth-century ills: (1) Stop toleration of +departure from religious truth; (2) banish the frivolities of women and +men; and (3) bring the civil war in England to a just end. In proportion to +the population, his _Simple Cobbler_, designed to mend human ways, was +probably as widely read as Carlyle's _Sartor Resartus_ in later days. + +In criticism, Ward deserves to be remembered for these two lines:-- + + "Poetry's a gift wherein but few excel; + He doth very ill that doth not passing well." + + +SAMUEL SEWALL, 1652-1730 + +There was born in 1652 at Bishopstoke, Hampshire, England, a boy who sailed +for New England when he was nine years old, and who became our greatest +colonial diarist. This was Samuel Sewall, who graduated from Harvard in +1671 and finally became chief justice of Massachusetts. + +[Illustration: SAMUEL SEWALL] + +His _Diary_ runs with some breaks from 1673 to 1729, the year before his +death. Good diaries are scarce in any literature. Those who keep them +seldom commit to writing many of the most interesting events and secrets of +their lives. This failing makes the majority of diaries and memoirs very +dry, but this fault cannot be found with Samuel Sewall. His _Diary_ will +more and more prove a mine of wealth to the future writers of our +literature, to our dramatists, novelists, poets, as well as to our +historians. The early chronicles and stories on which Shakespeare founded +many of his plays were no more serviceable to him than this _Diary_ may +prove to a coming American writer with a genius like Hawthorne's. + +In Sewall's _Diary_ we at once feel that we are close to life. The +following entry brings us face to face with the children in a Puritan +household:-- + + "Nov. 6, 1692. Joseph threw a knop of brass and hit his sister Betty on + the forehead so as to make it bleed and swell; upon which, and for his + playing at Prayer-time, and eating when Return Thanks, I whipped him + pretty smartly. When I first went in (called by his Grandmother) he + sought to shadow and hide himself from me behind the head of the cradle: + which gave me the sorrowful remembrance of Adam's carriage." + +Sewall was one of the seven judges who sentenced nineteen persons to be put +to death for witchcraft at Salem. After this terrible delusion had passed, +he had the manliness to rise in church before all the members, and after +acknowledging "the blame and shame of his decision," call for "prayers that +God who has an unlimited authority would pardon that sin." + +Sewall's _Diary_ is best known for its faithful chronicle of his courtship +of Mrs. Catharine Winthrop. Both had been married twice before, and both +had grown children. He was sixty-nine and she fifty-six. No record of any +other Puritan courtship so unique as this has been given to the world. He +began his formal courtship of Mrs. Winthrop, October 1, 1720. His _Diary_ +contains records of each visit, of what they said to each other, of the +Sermons, cake, and gingerbread that he gave her, of the healths that he +drank to her, the lump of sugar that she gave him, of how they "went into +the best room, and clos'd the shutters." + + "Nov. 2. Gave her about 1/2 pound of sugar almonds, cost 3 shillings per + [pound]. Carried them on Monday. She seem'd pleas'd with them, ask'd what + they cost. Spake of giving her a hundred pounds per annum if I died + before her. Ask'd her what sum she would give me, if she should die + first?" + + "Monday, Nov. 7. I went to Mad. Winthrop; found her rocking her little + Katy in the cradle. I excused my coming so late (near eight). She set me + an arm'd chair and cushion; and so the cradle was between her arm'd chair + and mine. Gave her the remnant of my almonds. She did not eat of them as + before.... The fire was come to one short brand besides the block, which + brand was set up in end; at last it fell to pieces and no recruit was + made.... Took leave of her.... Her dress was not so clean as sometime it + had been. Jehovah jireh!" + +Acute men have written essays to account for the aristocratic Mrs. +Winthrop's refusal of Chief-Justice Sewall. Some have said that it was due +to his aversion to slavery and to his refusal to allow her to keep her +slaves. This episode is only a small part of a rich storehouse. The greater +part of the _Diary_ contains only the raw materials of literature, yet some +of it is real literature, and it ranks among the great diaries of the +world. + + +COTTON MATHER, 1663-1728 + +[Illustration: COTTON MATHER] + +LIFE AND PERSONALITY.--Cotton Mather, grandson of the Rev. John Cotton (p. +14), and the most distinguished of the old type of Puritan clergymen, was +born in Boston and died in his native city, without ever having traveled a +hundred miles from it. He entered Harvard at the age of eleven, and took +the bachelor's degree at fifteen. His life shows such an overemphasis of +certain Puritan traits as almost to presage the coming decline of clerical +influence. He says that at the age of only seven or eight he not only +composed forms of prayer for his schoolmates, but also obliged them to +pray, although some of them cuffed him for his pains. At fourteen he began +a series of fasts to crucify the flesh, increase his holiness, and bring +him nearer to God. + +He endeavored never to waste a minute. In his study, where he often worked +sixteen hours a day, he had in large letters the sign, "BE SHORT," to greet +the eyes of visitors. The amount of writing which he did almost baffles +belief. His published works, numbering about four hundred, include sermons, +essays, and books. During all of his adult life, he also preached in the +North Church of Boston. + +He was a religious "fantastic" (p. 40), that is, he made far-fetched +applications of religious truth. A tall man suggested to him high +attainments in Christianity; washing his hands, the desirability of a clean +heart. + +Although Cotton Mather became the most famous clergyman of colonial New +England, he was disappointed in two of his life's ambitions. He failed to +become president of Harvard and to bring New England back in religious +matters to the first halcyon days of the colony. On the contrary, he lived +to see Puritan theocracy suffer a great decline. His fantastic and strained +application of religious truth, his overemphasis of many things, and +especially his conduct in zealously aiding and abetting the Salem +witchcraft murders, were no mean factors in causing that decline. + +His intentions were certainly good. He was an apostle of altruism, and he +tried to improve each opportunity for doing good in everyday life. He +trained his children to do acts of kindness for other children. His _Essays +to Do Good_ were a powerful influence on the life of Benjamin Franklin. +Cotton Mather would not have lived in vain if he had done nothing else +except to help mold Franklin for the service of his country; but this is +only one of Mather's achievements. We must next pass to his great work in +literature. + +THE MAGNALIA.--This "prose epic of New England Puritanism," the most famous +of Mather's many works, is a large folio volume entitled _Magnalia Christi +Americana: or the Ecclesiastical History of New England_. It was published +in London in 1702, two years after Dryden's death. + +The book is a remarkable compound of whatever seemed to the author most +striking in early New England history. His point of view was of course +religious. The work contains a rich store of biography of the early clergy, +magistrates, and governors, of the lives of eleven of the clerical +graduates of Harvard, of the faith, discipline, and government of the New +England churches, of remarkable manifestations of the divine providence, +and of the "Way of the Lord" among the churches and the Indians. + +We may to-day turn to the _Magnalia_ for vivid accounts of early New +England life. Mather has a way of selecting and expressing facts in such a +way as to cause them to lodge in the memory. These two facts about John +Cotton give us a vivid impression of the influence of the early clergy:-- + + "The keeper of the inn where he did use to lodge, when he came to Derby, + would profanely say to his companions, that he wished Mr. Cotton were + gone out of his house, for he was not able to swear while that man was + under his roof.... + + "The Sabbath he began the evening before, for which keeping of the + Sabbath from evening to evening he wrote arguments before his coming to + New England; and I suppose 'twas from his reason and practice that the + Christians of New England have generally done so too." + +We read that the daily vocation of Thomas Shepard, the first pastor at +Cambridge, Massachusetts, was, to quote Mather's noble phrase, "_A +Trembling Walk with God_" He speaks of the choleric disposition of Thomas +Hooker, the great Hartford clergyman, and says it was "useful unto him," +because "he had ordinarily as much government of his choler as a man has of +a mastiff dog in a chain; he 'could let out his dog, and pull in his dog, +as he pleased.'" Some of Mather's prose causes modern readers to wonder if +he was not a humorist. He says that a fire in the college buildings in some +mysterious way influenced the President of Harvard to shorten one of his +long prayers, and gravely adds, "that if the devotions had held three +minutes longer, the Colledge had been irrecoverably laid in ashes." One +does not feel sure that Mather saw the humor in this demonstration of +practical religion. It is also doubtful whether he is intentionally +humorous in his most fantastic prose, such, for instance, as his likening +the Rev. Mr. Partridge to the bird of that name, who, because he "had no +defence neither of beak nor claw," took "a flight over the ocean" to escape +his ecclesiastical hunters, and finally "took wing to become a bird of +paradise, along with the winged seraphim of heaven." + +Such fantastic conceits, which for a period blighted the literature of the +leading European nations, had their last great exponent in Cotton Mather. +Minor writers still indulge in these conceits, and find willing readers +among the uneducated, the tired, and those who are bored when they are +required to do more than skim the surface of things. John Seccomb, a +Harvard graduate of 1728, the year in which Mather died, then gained fame +from such lines as:-- + + "A furrowed brow, + Where corn might grow," + +but the best prose and poetry have for a long time won their readers for +other qualities. Even the taste of the next generation showed a change, for +Cotton Mather's son, Samuel, noted as a blemish his father's "straining for +far-fetched and dear-bought hints." Cotton Mather's most repellent habit to +modern readers is his overloading his pages with quotations in foreign +languages, especially in Latin. He thus makes a pedantic display of his +wide reading. + +He is not always accurate in his presentation of historical or biographical +matter, but in spite of all that can be said against the _Magnalia_, it is +a vigorous presentation of much that we should not willingly let die. In +fact, when we read the early history of New England, we are frequently +getting from the _Magnalia_ many things in changed form without ever +suspecting the source. + + +JONATHAN EDWARDS, 1703-1758 + +LIFE AND WRITINGS.--Jonathan Edwards, who ranks among the world's greatest +theologians and metaphysicians, was born in 1703 in East Windsor, +Connecticut. Like Cotton Mather, Edwards was precocious, entering Yale +before he was thirteen. The year previous to his going to college, he wrote +a paper on spiders, showing careful scientific observation and argument. +This paper has been called "one of the rarest specimens of precocious +scientific genius on record." At fourteen, he read Locke's _Essay on the +Human Understanding_, receiving from it, he says, higher pleasure "than the +most greedy miser finds when gathering up handfuls of silver and gold from +some newly discovered treasure." Before he was seventeen, he had graduated +from Yale, and he had become a tutor there before he was twenty-one. + +Like Dante, he had a Beatrice. Thinking of her, he wrote this prose hymn of +a maiden's love for the Divine Power:-- + + "They say there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of that great + Being who made and rules the world, and there are certain seasons in + which this great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes to her and + fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight, and that she hardly cares + for anything except to meditate on Him, that she expects after a while to + be received up where He is, to be raised up out of the world and caught + up into heaven, being assured that He loves her too well to let her + remain at a distance from Him always. She will sometimes go about from + place to place singing sweetly, and seems to be always full of joy and + pleasure, and no one knows for what. She loves to be alone, walking in + the fields and groves, and seems to have some one invisible always + conversing with her" + +[Illustration: MEMORIAL TABLET TO JONATHAN EDWARDS +(First Church, Northampton, Mass)] + +Jonathan Edwards thus places before us Sarah Pierrepont, a New England +Puritan maiden. To note the similarity of thought between the Old Puritan +England and the New, let us turn to the maiden in Milton's Comus:-- + + "A thousand liveried angels lackey her, + Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, + And in clear dream and solemn vision, + Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear, + Till oft converse with heav'nly habitants + Begin to cast a beam on th'outward shape, + The unpolluted temple of the mind, + And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, + Till all be made immortal." + +Unlike Dante, Edwards married his Beatrice at the age of seventeen. In +1727, the year of his marriage, he became pastor of the church in +Northampton, Massachusetts. With the aid of his wife, he inaugurated the +greatest religious revival of the century, known as the "Great Awakening," +which spread to other colonial churches, crossed the ocean, and stimulated +Wesley to call sinners to repentance. + +Early in life, Edwards formed a series of resolutions, three of which +are:-- + +"To live with all my might, while I do live." + +"Never to do anything, which, if I should see in another, I should count a +just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of +him." + +"Never, henceforward, till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but +entirely and altogether God's." + +He earnestly tried to keep these resolutions until the end. After a +successful pastorate of twenty-three years at Northampton, the church +dismissed him for no fault of his own. + +Like Dante, he was driven into exile, and he went from Northampton to the +frontier town of Stockbridge, where he remained for seven years as a +missionary to the Indians. His wife and daughters did their utmost to add +to the family income, and some contributions were sent him from Scotland, +but he was so poor that he wrote his books on the backs of letters and on +the blank margins cut from newspapers. His fame was not swallowed up in the +wilderness. Princeton College called him to its presidency in 1757. He died +in that office in 1758, after less than three months' service in his new +position. His wife was still in Stockbridge when he passed away. "Tell +her," he said to his daughter, "that the uncommon union which has so long +subsisted between us has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual, and +therefore will continue forever." In September of the same year she came to +lie beside him in the graveyard at Princeton. + +In 1900, the church that had dismissed him one hundred and fifty years +before placed on its walls a bronze tablet in his memory, with the noble +inscription from _Malachi_ ii., 6. + +As a writer, Jonathan Edwards won fame in three fields. He is (1) America's +greatest metaphysician, (2) her greatest theologian, and (3) a unique +poetic interpreter of the universe as a manifestation of the divine love. + +His best known metaphysical work is _The Freedom of the Will_ (1754). The +central point of this work is that the will is determined by the strongest +motive, that it is "repugnant to reason that one act of the will should +come into existence without a cause." He boldly says that God is free to do +only what is right. Edwards emphasizes the higher freedom, gained through +repeated acts of the right kind, until both the inclination and the power +to do wrong disappear. + +As a theologian, America has not yet produced his superior. His _Treatise +concerning the Religious Affections_, his account of the Great Awakening, +called _Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God_, and _Thoughts on +the Revival_, as well as his more distinctly technical theological works, +show his ability in this field. Unfortunately, he did not rise superior to +the Puritan custom of preaching about hell fire. He delivered on that +subject a sermon which causes modern readers to shudder; but this, although +the most often quoted, is the least typical of the man and his writings. +Those in search of really typical statements of his theology will find them +in such specimens as, "God and real existence is the same. God is and there +is nothing else." He was a theological idealist, believing that all the +varied phenomena of the universe are "constantly proceeding from God, as +light from the sun." Such statements suggest Shelley's lines, which tell +how + + "... the one Spirit's plastic stress + Sweeps through the dull dense world compelling there + All new successions to the forms they wear." + +Dr. Allen, Edwards's biographer and critic, and a careful student of his +unpublished, as well as of his published, writings, says, "He was at his +best and greatest, most original and creative, when he described the divine +love." Such passages as the following, and also the one quoted on page 51, +show this quality:-- + + "When we behold the fragrant rose and lily, we see His love and purity. + So the green trees and fields and singing of birds are the emanations of + His infinite joy and benignity. The easiness and naturalness of trees and + vines are shadows of His beauty and loveliness." + +His favorite text was, "I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the +valleys," and his favorite words were "sweet and bright." + + +ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE PERIOD + +The great English writers between the colonization of Jamestown in 1607 and +the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754 are: (1) JOHN MILTON +(1608-1674), the great poetic spokesman of Puritan England, whose _Comus_ +is addressed to those, who:-- + + "... by due steps aspire + To lay their just hands on that golden key + That opes the palace of eternity," + +whose _Sonnets_ breathe a purposeful prayer to live this life as ever in +his great Taskmaster's eye, and whose _Paradise Lost_ is the colossal epic +of the loss of Eden through sin; (2) JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688), whose +_Pilgrim's Progress_ addressed itself in simple, earnest English to each +individual human being, telling him what he must do to escape the City of +Destruction and to reach the City of All Delight; (3) JOHN DRYDEN +(1631-1700), a master in the field of satiric and didactic verse and one of +the pioneers in the field of modern prose criticism; (4) ALEXANDER POPE +(1688-1744), another poet of the satiric and didactic school, who exalted +form above matter, and wrote polished couplets which have been models for +so many inferior poets; (5) the essayists, RICHARD STEELE (1672-1729) and +JOSEPH ADDISON (1672-1719), the latter being especially noted for the easy, +flowing prose of his papers in the _Spectator_; (6) JONATHAN SWIFT +(1667-1745), a master of prose satire, whose _Gulliver's Travels_ has not +lost its fascination; (7) DANIEL DEFOE (1661?-1731) whose _Robinson Crusoe_ +continues to increase in popularity; (8) SAMUEL RICHARDSON (1689-1761), and +HENRY FIELDING (1707-1754), the two great mid-eighteenth-century novelists. + +The colonial literature of this period was influenced only in a very minor +degree by the work of these men, for a generation usually passed before the +influence of contemporary English authors appeared in American literature. +In the next chapter, we shall see evidences of the influence of Pope. +Benjamin Franklin will tell us how Bunyan and Addison were his teachers, +and the early fiction will show its indebtedness to the work of Samuel +Richardson. + + +LEADING HISTORICAL FACTS + +Virginia and Massachusetts produced the most of our colonial literature. +There were, however, thirteen colonies stretched along the seaboard from +Georgia (1733), the last to be founded, to Canada. Although these colonies +were established under different grants or charters, and although some had +more liberty and suffered less from the interference of England than +others, it is nevertheless true that every colony was a school for a +self-governing democracy. No colonies elsewhere in the world had the same +amount of liberty. This period was a necessary preparation for the coming +republic. + +We must not suppose that there was complete liberty in those days. Such a +state has not been reached even in the twentieth century. The early +government of Virginia was largely aristocratic; that of Massachusetts, +theocratic. Virginia persecuted the Puritans. The early settlers of +Massachusetts drove out Roger Williams and hanged Quakers. New York +persecuted those who did not join the Church of England. The central truth, +however, is that these thirteen colonies were making the greatest of all +world experiments in democracy and liberty. + +The important colony of New Netherland (New York) was settled by the Dutch +early in the seventeenth century. They established an aristocracy with +great landed estates along the Hudson. The student of literature is +specially interested in this colony because Washington Irving (p. 112) has +invested it with a halo of romance. He shows us the sturdy Knickerbockers, +the Van Cortlands, the Van Dycks, the Van Wycks, and other chivalrous Dutch +burghers, sitting in perfect silence, puffing their pipes, and thinking of +nothing for hours together in those "days of simplicity and sunshine." For +literary reasons it is well that this was not made an English colony until +the Duke of York took possession of it in 1664. + +At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the colonists in the middle and +northern part of the country divided their energies almost equally between +trade and agriculture. At the South, agriculture was the chief occupation +and tobacco and rice were the two leading staples. These were produced +principally by the labor of negro slaves. There were also many indentured +servants at the South, where the dividing lines between the different +classes were most strongly marked. + +Up to 1700 the history of each colony is practically that of a separate +unit. Almost all the colonies had trouble with Indians and royal governors. +Pirates, rapacious politicians, religious matters, or witchcraft were +sometimes sources of disturbance. All knew the hard labor and the +privations involved in subduing the wilderness and making permanent +settlements in a new land. History tells of the abandonment of many other +colonies and of the subjugation of many other races, but no difficulty and +no foe daunted this Anglo-Saxon stock. + +In 1700 the population of New England was estimated at about one hundred +and ten thousand. In 1754, the beginning of the French and Indian War, +Connecticut alone had that number, while all New England probably had at +this time nearly four hundred thousand. The middle colonies began the +eighteenth century with about fifty-nine thousand and grew by the middle of +the century to about three hundred and fifty-five thousand. During the same +period, the southern group increased from about ninety thousand to six +hundred thousand. By 1750 the thirteen colonies probably had a total +population of nearly fourteen hundred thousand. Since no census was taken +until 1790, these figures are only approximately correct. + +Such development serves to show the trend of coming events. This remarkable +increase in population soon caused numbers to go farther west. This +movement resulted in collision with the French, who were at this time +holding the central part of the country, from the Gulf into Canada. One +other result followed. The colonies began to seem valuable to England +because they furnished a market for English manufactures and a carrying +trade for English ships. The previous comparative insignificance of the +colonies and the trouble in England had served to protect them, but their +trade had now assumed a proportion that made the mother country realize +what a valuable commercial asset she would have if she regulated the +colonies in her own interest. + + +SUMMARY + +In this chapter we have traced the history of American colonial literature +from the foundation of the Jamestown Colony until 1754. Before 1607 +Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare had written, and before 1620 the King +James version of the _Bible_ had been produced. England had, therefore, a +wonderful literature before her colonies came to America. They were the +heirs of all that the English race had previously accomplished; and they +brought to these shores an Elizabethan initiative, ingenuity, and +democratic spirit. + +The Virginia colony was founded, as colonies usually are, for a commercial +reason. The Virginians and the other southern colonists lived more by +agriculture, were more widely scattered, had fewer schools, more slaves, +and less town life than the New Englanders. Under the influence of a +commanding clergy, common schools, and the stimulus of town life, the New +England colony produced more literature. + +The chief early writers of Virginia are: (1) Captain John Smith, who +described the country and the Indians, and gave to literature the story of +Pocahontas, thereby disclosing a new world to the imagination of writers; +(2) William Strachey, who outranks contemporary colonial writers in +describing the wrath of the sea, and who may even have furnished a +suggestion to Shakespeare for _The Tempest_; (3) two poets, (a) George +Sandys, who translated part of Ovid, and (b) the unknown author of the +elegy on Nathaniel Bacon; and (4) Robert Beverly and William Byrd, who gave +interesting descriptions of early Virginia. + +The chief colonial writers of New England are: (1) William Bradford, whose +_History of Plymouth Plantation_ tells the story of the first Pilgrim +colony; (2) John Winthrop, who wrote in his _Journal_ the early history of +the Massachusetts Bay Colony; (3) the poets, including (a) the translators +of the _Bay Psalm Book_, the first volume of so-called verse printed in the +British American colonies, (b) Wigglesworth, whose _Day of Doom_, was a +poetic exposition of Calvinistic theology, (c) Anne Bradstreet, who wrote a +small amount of genuine poetry, after she had passed from the influence of +the "fantastic" school of poets; (4) Nathaniel Ward, the author of _The +Simple Cobbler of Agawam_, an attempt to mend human ways; (5) Samuel +Sewall, New England's greatest colonial diarist; (6) Cotton Mather, the +most famous clerical writer, whose _Magnalia_ is a compound of early +colonial history and biography, sometimes written in a "fantastic" style; +(7) Jonathan Edwards, America's greatest metaphysician and theologian, who +maintained that the action of the human will is determined by the strongest +motive, that the substance of this universe is nothing but "the divine +Idea," communicated to human consciousness, and who could invest spiritual +truth with the beauty of the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the valleys. + +The New England colonist came to America because of religious feeling. His +religion was to him a matter of eternal life or eternal death. From the +modern point of view, this religion may seem too inflexibly stern, too +little illumined by the spirit of love, too much darkened by the shadow of +eternal punishment, but unless that religion had communicated something of +its own dominating inflexibility to the colonist, he would never have +braved the ocean, the wilderness, the Indians; he would never have flung +the gauntlet down to tyranny at Lexington and Concord. + +The greatest lesson taught by colonial literature, by men like Bradford, +Winthrop, Edwards, and the New England clergy in general, is moral heroism, +the determination to follow the shining path of the Eternal over the wave +and through the forest to a new temple of human liberty. Their aspiration, +endeavor, suffering, accomplishment, should strengthen our faith in the +worth of those spiritual realities which are not quoted in the markets of +the world, but which alone possess imperishable value. + + +REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY + +HISTORICAL + +ENGLISH HISTORY.--In either Gardiner's _Students' History of England_, +Walker's _Essentials in English History_, Andrews's _History of England_, +or Cheney's _Short History of England_, read the chapters dealing with the +time of Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., the Commonwealth, Charles II., +James II., William and Mary, Anne, George I. and II. A work like Halleck's +_History of English Literature_, covering these periods, should be read. + +AMERICAN HISTORY.--Read the account from the earliest times to the outbreak +of the French and Indian War in any of the following:-- + +Thwaites's _The Colonists_, 1492-1750. + +Fisher's _Colonial Era_. + +Lodge's _A Short History of the English Colonies in America_. + +Doyle's _The English in America_. + +Hart's _Essentials in American History_. + +Channing's _A Students' History of the United States_. + +Eggleston's _A Larger History of the United States of America_. + +James and Sanford's _American History_. + +For an account of special colonies, consult the volumes in _American +Commonwealths_ series, and also, + +Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, _The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in +America_, _Old Virginia and Her Neighbors_. + +LITERARY + +Tyler's _A History of American Literature during the Colonial Time_, 2 +vols. + +Otis's _American Verse_, 1625-1807. + +Richardson's _American Literature_, 2 vols. + +Trent's _A History of American Literature_, 1607-1865. + +Wendell's _History of Literature in America_. + +_Narratives of Early Virginia_, edited by Tyler. + +Bradford's _History of Plymouth Plantation_. New edition, edited by Davis. +(Scribner, 1908.) + +Winthrop's _Journal_ ("History of New England"). New edition, edited by +Hosmer, 2 vols., (Scribner, 1908.) + +Chamberlain's _Samuel Sewall and the World He Lived in_. + +Lodge's "A Puritan Pepys" (Sewall) in _Studies in History_. + +Campbell's _Anne Bradstreet and her Time_. + +Twichell's _John Winthrop_. + +Walker's _Thomas Hooker_. + +Wendell's _Life of Cotton Mather_. + +Allen's _Life of Jonathan Edwards_. + +Gardiner's _Jonathan Edwards, a Retrospect_. + + +SUGGESTED READINGS + +The following volumes of selections from American Literature will be +referred to either by the last name of the author, or, if there are more +authors than one, by the initials of the last names:-- + +Cairns's _Selections from Early American Writers_, 1607-1800. (Macmillan.) + +Trent and Wells's _Colonial Prose and Poetry_, 3 vols., 1607-1775. +(Crowell.) + +Stedman and Hutchinson's _A Library of American Literature_, 1608-1890, 11 +vols. (Benjamin.) + +Carpenter's _American Prose Selections_. (Macmillan.) + +Trent's _Southern Writers: Selections in Prose and Verse_. (Macmillan.) + +At least one of the selections indicated for each author should be read. + +JOHN SMITH.--The Beginnings of Jamestown (from _A True Relation of +Virginia_, 1608); The Religious Observances of the Indians (from _A Map of +Virginia_, published in 1612), Cairns, pp. 2-4, 10-14; The Romance of +Pocahontas (from _The General History of Virginia_, 1624), S. & H., Vol. +I., pp. 10-17; T. & W., Vol. I., pp. 12-22. + +WILLIAM STRACHEY.--Read the selection from _A True Repertory of the Wrack +and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates_, in Cairns, 19-26. + +POETRY IN THE VIRGINIA COLONY.--For George Sandys, see pp. 51-58 in Vol. I. +of Tyler's _A History of American Literature during the Colonial Time_. + +For the elegy on the death of Nathaniel Bacon, see Tyler, Vol. I., 78, 79; +Cairns, 185-188; T. & W., II., 166-169; S. & H., I., 456-458; Trent, 12-14. + +DESCRIPTIONS OF VIRGINIA.--The best selection from Beverly's _History and +Present State of Virginia_ may be found in T. & W., II., 354-360. See also +Trent, 16-18; S. & H., II., 270-272. + +For selections from Byrd's _History of the Dividing Line_, see Cairns, +_passim_, 259-272; Trent, 19-22; T. & W., III., 23-32; S. & H., II., +302-305. + +WILLIAM BRADFORD.--The Voyage of the Mayflower, Cairns, 31-35; Early +Difficulties of the Pilgrim Fathers, T. & W., I., 42-45; The Communal +System Abandoned, T. & W., I., 46-49; The Landing of the Pilgrims and their +Settlement at Plymouth, S. & H., L, 124-130. + +JOHN WINTHROP.--Twenty-five entries from his _Journal_ or _History of New +England_ are given in Cairns, 44-48, and fourteen in T. & W., I., 99-105. + +His famous speech on _Liberty_ may be found in T. & W., I., 106-116; in S. +& H., I., 302-303; and in Cairns, 50-53. + +EARLY NEW ENGLAND VERSE.--The selection in the text (p. 38) from the _Bay +Psalm Book_ is sufficient. + +For Wigglesworth's _Day of Doom_, see Cairns, 166-177; T. & W., II., 54-60; +S. & H., _passim_, II., 3-16. + +Anne Bradstreet's best poem, _Contemplations_, may be found in Cairns, +154-162; T. & W., I., 280-283; S. & H., I., 314, 315. + +WARD'S SIMPLE COBBLER OF AGAWAM.--His view of religious toleration is given +in Cairns, 113-118, and T. & W., I., 253-259. For the satiric essay on +women's fashions, see Cairns, 119-124; T. & W., I., 260-266; S. & H. I., +276-280. + +SAMUEL SEWALL.--Cairns, 240-243, gives from the _Diary_ the events of a +month. Notes on the Witchcraft Persecution and his prayer of repentance for +"the blame and shame of it" may be found in T. & W., II., 294-296. The +record of his courtship of Madam Winthrop is given in Cairns, 245-249; T. & +W., II., 304-319; and S. & H., II., 192-200. For his early anti-slavery +tract, see T. & W., II., 320-326; S. & H., II., 189-192. + +COTTON MATHER.--His fantastic life of Mr. Ralph Partridge from the +_Magnalia_ is given in Cairns, 228, 229. The interesting story of the New +England argonaut, Sir William Phips, may be found in T. & W., II., 257-266, +and in S. & H., II., 143-149. One of his best biographies is that of Thomas +Hooker, S. & H., II., 149-156. + +JONATHAN EDWARDS.--For a specimen of an almost poetic exposition of the +divine love, read the selection in Cairns, 280, 281; T. & W., III., 148, +149; S. & H., II., 374; and Carpenter, 16, 17, beginning, "I am the Rose of +Sharon and the Lily of the valleys." Selections from his _Freedom of the +Will_ are given in Cairns. 291-294; T. & W., III., 185-187; and S. & H., +II., 404-407 (the best). + + +QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS + +Is Captain John Smith more remarkable for chronicling what passed before +his senses or for explaining what he saw? How does his account of the +Indians (p. 18 of this text) compare with modern accounts? Is he apparently +a novice, or somewhat skilled in writing prose? Does he seem to you to be a +romancer or a narrator of a plain unvarnished tale? + +Compare Strachey's storm at sea with _Act I._ of Shakespeare's _Tempest_. +In what part of this _Act_ and under what circumstances does he mention +"the still-vex'd Bermoothes"? + +Compare the ability of the three great early colonizers, Smith, Bradford, +and Winthrop, in writing narrative prose. Smith's story of Pocahontas is +easily accessible. Those who can find the complete works of Bradford and +Winthrop may select from Bradford for comparison his story of Squanto, the +Pilgrims' tame Indian. Winthrop's _Journal_ contains many specimens of +brief narrative, such as the story of the voyage across the Atlantic from +March 29 to June 14, 1630; of Winthrop's losing himself in the wood, +October 11, 1631; of shipwreck on the Isle of Shoals, August 16, 1635; of +an indentured servant, March 8, 1636; of an adventure with Indians, July +20-30, August 24, and October 8, 1636. Those without opportunity to consult +the works of Bradford and Winthrop will find in the books of selections +sufficient material for comparison. + +Is brevity or prolixity a quality of these early narrators? What English +prose written before 1640 is superior to the work of these three men? Why +is it especially important for Americans to know something of their +writings? What advance in prose narrative do you find in Beverly and Byrd? + +What characteristic of a famous English prose writer of the nineteenth +century is noticeable in Ward's essay on fashions? + +Why could fine poetry not be reasonably expected in early Virginia and New +England? What are some of the Calvinistic tenets expounded in +Wigglesworth's _Day of Doom?_ Choose the best two short selections of +colonial poetry. + +What are some of the qualifications of a good diarist? Which of these do +you find in the _Diary_ of Samuel Sewall? + +Point out some of the fantastic prose expressions of Cotton Mather. Compare +his narrative of Captain Phips with the work of Smith, Bradford, and +Winthrop, on the one hand, and of Beverly and Byrd, on the other. + +Compare the theology in Edwards's "Rose of Sharon" selection (p. 54) with +that in Wigglesworth's _Day of Doom._ Why may this selection from Edwards +be called a "poetic exposition of the divine love"? What is his view of the +freedom of the will? + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE EMERGENCE OF A NATION + + +PROGRESS TOWARD NATIONALITY.--The French and Indian War, which began in +1754, served its purpose in making the colonists feel that they were one +people. At this time most of them were living on the seacoast from Georgia +to Maine, and had not yet even crossed the great Appalachian range of +mountains. The chief men of one colony knew little of the leaders in the +other colonies. This war made George Washington known outside of Virginia. +There was not much interchange of literature between the two leading +colonies, Virginia and Massachusetts. Prior to this time, the other +colonies had not produced much that had literary value. No national +literature could be written until the colonists were welded together. + +The French and Indian War, which decided whether France or England was to +be supreme in America, exposed the colonists to a common danger. They +fought side by side against the French and Indians, and learned that the +defeat of one was the defeat of all. After a desperate struggle France +lost, and the Anglo-Saxon race was dominant on the new continent. By the +treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, England became the possessor of Canada and +the land east of the Mississippi River. + +THE REVOLUTION.--All of the colonies had been under English rule, although +they had in large part managed in one way or another to govern +themselves. At the close of the French and Indian War, the colonists had +not thought of breaking away from England, although they had learned the +lesson of union against a common foe. George III. came to the throne in +1760. By temperament he was unusually adapted to play his part in +changing the New World's history. He was determined to rule according to +his own personal inclinations. He dominated his cabinet and controlled +Parliament by bribery. He decided that the American colonies should feel +the weight of his authority, and in 1763 his prime minister, George +Grenville, undertook to execute measures in restraint of colonial trade. +Numbers of commodities, like tobacco, for instance, could not be traded +with France or Spain or Holland, but must be sent to England. If there +was any profit to be made in selling goods to foreign nations, England +would make that profit. He also planned to tax the colonists and to +quarter British troops among them. These measures aroused the colonies +to armed resistance and led to the Revolutionary War, which began in +1775. + +Freneau (p. 96), a poet of the Revolution, thus expresses in verse some of +these events:-- + + "When a certain great king, whose initial is G, + Shall force stamps upon paper and folks to drink tea; + When these folks burn his tea and stampt paper like stubble, + You may guess that this king is then coming to trouble." + + +THE ESSAYISTS + +The pen helped to prepare the way for the sword and to arouse and prolong +the enthusiasm of those who had taken arms. Before the battle of Lexington +(1775), writers were busy on both sides of the dispute, for no great +movement begins without opposition. Many colonists did not favor resistance +to England. Even at the time of the first battle, comparatively few wished +absolute separation from the mother country. + +THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809) was an Englishman who came to America in 1774 and +speedily made himself master of colonial thought and feeling. Early in 1776 +he published a pamphlet entitled _Common Sense,_ which advocated complete +political independence of England. The sledge hammer blows which he struck +hastened the _Declaration of Independence._ Note the energy, the +directness, and the employment of the concrete method in the following:-- + +[Illustration: THOMAS PAINE] + + "But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon + her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war + upon their families; wherefore, the assertion, if true, turns to her + reproach.... This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted + lovers of civil and religious liberty from _every part_ of Europe. Hither + have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the + cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same + tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their + descendants still." + +In the latter part of 1776 Washington wrote, "If every nerve is not +strained to recruit the new army with all possible expedition, I think the +game is pretty nearly up." In those gloomy days, sharing the privations of +the army, Thomas Paine wrote the first number of an irregularly issued +periodical, known as the _Crisis_, beginning:-- + + "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the + sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his + country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man + and woman." + +Some have said that the pen of Thomas Paine was worth more to the cause of +liberty than twenty thousand men. In the darkest hours he inspired the +colonists with hope and enthusiasm. Whenever the times seemed to demand +another number of the _Crisis_, it was forthcoming. Sixteen of these +appeared during the progress of the struggle for liberty. He had an almost +Shakespearean intuition of what would appeal to the exigencies of each +case. After the Americans had triumphed, he went abroad to aid the French, +saying, "Where Liberty is not, there is my home." He died in America in +1809. He is unfortunately more remembered for his skeptical _Age of Reason_ +than for his splendid services to the cause of liberty. + +[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON] + +THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826), the third President of the United States, +wrote much political prose and many letters, which have been gathered into +ten large volumes. Ignoring these, he left directions that the words, +"Author of the Declaration of American Independence," should immediately +follow his name on his monument. No other American prose writer has, in an +equal number of words, yet surpassed this _Declaration of Independence_. +Its influence has encircled the world and modified the opinions of nations +as widely separated as the French and the Japanese. + +Jefferson may have borrowed some of his ideas from _Magna Charta_ +(1215) and the _Petition of Right_ (1628); he may have incorporated +in this _Declaration_ the yearnings that thousands of human souls had +already felt, but he voiced those yearnings so well that his utterances +have become classic. It has been said that he "poured the soul of the +continent" into that _Declaration_, but he did more than that. He poured +into it the soul of all freedom-loving humanity, and he was accepted as the +spokesman of the dweller on the Seine as enthusiastically as of the +revolutionists in America. Those who have misconstrued the meaning of his +famous expression, "All men are created equal" have been met with the +adequate reply, "No intelligent man has ever misconstrued it except +intentionally." + +America has no _Beowulf_ celebrating the slaying of land-devastating +monsters, but she has in this _Declaration_ a deathless battle song against +the monsters that would throttle Liberty. Outside of Holy Writ, what words +are more familiar to our ears than these?-- + + "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; + that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; + that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, + to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving + their just powers from the consent of the governed." + +Every student will find his comprehension of American literature aided by a +careful study of this _Declaration_. This trumpet-tongued declaration of +the fact that every man has an equal right with every other man to his own +life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has served as an ideal to +inspire some of the best things in our literature. This ideal has not yet +been completely reached, but it is finding expression in every effort for +the social and moral improvements of our population. Jefferson went a step +beyond the old Puritans in maintaining that happiness is a worthy object of +pursuit. Modern altruists are also working on this line, demanding a fuller +moral and industrial liberty, and endeavoring to develop a more widespread +capacity for happiness. + +ALEXANDER HAMILTON (1757-1804), because of his wonderful youthful +precocity, reminds us of Jonathan Edwards (p. 50). In 1774, at the age of +seventeen, Hamilton wrote in answer to a Tory who maintained that England +had given New York no charter of rights, and that she could not complain +that her rights had been taken away:-- + + "The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old + parchments or musty records. They are written as with a sunbeam, in the + whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the Divinity itself, and can + never be erased or obscured by mortal power." + +[Illustration: ALEXANDER HAMILTON] + +A profound student of American constitutional history says of Hamilton's +pamphlets: "They show great maturity, a more remarkable maturity than has +ever been exhibited by any other person, at so early an age, in the same +department of thought." + +After the Americans were victorious in the war, Hamilton suggested that a +constitutional convention be called. For seven years this suggestion was +not followed, but in 1787 delegates met from various states and framed a +federal constitution to be submitted to the states for ratification. +Hamilton was one of the leading delegates. After the convention had +completed its work, it seemed probable that the states would reject the +proposed constitution. To win its acceptance, Hamilton, in collaboration +with JAMES MADISON (1751-1836) and JOHN JAY (1745-1829), wrote the famous +_Federalist_ papers. There were eighty-five of these, but Hamilton wrote +more than both of his associates together. These papers have been collected +into a volume, and to this day they form a standard commentary on our +Constitution. This work and Hamilton's eloquence before the New York +convention for ratification helped to carry the day for the Constitution +and to terminate a period of dissension which was tending toward anarchy. + + +THE ORATORS + +There are times in the history of a nation when there is unusual need for +the orator to persuade, to arouse, and to encourage his countrymen. Many +influential colonists disapproved of the Revolution; they wrote against it +and talked against it. When the war progressed slowly, entailing not only +severe pecuniary loss but also actual suffering to the revolutionists, many +lost their former enthusiasm and were willing to have peace at any price. +At this period in our history the orator was as necessary as the soldier. +Orators helped to launch the Revolution, to continue the war, and, after it +was finished, to give the country united constitutional government. It will +be instructive to make the acquaintance of some of these orators and to +learn the secret of their power. + +JAMES OTIS (1725-1783) was born in Massachusetts and educated at Harvard. +He studied literature for two years after he graduated and then became a +lawyer. He was appointed to the position of king's advocate-general, a +high-salaried office. There came an order from England, allowing the king's +officers to search the houses of Americans at any time on mere suspicion of +the concealment of smuggled goods. Otis resigned his office and took the +side of the colonists, attacking the constitutionality of a law that +allowed the right of unlimited search and that was really designed to +curtail the trade of the colonies. He had the advantage of many modern +orators in having something to say on his subject, in feeling deeply +interested in it, and in talking to people who were also interested in the +same thing. Without these three essentials, there cannot be oratory of the +highest kind. We can imagine the voice of Otis trembling with feeling as he +said in 1761:-- + +[Illustration: JAMES OTIS] + + "Now one of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom + of one's house. A man's house is his castle; and whilst he is quiet, he + is as well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ, if it should be + declared legal, would totally annihilate this privilege. Custom-house + officers may enter our houses, when they please; we are commanded to + permit their entry. Their menial servants may enter, may break locks, + bars, and everything in their way; and whether they break through malice + or revenge, no man, no court, can inquire." + +We may to-day be more interested in other things than in the homes and +unrestricted trade of our colonial ancestors, but Otis was willing to give +up a lucrative office to speak for the rights of the humblest cottager. He, +like the majority of the orators of the Revolution, also possessed another +quality, often foreign to the modern orator. What this quality is will +appear in this quotation from his speech:-- + + "Let the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed. The + only principles of public conduct that are worthy of a gentleman or a man + are to sacrifice estate, ease, health, and applause, and even life, to + the sacred calls of his country. These manly sentiments, in private life, + make the good citizen; in public life, the patriot and the hero." + +John Adams, who became the second President of the United States, listened +to this speech for five hours, and called Otis "a flame of fire." "Then and +there," said Adams, with pardonable exaggeration, "the child Independence +was born." + +PATRICK HENRY (1736-1799), a young Virginia lawyer, stood before the First +Continental Congress, in 1774, saying:-- + +[Illustration: PATRICK HENRY] + + "Where are your landmarks, your boundaries of Colonies? The distinctions + between Virginians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not + a Virginian, but an American." + +These words had electrical effect on the minds of his listeners, and helped +to weld the colonies together. In 1775 we can hear him again speaking +before a Virginian Convention of Delegates:-- + + "Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. + We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the + song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts.... + + "I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of + experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. + And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the + conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those + hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the + House? ... + + "Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they + have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price + of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course + others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." + +It is hardly too much to say that these words have communicated to the +entire American nation an intenser desire for liberty, that their effect +has not yet passed away, and that they may during the coming centuries +serve to awaken Americans in many a crisis. + +SAMUEL ADAMS (1722-1803), a Bostonian and graduate of Harvard, probably +gave his time in fuller measure to the cause of independence than any other +writer or speaker. For nine years he was a member of the Continental +Congress. When there was talk of peace between the colonies and the mother +country, he had the distinction of being one of two Americans for whom +England proclaimed in advance that there would be no amnesty granted. We +can seem to hear him in 1776 in the Philadelphia State House, replying to +the argument that the colonists should obey England, since they were her +children:-- + +[Illustration: SAMUEL ADAMS] + + "Who among you, my countrymen, that is a father, would claim authority to + make your child a slave because you had nourished him in his infancy?" + +After he had signed the _Declaration of Independence,_ he spoke to the +Pennsylvanians like a Puritan of old:-- + + "We have explored the temple of royalty, and found that the idol we have + bowed down to has eyes which see not, ears that hear not our prayer, and + a heart like the nether millstone. We have this day restored the + Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven, + and with a propitious eye beholds His subjects assuming that freedom of + thought and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed on them." + +These sentences plainly show the influence of biblical thought and diction. +A century before, this compound of patriot, politician, orator, and +statesman would also have been a clergyman. + +An examination of these three typical orators of the Revolution will show +that they gained their power (1) from intense interest in their subject +matter, (2) from masterful knowledge of that matter, due either to +first-hand acquaintance with it or to liberal culture or to both, (3) from +the fact that the subject of their orations appealed forcibly to the +interest of that special time, (4) from their character and personality. +Most of what they said makes dry reading to-day, but we shall occasionally +find passages, like Patrick Henry's apotheosis of liberty, which speak to +the ear of all time and which have in them something of a Homeric or +Miltonic ring. + +INCREASING INFLUENCE OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION.--Not one of the great orators +of the Revolution was a clergyman. The power of the clergy in political +affairs was declining, while the legal profession was becoming more and +more influential. James Otis, Patrick Henry, Alexander Hamilton, and John +Jay (p. 71) were lawyers. Life was becoming more diversified, and there +were avenues other than theology attractive to the educated man. At the +same time, we must remember that the clergy have never ceased to be a +mighty power in American life. They were not silent or uninfluential during +the Revolution. Soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, John Adams wrote from +Philadelphia to his wife in Boston, asking, "Does Mr. Wibird preach against +oppression and other cardinal vices of the time? Tell him the clergy here +of every denomination, not excepting the Episcopalian, thunder and lighten +every Sabbath." + + +BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 1706-1790 + +[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN] + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND LIFE.--Franklin's _Autobiography_ stands first among +works of its kind in American literature. The young person who does not +read it misses both profit and entertainment. Some critics have called it +"the equal of Robinson Crusoe, one of the few everlasting books in the +English language." In this small volume, begun in 1771, Franklin tells us +that he was born in Boston in 1706, one of the seventeen children of a poor +tallow chandler, that his branch of the Franklin family had lived for three +hundred years or more in the village of Ecton, Northamptonshire, where the +head of the family, in Queen Mary's reign, read from an English _Bible_ +concealed under a stool, while a child watched for the coming of the +officers. He relates how he attended school from the age of eight to ten, +when he had to leave to help his father mold and wick candles. His meager +schooling was in striking contrast to the Harvard education of Cotton +Mather and the Yale training of Jonathan Edwards, who was only three years +Franklin's senior. But no man reaches Franklin's fame without an education. +His early efforts to secure this are worth giving in his own language:-- + + "From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came + into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the _Pilgrim's + Progress_, my first collection was of John Bunyan's works in separate + little volumes.... Plutarch's _Lives_ there was in which I read + abundantly, and I still think that time spent to great advantage. There + was also a book of De Foe's, called an _Essay on Projects_, and another + of Dr. Mather's, called _Essays to do Good_, which perhaps gave me a turn + of thinking that had an influence on some of the principal future events + of my life.... Often I sat up in my room reading the greatest part of the + night." + +He relates how he taught himself to write by reading and reproducing in his +own language the papers from Addison's _Spectator_. Franklin says that the +"little ability" in writing, developed through his self-imposed tasks, was +a principal means of his advancement in after life. + +He learned the printer's trade in Boston, and ran away at the age of +seventeen to Philadelphia, where he worked at the same trade. Keith, the +proprietary governor, took satanic pleasure in offering to purchase a +printing outfit for the eighteen-year-old boy, to make him independent. +Keith sent the boy to London to purchase this outfit, assuring him that the +proper letters to defray the cost would be sent on the same ship. No such +letters were ever written, and the boy found himself without money three +thousand miles from home. By working at the printer's trade he supported +himself for eighteen months in London. He relates how his companions at the +press drank six pints of strong beer a day, while he proved that the +"Water-American," as he was called, was stronger than any of them. The +workmen insisted that he should contribute to the general fund for drink. +He refused, but so many things happened to his type whenever he left the +room that he came to the following conclusion: "Notwithstanding the +master's protection, I found myself oblig'd to comply and pay the money, +convinc'd of the folly of being on ill terms with those one is to live with +continually." Such comments on the best ways of dealing with human nature +are frequent in the _Autobiography_. + +At the age of twenty, he returned to Philadelphia, much wiser for his +experience. Here he soon had a printing establishment of his own. By +remarkable industry he had at the age of forty-two made sufficient money to +be able to retire from the active administration of this business. He +defined leisure as "time for doing something useful." When he secured this +leisure, he used it principally for the benefit of others. For this reason, +he could write in his _Autobiography_ at the age of seventy-six:-- + + "... were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a + repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the + advantages authors have in a second edition, to correct some faults of + the first. So I might, besides correcting the faults, change some + sinister accidents and events of it for others more favorable. But though + this were denied, I should still accept the offer. Since such a + repetition is not to be expected, the next thing like living one's life + over again seems to be a recollection of that life." + +The twentieth century shows an awakened sense of civic responsibility, and +yet it would be difficult to name a man who has done more for his +commonwealth than Franklin. He started the first subscription library, +organized the first fire department, improved the postal service, helped to +pave and clean the streets, invented the Franklin stove, for which he +refused to take out a patent, took decided steps toward improving education +and founding the University of Pennsylvania, and helped establish a needed +public hospital. The _Autobiography_ shows his pleasure at being told that +there was no such thing as carrying through a public-spirited project +unless he was concerned in it. + +His electrical discoveries, especially his identification of lightning with +electricity, gained him world-wide fame. Harvard and Yale gave him honorary +degrees. England made him a Fellow of the Royal Society and awarded him the +Copley Medal. The foremost scientists in France gave him enthusiastic +praise. + +The _Autobiography_, ending with 1757, does not tell how he won his fame as +a statesman. In 1764 he went to England as colonial agent to protest +against the passage of the Stamp Act. All but two and one half of the next +twenty years he spent abroad, in England and France. The report of his +examination in the English House of Commons, relative to the repeal of the +Stamp Act, impressed both Europe and America with his wonderful capacity. +Never before had an American given Europe such an exhibition of knowledge, +powers of argument, and shrewdness, tempered with tact and good humor. In +1773 he increased his reputation as a writer and threw more light on +English colonial affairs by publishing, in London, _Rules for Reducing a +Great Empire to a Small One_, and _An Edict by the King of Prussia_. + +In 1776, at the age of seventy, he became commissioner to the court of +France, where he remained until 1785. Every student of American history +knows the part he played there in popularizing the American Revolution, +until France aided us with her money and her navy. It is doubtful if any +man has ever been more popular away from home than Franklin was in France. +The French regarded him as "the personification of the rights of man." They +followed him on the streets, gave him almost frantic applause when he +appeared in public, put his portrait in nearly every house and on almost +every snuff box, and bought a Franklin stove for their houses. + +He returned to Philadelphia in 1785, revered by his country. He was the +only man who had signed four of the most famous documents in American +history: the Declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with +France, the treaty of peace with England at the close of the Revolution, +and the Constitution of the United States. He had also become, as he +remains to-day, America's most widely read colonial writer. When he died in +1790, the American Congress and the National Assembly of France went into +mourning. + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE TO "POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC" FOR +1733] + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--As an author, Franklin is best known for his +philosophy of the practical and the useful. Jonathan Edwards turned his +attention to the next world; Franklin, to this world. The gulf is as vast +between these two men as if they had lived on different planets. To the end +of his life, Franklin's energies were bent toward improving the conditions +of this mundane existence. He advises honesty, not because an eternal +spiritual law commands it, but because it is the best policy. He needs to +be supplemented by the great spiritual teachers. He must not be despised +for this reason, for the great spiritual forces fail when they neglect the +material foundations imposed on mortals. Franklin was as necessary as +Jonathan Edwards. Franklin knew the importance of those foundation habits, +without which higher morality is not possible. He impressed on men the +necessity of being regular, temperate, industrious, saving, of curbing +desire, and of avoiding vice. The very foundations of character rest on +regularity, on good habits so inflexibly formed that it is painful to break +them. Franklin's success in laying these foundations was phenomenal. His +_Poor Richard's Almanac_, begun in 1733, was one of his chief agencies in +reaching the common people. They read, reread, and acted on such proverbs +as the following, which he published in this _Almanac_ from year to year:-- + +[Footnote: The figures in parenthesis indicate the year of publication.] + +"He has changed his one ey'd horse for a blind one" (1733). + +"Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead" (1735). + +"Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it" (1736). + +"Fly pleasures and they'll follow you" (1738). + +"Have you somewhat to do to-morrow; do it to-day" (1742). + +"Tart words make no friends: a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than +a gallon of vinegar" (1744). + +In 1757 Franklin gathered together what seemed to him the most striking of +these proverbs and published them as a preface to the _Almanac_ for 1758. +This preface, the most widely read of all his writings, has since been +known as _The Way to Wealth_. It had been translated into nearly all +European languages before the end of the nineteenth century. It is still +reprinted in whole or part almost every year by savings banks and societies +in France and England, as well as in the United States. "Dost thou love +life?" asks Poor Richard in _The Way to Wealth_. "Then," he continues, "do +not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of." Franklin modestly +disclaimed much originality in the selection of these proverbs, but it is +true that he made many of them more definite, incisive, and apt to lodge in +the memory. He has influenced, and he still continues to influence, the +industry and thrift of untold numbers. In one of our large cities, a branch +library, frequented by the humble and unlearned, reports that in one year +his _Autobiography_ was called for four hundred times, and a life of him, +containing many of Poor Richard's sayings, was asked for more than one +thousand times. + +He is the first American writer to show a keen sense of humor. There may be +traces of humor in _The Simple Cobbler of Agawam_ (p. 41) and in Cotton +Mather (p. 46), but Franklin has a rich vein. He used this with fine effect +when he was colonial agent in England. He determined to make England see +herself from the American point of view, and so he published anonymously in +a newspaper _An Edict of the King of Prussia_. This _Edict_ proclaimed that +it was a matter of common knowledge that Britain had been settled by +Hengist and Horsa and other German colonists, and that, in consequence of +this fact, the King of Prussia had the right to regulate the commerce, +manufactures, taxes, and laws of the English. Franklin gave in this _Edict_ +the same reasons and embodied the same restrictions, which seemed so +sensible to George III. and the Tories. Franklin was the guest of an +English Lord, when a man burst into the room with the newspaper containing +the _Edict_, saying, "Here's news for ye! Here's the King of Prussia +claiming a right to this kingdom!" + +In writing English prose, Franklin was fortunate in receiving instruction +from Bunyan and Addison. The pleasure of reading Franklin's _Autobiography_ +is increased by his simple, easy, natural way of relating events. +Simplicity, practicality, suggestiveness, common sense, were his leading +attributes. His sense of humor kept him from being tiresome and made him +realize that the half may be greater than the whole. The two people most +useful to the age in which they lived were George Washington and Benjamin +Franklin. + + +JOHN WOOLMAN, 1720-1772 + +A GREAT ALTRUIST.--This Quaker supplements Franklin in teaching that the +great aim in life should be to grow more capable of seeing those spiritual +realities which were before invisible. Life's most beautiful realities can +never be seen with the physical eye. The _Journal_ of John Woolman will +help one to increase his range of vision for what is best worth seeing. It +will broaden the reader's sympathies and develop a keener sense of +responsibility for lessening the misery of the world and for protecting +even the sparrow from falling. It will cultivate precisely that side of +human nature which stands most in need of development. To emphasize these +points, Charles Lamb said, "Get the writings of John Woolman by heart," and +Whittier wrote of Woolman's _Journal_, which he edited and made easily +accessible, "I have been awed and solemnized by the presence of a serene +and beautiful spirit redeemed of the Lord from all selfishness, and I have +been made thankful for the ability to recognize and the disposition to love +him." + +John Woolman was born of Quaker parentage in Northampton, New Jersey. He +never received much education. Early in life he became a shopkeeper's clerk +and then a tailor. This lack of early training and broad experience affects +his writings, which are not remarkable for ease of expression or for +imaginative reach; but their moral beauty and intensity more than +counterbalance such deficiencies. + +A part of his time he spent traveling as an itinerant preacher. He tried to +get Quakers to give up their slaves, and he refused to write wills that +bequeathed slaves. He pleaded for compassion for overworked oxen and +horses. He journeyed among the Indians, and endeavored to improve their +condition. It cut him to the quick to see traders try to intoxicate them so +as to get their skins and furs for almost nothing. He took passage for +England in the steerage, and learned the troubles of the sailors. From this +voyage he never returned, but died in York in 1772. + +In the year of his death, he made in his _Journal_ the following entry, +which is typical of his gentle, loving spirit: + + "So great is the hurry in the spirit of this world, that in aiming to do + business quickly and to gain wealth, the creation at this day doth loudly + groan." + +When a former president of Harvard issued a list of books for actual +reading, he put Franklin's _Autobiography_ first and John Woolman's +_Journal_ second. Franklin looked steadily at this world, Woolman at the +next. Each record is supplementary to the other. + + +EARLY AMERICAN FICTION + +THE FIRST ATTEMPTS.--MRS. SARAH MORTON published in Boston in 1789 a novel +entitled _The Power of Sympathy_. This is probably the first American novel +to appear in print. The reason for such a late appearance of native fiction +may be ascribed to the religious character of the early colonists and to +the ascendency of the clergy, who would not have tolerated novel reading by +members of their flocks. Jonathan Edwards complained that some of his +congregation were reading forbidden books, and he gave from the pulpit the +names of the guilty parties. These books were probably English novels. Sir +Leslie Stephen thinks that Richardson's _Pamela_ (1740) may have been one +of the books under the ban. There is little doubt that a Puritan church +member would have been disciplined if he had been known to be a reader of +some of Fielding's works, like _Joseph Andrews_ (1742). The Puritan clergy, +even at a later period, would not sanction the reading of novels unless +they were of the dry, vapid type, like the earliest Sunday school books. +Jonathan Edwards wrote the story of one of his youthful experiences, but it +was "the story of a spiritual experience so little involved with the earth, +that one might fancy it the story of a soul that had missed being born." + +Timothy Dwight (p. 92), who became president of Yale in 1795, said that +there is a great gulf fixed between novels and the _Bible_. Even later than +1800 there was a widespread feeling that the reading of novels imperiled +the salvation of the soul. To-day we know that certain novels are as +dangerous to the soul as leprosy to the body, but we have become more +discriminating. We have learned that the right type of fiction, read in +moderation, cultivates the imagination, broadens the sympathetic powers, +and opens up a new, interesting, and easily accessible land of enjoyment. + +A quarter of a century before the _Declaration of Independence_, the great +eighteenth-century English writers of fiction had given a new creation to +the literature of England. Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) had published +_Pamela_ in 1740 and _Clarissa Harlowe_ in 1748. Henry Fielding (1707-1754) +had given his immortal _Tom Jones_ to the world in 1749. + +Mrs. Morton's _Power of Sympathy_, a novel written with a moral purpose, is +a poorly constructed story of characters whom we fortunately do not meet +outside of books. One of these characters, looking at some flowers +embroidered by the absent object of his affections, says, "It shall yield +more fragrance to my soul than all the bouquets in the universe." + +The majority of the early novels, in aiming to teach some lesson, show +the influence of Samuel Richardson, the father of English fiction. This +didactic spirit appears in sober statement of the most self-evident +truths. "Death, my dear Maria, is a serious event," says the heroine of +one of these novels. Another characteristic is tepid or exaggerated +sentimentality. The heroine of _The Power of Sympathy_ dies of a broken +heart "in a lingering graceful manner." + +At least twenty-two American novels had been published between 1789 and the +appearance of Charles Brockden Brown's _Wieland_ 1798. Only an antiquary +need linger over these. We must next study the causes that led to a +pronounced change in fiction. + +DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CLASSIC AND THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL.--The next step in +fiction will show a breaking away from the classic or didactic school of +Samuel Richardson and a turning toward the new Gothic or romantic school. +To understand these terms, we must know something of the English influences +that led to this change. + +For the first two thirds of the eighteenth century, English literature +shows the dominating influence of the classic school. Alexander Pope +(1688-1744) in poetry and Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) in prose were the most +influential of this school. They are called _classicists_ because they +looked to the old classic authors for their guiding rules. Horace, more +than any other classic writer, set the standard for poetry. Pope and his +followers cared more for the excellence of form than for the worth of the +thought. Their keynote was:-- + + "True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'd, + What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed." + +[Footnote: Pope's _Essay on Criticism_, lines 297-8.] + +In poetry the favorite form was a couplet, that is, two lines which rhymed +and usually made complete sense. This was not inaptly termed "rocking horse +meter." The prose writers loved the balanced antithetical sentences used by +Dr. Johnson in his comparison of Pope and Dryden:-- + + "If the flights of Dryden, therefore, are higher, Pope continues longer + on the wing.... Dryden is read with frequent astonishment and Pope with + perpetual delight." + +Such overemphasis placed on mere form tended to draw the attention of the +writer away from the matter. The American poetry of this period suffered +more than the prose from this formal influence. + +Since the motto of the classicists was polished regularity, they avoided +the romantic, irregular, and improbable, and condemned the _Arabian +Nights_, _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, _The Tempest_, and other "monstrous +irregularities of Shakespeare." This school loved to teach and to point out +shortcomings, hence the terms "didactic" and "satiric" are often applied to +it. + +The last part of the eighteenth century showed a revolt against the +classicists. Victory came to the new romantic school, which included +authors like Wordsworth (1770-1850), Coleridge (1772-1834), Shelley +(1792-1822), and Keats (1795-1821). The terms "romantic" and "imaginative" +were at first in great measure synonymous. The romanticists maintained that +a reality of the imagination might be as satisfying and as important as a +reality of the prosaic reason, since the human mind had the power of +imagining as well as of thinking. + +The term "Gothic" was first applied to fiction by Horace Walpole +(1717-1797), who gave to his famous romance the title of "_The Castle of +Otranto: A Gothic Romance_" (1764). "Gothic" is here used in the same sense +as "romantic." Gothic architecture seemed highly imaginative and +overwrought in comparison with the severe classic order. In attempting to +avoid the old classic monotony, the Gothic school of fiction was soon noted +for its lavish use of the unusual, the mysterious, and the terrible. +Improbability, or the necessity for calling in the supernatural to untie +some knot, did not seriously disturb this school. The standard definition +of "Gothic" in fiction soon came to include an element of strangeness added +to terror. When the taste for the extreme Gothic declined, there ensued a +period of modified romanticism, which demanded the unusual and occasionally +the impossible. This influence persisted in the fiction of the greatest +writers, until the coming of the realistic school (p. 367). We are now +better prepared to understand the work of Charles Brockden Brown, the first +great American writer of romance, and to pass from him to Cooper, +Hawthorne, and Poe. + + +CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN, 1771-1810 + +[Illustration: CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN] + +Philadelphia has the honor of being the birthplace of Brown, who was the +first professional man of letters in America. Franklin is a more famous +writer than Brown, but, unlike Brown, he did not make literature the +business of his life. Descended from ancestors who came over on the ship +with William Penn, Brown at the age of ten had read, with Quaker +seriousness, every book that he could find. He did not go to college, but +studied law, which he soon gave up for literature as a profession. + +Depression from ill health and the consciousness that he would probably die +young colored all his romances. He has the hero of one of his tales say, +"We are exposed, in common with the rest of mankind, to innumerable +casualties; but, if these be shunned, we are unalterably fated to die of +consumption." In 1810, before he had reached forty, he fell a victim to +that disease. Near the end of his days, he told his wife that he had not +known what health was longer than a half hour at a time. + +Brown deserves a place in the history of American literature for his four +romances: _Wieland_, _Ormond_, _Arthur Mervyn_, and _Edgar Huntly_. These +were all published within the space of three years from 1798, the date of +the publication of _Wieland_. These romances show a striking change from +the American fiction which had preceded them. They are no longer didactic +and sentimental, but Gothic or romantic. Working under English influence, +Brown gave to America her first great Gothic romances. The English romance +which influenced him the most was _Caleb Williams_ (1794), the work of +William Godwin (1756-1836), the father-in-law of the poet Shelley. + +_Wieland_ is considered the strongest of Brown's Gothic romances, but it +does not use as distinctively American materials as his three other stories +of this type, _Ormond_, _Arthur Mervyn_, or _Memoirs of the Year 1793_, and +_Edgar Huntly_. The results of his own experience with the yellow fever +plague in Philadelphia give an American touch to _Ormond_ and _Arthur +Mervyn_, and at the same time add the Gothic element of weirdness and +horror. _Arthur Mervyn_ is far the better of the two. + +_Edgar Huntly, or Memoirs of a Sleep Walker_, shows a Gothic characteristic +in its very title. This book is noteworthy in the evolution of American +fiction, not because of the strange actions of the sleep walker, but for +the reason that Brown here deliberately determines, as he states in his +prefatory note _To the Public_ to give the romance an American flavor, by +using "the incidents of Indian hostility and the perils of the Western +wilderness." If we assume that John Smith's story of Pocahontas is not +fiction, then to Brown belongs the honor of first recognizing in the Indian +a valuable literary asset from the Gothic romancer's point of view. In +Chapter XVI., he reverses Captain Smith's story and has Edgar Huntly rescue +a young girl from torture and kill an Indian. In the next two chapters, the +hero kills four Indians. The English recognized this introduction of a new +element of strangeness added to terror and gave Brown the credit of +developing an "Americanized" Gothic. He disclosed to future writers of +fiction, like James Fenimore Cooper (p. 125), a new mine of American +materials. This romance has a second distinguishing characteristic, for +Brown surpassed contemporary British novelists in taking his readers into +the open air, which forms the stage setting for the adventures of _Edgar +Huntly_. The hero of that story loves to observe the birds, the squirrels, +and the old Indian woman "plucking the weeds from among her corn, bruising +the grain between two stones, and setting her snares for rabbits and +opossums." He takes us where we can feel the exhilaration from "a wild +heath, whistled over by October blasts meagerly adorned with the dry stalks +of scented shrubs and the bald heads of the sapless mullein." + +Brown's place in the history of fiction is due to the fact that he +introduced the Gothic romance to American literature. He loved to subject +the weird, the morbid, the terrible, to a psychological analysis. In this +respect he suggests Hawthorne, although there are more points of difference +than of likeness between him and the great New England romancer. In weird +subject matter, but not in artistic ability, he reminds us of Poe. Brown +could devise striking incidents, but he lacked the power to weave them +together in a well-constructed plot. He sometimes forgot that important +incidents needed further elaboration or reference, and he occasionally left +them suspended in mid-air. His lack of humor was too often responsible for +his imposing too much analysis and explanation on his readers. Although he +did not hesitate to use the marvelous in his plots, his realistic mind +frequently impelled him to try to explain the wonderful occurrences. He +thus attempted to bring in ventriloquism to account for the mysterious +voices which drove Wieland to kill his wife and children. + +It is, however, not difficult for a modern reader to become so much +interested in the first volume of _Arthur Mervyn_ as to be unwilling to +leave it unfinished. Brown will probably be longest remembered for his +strong pictures of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, his use of +the Indian in romance, and his introduction of the outdoor world of the +wilderness and the forest. + +POETRY--THE HARTFORD WITS + +The Americans were slow to learn that political independence could be far +more quickly gained than literary independence. A group of poets, sometimes +known as the Hartford Wits, determined to take the kingdom of poetry by +violence. The chief of these were three Yale graduates, Timothy Dwight, +Joel Barlow, and John Trumbull. + +TIMOTHY DWIGHT (1752-1817).--Before he became president of Yale, Dwight +determined to immortalize himself by an epic poem. He accordingly wrote the +_Conquest of Canaan_ in 9671 lines, beginning:-- + + "The Chief, whose arms to Israel's chosen band + Gave the fair empire of the promis'd land, + Ordain'd by Heaven to hold the sacred sway, + Demands my voice, and animates the lay." + +[Illustration: TIMOTHY DWIGHT] + +This poem is written in the rocking horse couplets of Pope, and it is +well-nigh unreadable to-day. It is doubtful if twenty-five people in our +times have ever read it through. Even where the author essays fine writing, +as in the lines:-- + + "On spicy shores, where beauteous morning reigns, + Or Evening lingers o'er her favorite plains," + +there is nothing to awaken a single definite image, nothing but glittering +generalities. Dwight's best known poetry is found in his song, _Columbia_, +composed while he was a chaplain in the Revolutionary War:-- + + "Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, + The queen of the world, and the child of the skies." + +JOEL BARLOW (1755-1812) was, like Dwight, a chaplain in the war, but he +became later a financier and diplomat, as well as a poet. He determined in +_The Vision of Columbus_ (1787), afterwards expanded into the ponderous +_Columbiad_, to surpass Homer and all preceding epics. Barlow's classical +couplets thus present a general in the Revolution, ordering a cannonade:-- + + "When at his word the carbon cloud shall rise, + And well-aim'd thunders rock the shores and skies." + +[Illustration: JOEL BARLOW] + +Hawthorne ironically suggested that the _Columbiad_ should be dramatized +and set to the accompaniment of cannon and thunder and lightning. Barlow, +like many others, certainly did not understand that bigness is not +necessarily greatness. He is best known by some lines from his less +ambitious _Hasty Pudding_:-- + + "E'en in thy native regions, how I blush + To hear the Pennsylvanians call thee _Mush!_" + +JOHN TRUMBULL (1750-1831).--The greatest of the Hartford wits was John +Trumbull. His father, a Congregational clergyman living at Waterbury, +Connecticut, prepared boys for college. In 1757 he sent two candidates to +Yale to be examined, one pupil of nineteen, the other of seven. Commenting +on this, the _Connecticut Gazette_ of September 24, 1757, says, "the Son of +Rev'd. Mr. Trumble of Waterbury ... passed a good Examination, altho but +little more than seven years of age; but on account of his Youth his father +does not intend he shall at present continue at College." This boy waited +until he was thirteen to enter Yale, where he graduated in due course. +After teaching for two years in that college, he became a lawyer by +profession. Although he did not die until 1831, the literary work by which +he is known was finished early. + +Trumbull occupied the front rank of the satiric writers of that age. Early +in his twenties he satirized in classical couplets the education of the +day, telling how the students:-- + + "Read ancient authors o'er in vain, + Nor taste one beauty they contain, + And plodding on in one dull tone, + Gain ancient tongues and lose their own." + +[Illustration: JOHN TRUMBULL] + +His masterpiece was a satire on British sympathizers. He called this poem +_M'Fingal_, after a Scotch Tory. The first part was published in 1775 and +it gave a powerful impetus to the Continental cause. It has been said that +the poem "is to be considered as one of the forces of the Revolution, +because as a satire on the Tories it penetrated into every farmhouse, and +sent the rustic volunteers laughing into the ranks of Washington and +Greene." + +One cannot help thinking of Butler's _Hudibras_ (1663), when reading +_M'Fingal_. Of course the satiric aim is different in the two poems. Butler +ridiculed the Puritans and upheld the Royalists, while Trumbull discharged +his venomed shafts at the adherents of the king. In _M'Fingal_, a Tory bent +on destroying a liberty pole drew his sword on a Whig, who had no arms +except a spade. The Whig, however, employed his weapon with such good +effect on the Tory that:-- + + "His bent knee fail'd, and void of strength, + Stretch'd on the ground his manly length. + Like ancient oak, o'erturn'd, he lay, + Or tower to tempests fall'n a prey, + Or mountain sunk with all his pines, + Or flow'r the plough to dust consigns, + And more things else--but all men know 'em, + If slightly versed in epic poem." + +Some of the incisive lines from _M'Fingal_ have been wrongly ascribed to +Butler's _Hudibras_. The following are instances:-- + + "No man e'er felt the halter draw + With good opinion of the law." + + "For any man with half an eye + What stands before him may espy; + But optics sharp it needs, I ween, + To see what is not to be seen." + +Trumbull's _M'Fingal_ is a worthy predecessor of Lowell's _Biglow Papers_. +Trumbull wrote his poem as a "weapon of warfare." The first part of +_M'Fingal_ passed through some forty editions, many of them printed without +the author's consent. This fact is said to have led Connecticut to pass a +copyright law in 1783, and to have thus constituted a landmark in American +literary history. + + +PHILIP FRENEAU, 1752-1832 + +[Illustration: PHILIP FRENEAU] + +New York City was the birthplace of Freneau, the greatest poet born in +America before the Revolutionary War. He graduated at Princeton in 1771, +and became a school teacher, sea captain, poet, and editor. + +The Revolution broke out when he was a young man, and he was moved to write +satiric poetry against the British. Tyler says that "a running commentary +on his Revolutionary satires would be an almost complete commentary on the +whole Revolutionary struggle; nearly every important emergency and phase of +which are photographed in his keen, merciless, and often brilliant lines." +In one of these satires Freneau represents Jove investigating the records +of Fate:-- + + "And first on the top of a column he read-- + Of a king with a mighty soft place in his head, + Who should join in his temper the ass and the mule, + The Third of his name and by far the worst fool." + +We can imagine the patriotic colonists singing as a refrain:-- + + "... said Jove with a smile, + Columbia shall never be ruled by an isle," + +or this:-- + + "The face of the Lion shall then become pale, + He shall yield fifteen teeth and be sheared of his tail," + +but Freneau's satiric verse is not his best, however important it may be to +historians. + +His best poems are a few short lyrics, remarkable for their simplicity, +sincerity, and love of nature. His lines:-- + + "A hermit's house beside a stream + With forests planted round," + +are suggestive of the romantic school of Wordsworth and Coleridge, as is +also _The Wild Honeysuckle_, which begins as follows:-- + + "Fair flower, that dost so comely grow, + Hid in this silent, dull retreat, + Untouched thy honied blossoms blow, + Unseen thy little branches greet. + + "By Nature's self in white arrayed, + She bade thee shun the vulgar eye, + And planted here the guardian shade, + And sent soft waters murmuring by." + +Although Freneau's best poems are few and short, no preceding American poet +had equaled them. The following will repay careful reading: _The Wild +Honeysuckle_, _The Indian Burying Ground_, and _To a Honey Bee_. + +He died in 1832, and was buried near his home at Mount Pleasant, Monmouth +County, New Jersey. + + +ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE PERIOD + +The great prose representatives of the first half of the eighteenth +century, Swift, Addison, Steele, and Defoe, had passed away before the +middle of the century. The creators of the novel, Samuel Richardson and +Henry Fielding, had done their best work by 1750. + +The prose writers of the last half of the century were OLIVER GOLDSMITH +(1728-1774), who published the _Vicar of Wakefield_ in 1766; EDWARD GIBBON +(1737-1794), who wrote _The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire_; EDMUND BURKE (1729-1797), best known to-day for his _Speech on +Conciliation with America_; and SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784), whose _Lives of +the Poets_ is the best specimen of eighteenth-century classical criticism. + +The most noteworthy achievement of the century was the victory of +romanticism (p. 88) over classicism. Pope's polished satiric and didactic +verse, neglecting the primrose by the river's brim, lacking deep feeling, +high ideals, and heaven-climbing imagination, had long been the model that +inspired cold intellectual poetry. In the latter part of the century, +romantic feeling and imagination won their battle and came into their own +heritage in literature. ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796) wrote poetry that touched +the heart. A classicist like Dr. Johnson preferred the town to the most +beautiful country scenes, but WILLIAM COWPER (1731-1800) says:-- + + "God made the country, and man made the town." + +Romantic poetry culminated in the work of WILLIAM WORDSWORTH and SAMUEL +TAYLOR COLERIDGE, whose _Lyrical Ballads_ (1798) included the wonderful +romantic poem of _The Ancient Mariner_, and poems by Wordsworth, which +brought to thousands of human souls a new sense of companionship with +nature, a new feeling + + "... that every flower + Enjoys the air it breathes," + +and that all nature is anxious to share its joy with man and to introduce +him to a new world. The American poets of this age, save Freneau in a few +short lyrics, felt but little of this great impulse; but in the next period +we shall see that William Cullen Bryant heard the call and sang:-- + + "Scarce less the cleft-born wild-flower seems to enjoy + Existence than the winged plunderer + That sucks its sweets." + +The romantic prose was not of as high an order as the poetry. Writers of +romances like WALPOLE'S _Castle of Otranto_ and GODWIN'S _Caleb Williams_ +did not allow their imaginations to be fettered by either the probable or +the possible. In America the romances of Charles Brockden Brown show the +direct influence of this school. + + +LEADING HISTORICAL FACTS + +The French and Indian War accomplished two great results. In the first +place, it made the Anglo-Saxon race dominant in North America. Had the +French won, this book would have been chiefly a history of French +literature. In the second place, the isolated colonies learned to know one +another and their combined strength. + +Soon after the conclusion of this war, the English began active +interference with colonial imports and exports, laid taxes on certain +commodities, passed the Stamp Act, and endeavored to make the colonists +feel that they were henceforth to be governed in fact as well as in name by +England. The most independent men that the world has ever produced came to +America to escape tyranny at home. The descendants of these men started the +American Revolution, signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and, +led by George Washington (1732-1799), one of the greatest heroes of the +ages, won their independence. They had the assistance of the French, and it +was natural that the treaty of peace with England should be signed at Paris +in 1783. + +Then followed a period nearly as trying as that of the Revolution, an era +called by John Fiske "The Critical Period of American History, 1783-1789." +Because of the jealousy of the separate states and the fear that tyranny at +home might threaten liberty, there was no central government vested with +adequate power. Sometimes there was a condition closely bordering on +anarchy. The wisest men feared that the independence so dearly bought would +be lost. Finally, the separate states adopted a Constitution which united +them, and in 1789 they chose Washington as the president of this Union. His +_Farewell Address_, issued to the American people toward the end of his +administration, breathes the prayer "that your union and brotherly +affection may be perpetual; that the free constitution which is the work of +your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every +part may be stamped with wisdom and virtue." A leading thought from this +great _Address_ shows that the Virginian agreed with the New Englander in +regard to the chief cornerstone of this Republic:-- + + "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, + Religion and Morality are indispensable supports." + +The student of political rather than of literary history is interested in +the administrations of John Adams (1797-1801), Thomas Jefferson +(1801-1809), and James Madison (1809-1817). The acquisition in 1803 of the +vast central territory, known as the Louisiana Purchase, affected the +entire subsequent development of the country and its literature. Thomas +Jefferson still exerts an influence on our literature and institutions; for +he championed the democratic, as opposed to the aristocratic, principle of +government. His belief in the capacity of the common people for progress +and self-government still helps to mold public opinion. + +Next in importance to the victorious struggle of the Revolution and the +adoption of the Constitution, is the wonderful pioneer movement toward the +West. Francis A. Walker, in his _Making of the Nation, 1783-1817_, says:-- + + "During the period of thirty-four years covered by this narrative, a + movement had been in continuous progress for the westward extension of + population, which far transcended the limits of any of the great + migrations of mankind upon the older continents.... From 1790 to 1800, + the mean population of the period being about four and a half millions, + sixty-five thousand square miles were brought within the limits of + settlement; crossed with rude roads and bridges; built up with rude + houses and barns; much of it, also, cleared of primeval forests. + + "In the next ten years, the mean population of the decade being about six + and a half millions, the people of the United States extended settlement + over one hundred and two thousand square miles of absolutely new + territory.... No other people could have done this. No: nor the half of + it. Any other of the great migratory races--Tartar, Slav, or + German--would have broken hopelessly down in an effort to compass such a + field in such a term of years." + + +SUMMARY + +The early essays of the period, Paine's _Common Sense_ and the _Crisis_, +Jefferson's _Declaration of Independence_, Hamilton's pamphlets and papers, +all champion human liberty and show the influence of the Revolution. The +orators, James Otis, Patrick Henry, and Samuel Adams, were inspired by the +same cause. The words of Patrick Henry, "Give me liberty or give me death," +have in them the essence of immortality because they voice the supreme +feeling of one of the critical ages in the world's history. + +Benjamin Franklin was the greatest writer of the period. His +_Autobiography_ has a value possessed by no other work of the kind. This +and his _Poor Richard's Almanac_ have taught generations of Americans the +duty of self-culture, self-reliance, thrift, and the value of practical +common sense. He was the first of our writers to show a balanced sense of +humor and to use it as an agent in impressing truth on unwilling listeners. +He is an equally great apostle of the practical and the altruistic, +although he lacked the higher spirituality of the old Puritans and of the +Quaker, John Woolman. This age is marked by a comparative decline in the +influence of the clergy. Not a single clerical name appears on the list of +the most prominent writers. + +This period shows the beginning of American fiction, dominated by English +writers, like Samuel Richardson. The early novels, like Mrs. Morton's _The +Power of Sympathy_, were usually prosy, didactic, and as dull as the Sunday +school books of three quarters of a century ago. The victory of the English +school of romanticists influenced Charles Brockden Brown, the first +professional American author, to throw off the yoke of classical +didacticism and regularity and to write a group of Gothic romances, in +which the imagination was given a freer rein than the intellect. While he +freely employed the imported Gothic elements of "strangeness added to +terror," he nevertheless managed to give a distinctively American coloring +to his work by showing the romantic use to which the Indian and the forest +could be put. + +Authors struggled intensely to write poetry. "The Hartford Wits," Dwight, +Barlow, and Trumbull, wrote a vast quantity of verse. The most of this is +artificial, and reveals the influence of the classical school of Alexander +Pope. Freneau wrote a few short lyrics which suggest the romantic school of +Wordsworth. + +The American literature of this period shows in the main the influence of +the older English classical school. America produced no authors who can +rank with the contemporary school of English writers, such as Burns, +Wordsworth, and Coleridge. Of all the writers of this age, Franklin alone +shows an undiminished popularity with readers of the twentieth century. + +Three events in the history of the period are epoch-making in the world's +history; (_a_) the securing of independence through the Revolutionary War, +(_b_) the adoption of a constitution and the formation of a republic, and +(_c_) the magnitude of the work of the pioneer settlers, who advanced +steadily west from the coast, and founded commonwealths beyond the +Alleghanies. + + +REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY + +HISTORICAL + +The course of English events (reign of George III.) may be traced in any of +the English histories mentioned on p. 60. For the English literature of the +period; see the author's _History of English Literature_. + +Valuable works dealing with special periods of the American history of the +time are:-- + +Hart's _Formation of the Union_. + +Parkman's _Half Century of Conflict_ and _Montcalm and Wolfe_, 2 vols. +(French and Indian War.) + +Fiske's _American Revolution_, 2 vols. + +Fiske's _Critical Period of American History_. + +Walker's _The Making of the Nation_. + +Johnston's _History of American Politics_. + +Schouler's _History of the United States of America under the +Constitution_, 6 vols. + +The works by Hart, Channing, and James and Sanford, referred to on p. 61, +will give the leading events in brief compass. An account of much of the +history of the period is given in the biographies of Washington by Lodge, +of Franklin by Morse, of Hamilton by Lodge, and of Jefferson by Morse. +(_American Statesmen Series_.) + +LITERARY + +Tyler's _The Literary History of the American Revolution_, 2 vols. + +Richardson's _American Literature_, 2 vols. + +Wendell's _Literary History of America_. + +Trent's _A History of American Literature_. + +McMaster's _Benjamin Franklin_. + +Ford's _The Many-Sided Franklin_. + +Erskine's _Leading American Novelists_, pp. 3-49, on Charles Brockden +Brown. + +Loshe's _The Early American Novel_. + +SUGGESTED READINGS + +The Essayists.--Selections from Thomas Paine's _Common Sense_,--Cairns, +[Footnote: For full titles see p. 62.] 344-347; Carpenter, 66-70; S. & H., +III., 219-221. From the _Crisis_,--Cairns, 347-352; Carpenter, 70, 71; S. & +H., III., 222-225. + +_Jefferson's Declaration of Independence_--which may be found in Carpenter, +79-83; S. & H., III, 286-289; and in almost all the histories of the United +States--should be read several times until the very atmosphere or spirit of +those days comes to the reader. + +Selections from Alexander Hamilton, including a paper from the +_Federalist_, may be found in Cairns, 363-369; S. & H., IV., 113-116. + +THE ORATORS.--A short selection from Otis is given in this work, p. 72. A +longer selection may be found in Vol. I. of Johnston's _American Orations_, +11-17. For Patrick Henry's most famous speech, see Cairns, 335-338; S. & +H., III., 214-218; Johnston, I., 18-23. The speech of Samuel Adams on +American Independence is given in Johnston, I., 24-38, and in Moore's +_American Eloquence_, Vol. I. + +BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.--Every one should read his _Autobiography_. Selections +may be found in Carpenter, 31-36; Cairns, 322-332; T. & W., III., 192-201; +S. & H., III., 3-13. + +Read his _Way to Wealth_ either in the various editions of _Poor Richard's +Almanac_ or in Cairns, 315-319; Carpenter, 36-43; T. & W., III., 202-213; +S. & H., III., 17-21. + +JOHN WOOLMAN.--Cairns, 307-313; S. & H., III., 78-80, 82-85. + +CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN.--The first volume of _Arthur Mervyn_ with its +account of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia is not uninteresting +reading. Chaps. XVI., XVII., and XVIII. of _Edgar Huntly_ show the hero of +that romance rescuing a girl from torture and killing Indians. These and +the following chapters, especially XIX., XX., and XXI, give some vigorous +out-of-door life. + +Selections giving incidents of the yellow fever plague may be found in +Cairns, 482-488; Carpenter, 97-100. For Indian adventures or out-of-door +life in Edgar Huntly, see Cairns, 488-493; Carpenter, 89-97; S. & H., IV., +273-292. + +POETRY.--Selections from Dwight, Barlow, and Trumbull may be found in +Cairns, 395-430; S. & H., III., 403-413, 426-429, IV., 47-55. For Freneau's +best lyrics, see Cairns, 440, 441, 447; S. & H., III., 452, 453, 456; +Stedman, An American Anthology, 4, 7, 8. + + +QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS + +PROSE.--After reading some of the papers of Thomas Paine, state why they +were unusually well suited to the occasion. Why is the _Declaration of +Independence_ likened to the old battle songs of the Anglo-Saxon race? What +is remarkable about Jefferson's power of expression? In the orations of +Otis, Patrick Henry, and Samuel Adams, what do you find to account for +their influence? To what must an orator owe his power? + +Contrast the writings of Benjamin Franklin with those of Jonathan Edwards +and John Woolman. What are some of the most useful suggestions and records +of experience to be found in Franklin's _Autobiography_? In what ways are +his writings still useful to humanity? Select the best four maxims from +_The Way to Wealth_. What are some of the qualities of Franklin's style? +Compare it with Woolman's style. + +Why are Brown's romances called "Gothic"? What was the general type of +American fiction preceding him? Specify three strong or unusual incidents +in the selections read from Brown. What does he introduce to give an +American color to his work? + +POETRY.--In the selections read from Dwight, Barlow, and Trumbull, what +general characteristics impress you? Do these poets belong to the classic +or the romantic school? What English influences are manifest? What +qualities in Freneau's lyrics show a distinct advance in American poetry? + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE NEW YORK GROUP + + +A NEW LITERARY CENTER.--We have seen that Massachusetts supplied the +majority of the colonial writers before the French and Indian War. During +the next period, Philadelphia came to the front with Benjamin Franklin and +Charles Brockden Brown. In this third period, New York forged ahead, both +in population and in the number of her literary men. Although in 1810 she +was smaller than Philadelphia, by 1820 she had a population of 123,706, +which was 15,590 more than Philadelphia, and 80,408 more than Boston. + +This increase in urban population rapidly multiplied the number of readers +of varied tastes and developed a desire for literary entertainment, as well +as for instruction. Works like those of Irving and Cooper gained wide +circulation only because of the new demands, due to the increasing +population, to the decline in colonial provincialism, and to the growth of +the new national spirit. Probably no one would have been inspired, +twenty-five years earlier, to write a work like Irving's _Knickerbocker's +History of New York_. Even if it had been produced earlier, the country +would not have been ready to receive it. This remarkable book was published +in New York in 1809, and more than a quarter of a century had passed before +Massachusetts could produce anything to equal that work. + +In the New York group there were three great writers whom we shall discuss +separately: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and William Cullen +Bryant. Before we begin to study them, however, we may glance at two of the +minor writers, who show some of the characteristics of the age. + + +DRAKE AND HALLECK + +[Illustration: JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE] + +Two friends, who in their early youth styled themselves "The Croakers," +were Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) and Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790-1867), +"the Damon and Pythias of American poets." Drake was born in New York City +in the same year as the English poet, John Keats, in London. Both Drake and +Keats studied medicine, and both died of consumption at the age of +twenty-five. Halleck was born in Guilford, Connecticut, but moved to New +York in early youth, where he became a special accountant for John Jacob +Astor. Although Halleck outlived Drake forty-seven years, trade seems to +have sterilized Halleck's poetic power in his later life. + +The early joint productions of Drake and Halleck were poems known as _The +Croakers_, published in 1819, in the New York _Evening Post_. This stanza +from _The Croakers_ will show the character of the verse and its avowed +object:-- + + "There's fun in everything we meet, + The greatest, worst, and best; + Existence is a merry treat, + And every speech a jest: + Be't ours to watch the crowds that pass + Where Mirth's gay banner waves; + To show fools through a quizzing-glass + And bastinade the knaves." + +This was written by Drake, but he and Halleck together "croaked" the +following lines, which show that New York life at the beginning of the +nineteenth century had something of the variety of London in the time of +Queen Anne, at the beginning of the eighteenth century:-- + + "The horse that twice a week I ride + At Mother Dawson's eats his fill; + My books at Goodrich's abide, + My country seat is Weehawk hill; + My morning lounge is Eastburn's shop, + At Poppleton's I take my lunch, + Niblo prepares my mutton chop, + And Jennings makes my whiskey punch." + +[Illustration: FITZ GREENE HALLECK] + +Such work indicates not only a diversified circle of readers, who were not +subject to the religious and political stress of earlier days, but it also +shows a desire to be entertained, which would have been promptly +discouraged in Puritan New England. We should not be surprised to find that +the literature of this period was swayed by the new demands, that it was +planned to entertain as well as to instruct, and that all the writers of +this group, with the exception of Bryant, frequently placed the chief +emphasis on the power to entertain. + +Fortunately instruction often accompanies entertainment, as the following +lines from _The Croakers_ show:-- + + "The man who frets at worldly strife + Grows sallow, sour, and thin; + Give us the lad whose happy life + Is one perpetual grin, + He, Midas-like, turns all to gold." + +Drake's best poem, which is entirely his own work, is _The Culprit Fay_, +written in 1816 when he was twenty-one years of age. This shows the +influence of the English romantic school, and peoples the Hudson River with +fairies. Before the appearance of this poem, nothing like these lines could +have been found in American verse:-- + + "The winds are whist, and the owl is still, + The bat in the shelvy rock is hid; + And naught is heard on the lonely hill + But the cricket's chirp and the answer shrill + Of the gauze-winged katydid; + And the plaint of the wailing whip-poor-will, + Who moans unseen, and ceaseless sings, + Ever a note of wail and woe, + Till morning spreads her rosy wings + And earth and sky in her glances glow." + +Although _The Culprit Fay_ shows the influence of Coleridge's _Christabel_, +yet this American poem could not have been written by an English poet. +Drake did not sing the praises of the English lark and the nightingale; but +chose instead an American bird, the whippoorwill, and a native insect, the +katydid, and in writing of them showed the enjoyment of a true poet. + +Drake's best known poem, _The American Flag_, which was signed "Croaker & +Co.," because Halleck wrote the last four lines, is a good specimen of +rhetorical verse, but lacks the poetic feeling of _The Culprit Fay_. +Fitz-Greene Halleck's best known poem is _Marco Bozzaris_ (1827), an elegy +on the death of a Grecian leader, killed in 1823. America's sympathies went +out to Greece in her struggles for independence against the Turks. In +celebrating the heroic death of Bozzaris, Halleck chose a subject that was +naturally fitted to appeal to all whose liberties were threatened. This +poem has been honored with a place in almost all American anthologies. +Middle-aged people can still remember the frequency with which the poem was +declaimed. At one time these lines were perhaps as often heard as any in +American verse:-- + + "Strike--till the last armed foe expires; + Strike--for your altars and your fires; + Strike--for the green graves of your sires; + God--and your native land!" + +Fifty years ago the readers of this poem would have been surprised to be +told that interest in it would ever wane, but it was fitted to arouse the +enthusiasm, not of all time, but of an age,--an age that knew from +first-hand experience the meaning of a struggle for hearth fires and +freedom. Most critics to-day prefer Halleck's lines _On the Death of Joseph +Rodman Drake_:-- + + "Green be the turf above thee, + Friend of my better days! + None knew thee but to love thee, + Nor named thee but to praise." + +This poem is simpler, less rhetorical, and the vehicle of more genuine +feeling than _Marco Bozzaris_. + +The work of Drake and Halleck shows an advance in technique and imaginative +power. Their verse, unlike the satires of Freneau and Trumbull, does not +use the maiming cudgel, nor is it ponderous like Barlow's _Columbiad_ or +Dwight's _Conquest of Canaan_. + + +WASHINGTON IRVING, 1783-1859 + +[Illustration: WASHINGTON IRVING] + +LIFE.--Irving was born in New York City in 1783, the year in which Benjamin +Franklin signed at Paris the treaty of peace with England after the +Revolutionary War. Irving's father, a Scotchman from the Orkney Islands, +was descended from De Irwyn, armor bearer to Robert Bruce. Irving's mother +was born in England, and the English have thought sufficiently well of her +son to claim that he belonged to England as much as to America. In fact, he +sometimes seemed to them to be more English than American, especially after +he had written something unusually good. + +When Irving was a boy, the greater part of what is now New York City was +picturesque country. He mingled with the descendants of the Dutch, passed +daily by their old-style houses, and had excellent opportunities for +hearing the traditions and learning the peculiarities of Manhattan's early +settlers, whom he was afterwards to immortalize in American literature. On +his way to school he looked at the stocks and the whipping post, which had +a salaried official to attend to the duties connected with it. He could +have noticed two prisons, one for criminals and the other for debtors. He +could scarcely have failed to see the gallows, in frequent use for offenses +for which the law to-day prescribes only a short term of imprisonment. +Notwithstanding the twenty-two churches, the pious complained that the town +was so godless as to allow the theaters to be open on Saturday night. + +Instead of going to bed after the family prayers, Irving sometimes climbed +through a window, gained the alley, and went to the theater. In school he +devoured as many travels and tales as possible, and he acquired much early +skill in writing compositions for boys in return for their assistance in +solving his arithmetical problems--a task that he detested. + +At the age of fifteen he was allowed to take his gun and explore the Sleepy +Hollow region, which became the scene of one of his world-famous stories. +When he was seventeen, he sailed slowly up the Hudson River on his own +voyage of discovery. Hendrick Hudson's exploration of this river gave it +temporarily to the Dutch; but Irving annexed it for all time to the realm +of the romantic imagination. The singers and weavers of legends were more +than a thousand years in giving to the Rhine its high position in that +realm; but Irving in a little more than a decade made the Hudson almost its +peer. + +[Illustration: IRVING AT THE AGE OF TWENTY TWO] + +In such unique environment, Irving passed his boyhood. Unlike his brothers, +he did not go to Columbia College, but like Charles Brockden Brown studied +law, and like him never seriously practiced the profession. Under the pen +name of "Jonathan Oldstyle," he was writing, at the age of nineteen, +newspaper letters, modeled closely after Addison's _Spectator_. Ill health +drove Irving at twenty-one to take a European trip, which lasted two years. +His next appearance in literature after his return was in connection with +his brother, William Irving, and James K. Paulding. The three started a +semi-monthly periodical called _Salmagundi_, fashioned after Addison's +_Spectator_ and Goldsmith's _Citizen of the World_. The first number was +published January 24, 1807, and the twentieth and last, January 25, 1808. +"In Irving's contributions to it," says his biographer, "may be traced the +germs of nearly everything he did afterwards." + +The year 1809 was the most important in Irving's young life. In that year +Matilda Hoffman, to whom he was engaged, died in her eighteenth year. +Although he outlived her fifty years, he remained a bachelor, and he +carried her _Bible_ with him wherever he traveled in Europe or America. In +the same year he finished one of his masterpieces, Diedrich Knickerbocker's +_History of New York_. Even at this time he had not decided to follow +literature as a profession. + +In 1815 he went to England to visit his brother, who was in business there. +It was not, however, until the failure of his brother's firm in 1818 that +Irving determined to make literature his life work. While in London he +wrote the _Sketch Book_ (1819), which added to his fame on both sides of +the Atlantic. This visit abroad lasted seventeen years. Before he returned, +in 1832, he had finished the greater part of the literary work of his life. +Besides the _Sketch Book_, he had written _Bracebridge Hall_, _Tales of a +Traveller_, _Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus_, _The Conquest of +Granada_, _The Companions of Columbus_, and _The Alhambra_. He had been +secretary of the American legation at Madrid and at London. He had actually +lived in the Alhambra. + +Soon after his return, he purchased a home at Tarrytown (now Irvington) in +the Sleepy Hollow district on the Hudson. He named his new home +"Sunnyside." With the exception of four years (1842-1846), when he served +as minister to Spain, Irving lived here, engaged in literary work, for the +remainder of his life. When he died in 1859, he was buried in the Sleepy +Hollow cemetery, near his home. + +Long before his death he was known on both sides of the Atlantic as +America's greatest author. Englishmen who visited this country expressed a +desire to see its two wonders, Niagara Falls and Irving. His English +publishers alone paid him over $60,000 for copyright sales of his books in +England. Before he died, he had earned more than $200,000 with his pen. + +Irving's personality won him friends wherever he went. He was genial and +kindly, and his biographer adds that it was never Irving's habit to stroke +the world the wrong way. One of his maxims was, "When I cannot get a dinner +to suit my taste, I endeavor to get a taste to suit my dinner." + +[Illustration: SUNNYSIDE, IRVING'S HOME AT TARRYTOWN] + +KNICKERBOCKER'S HISTORY OF NEW YORK.--The New York _Evening Post_ for +December 28, 1809, said: "This work was found in the chamber of Mr. +Diedrich Knickerbocker, the old gentleman whose sudden and mysterious +disappearance has been noticed. It is published in order to discharge +certain debts he has left behind." This disguise, however, was too thin to +deceive the public, and the work was soon popularly called Irving's +_Knickerbocker's History of New York_. + +Two hundred years before its publication, Hendrick Hudson, an explorer in +the service of Holland, had sailed into New York Bay and discovered +Manhattan Island and the Hudson River for the Dutch. They founded the city +of New Amsterdam and held it until the English captured it in 1664. Irving +wrote the history of this settlement during the Dutch occupation. He was +led to choose this subject, because, as he tells us, few of his fellow +citizens were aware that New York had ever been called New Amsterdam, and +because the subject, "poetic from its very obscurity," was especially +available for an American author, since it gave him a chance to adorn it +with legend and fable. He states that his object was "to embody the +traditions of our city in an amusing form" and to invest it "with those +imaginative and whimsical associations so seldom met with in our country, +but which live like charms and spells about the cities of the old world." + +[Illustration: THE OFFICIAL WEIGHT] + +[Illustration: A ONE-PIPE JOURNEY] + +Irving achieved his object and produced an entertaining compound of +historical fact, romantic sentiment, exaggeration, and humor. He shows us +the contemplative Dutchmen on their first voyage in the _Half Moon_, +sailing into New York Bay, prohibited by Hudson "from wearing more than +five jackets and six pair of breeches." We see the scrupulously "honest" +Dutch traders buying furs from the Indians, using an invariable scale of +avoirdupois weights, a Dutchman's hand in the scale opposite the furs +weighing one pound, his foot two pounds. We watch the puzzled Indians +trying to account for the fact that the largest bundle of furs never +weighed more than two pounds. We attend a council of burghers at +Communipaw, called to devise means to protect their town from an English +expedition. While they are thoughtfully smoking, the English sail by +without seeing the smoke-enveloped town. Irving shows us the Dutchmen +estimating their distances and time by the period consumed in smoking a +pipe,--Hartford, Connecticut, being two hundred pipes distant. He allows us +to watch a housewife emptying her pocket in her search for a wooden ladle +and filling two corn baskets with the contents. He takes us to a tea party +attended by "the higher classes or noblesse, that is to say such as kept +their own cows and drove their own wagons," where we can see the damsels +knitting their own woolen stockings and the vrouws serving big apple pies, +bushels of doughnuts, and pouring tea out of a fat Delft teapot. He draws +this picture of Wouter Van Twiller, Governor of New Amsterdam:-- + + "The person of this illustrious old gentleman was formed and proportioned + as though it had been moulded by the hands of some cunning Dutch + statuary, as a model of majesty and lordly grandeur. He was exactly five + feet six inches in height, and six feet five inches in circumference. His + head was a perfect sphere.... + + "His habits were as regular as his person. He daily took his four stated + meals, appropriating exactly an hour to each; he smoked and doubted eight + hours, and he slept the remaining twelve of the four-and-twenty." + +[Illustration: WOUTER VAN TWILLER] + +THE SKETCH BOOK GROUP.--The only one of his productions to which Irving +gave the name of _The Sketch Book_ was finished in 1820, the year in which +Scott's _Ivanhoe_, Keats's _Eve of St. Agnes_, and Shelley's _Prometheus +Unbound_ appeared. Of the same general order as _The Sketch Book_ are +Irving's _Bracebridge Hall_ (1822) and _Tales of a Traveller_ (1824). These +volumes all contain short stories, essays, or sketches, many of which are +suggestive of Addison's _Spectator_. _The Sketch Book_ is the most famous +of Irving's works of this class. While it contains some excellent essays or +descriptions, such as those entitled _Westminster Abbey_ and +_Stratford-on-Avon_, the book lives to-day because of two short stories, +_Rip Van Winkle_ and _The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_. These were not equaled +by Addison, and they have not been surpassed by any English writers of the +nineteenth century. Both stories take their rise from the "Knickerbocker +Legend," and they are thoroughly American in coloring and flavor, even if +they did happen to be written in England. No story in our literature is +better known than that of Rip Van Winkle watching Hendrick Hudson and his +ghostly crew playing ninepins in the Catskill Mountains and quaffing the +magic liquor which caused him to sleep for twenty years. + +[Illustration: ICHABOD CRANE] + +For nearly one hundred years Ichabod Crane's courtship of Katrina Van +Tassel, in _The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_, has continued to amuse its +readers. The Indian summer haze is still resting on Sleepy Hollow, our +American Utopia, where we can hear the quail whistling, see the brook +bubbling along among alders and dwarf willows, over which amber clouds +float forever in the sky; where the fragrant buckwheat fields breathe the +odor of the beehive; where the slapjacks are "well buttered and garnished +with honey or treacle, by the delicate little dimpled hand of Katrina Van +Tassel," where a greeting awaits us from the sucking pigs already roasted +and stuffed with pudding; where the very tea tables of the Dutch housewives +welcome us with loads of crisp crumbling crullers, honey cakes, and "the +whole family of cakes," surrounded by pies, preserves, roast chicken, bowls +of cream, all invested with a halo from the spout of the motherly Dutch +teapot. + +_The Alhambra_, a book of tales of the old Moorish palace in Granada, +Spain, has been aptly termed "The Spanish Sketch Book." This has preserved +the romance of departed Moorish glory almost as effectively as the +Knickerbocker sketches and stories have invested the early Dutch settlers +of New York with something like Homeric immortality. A traveler in Spain +writes of _The Alhambra_: "Not Ford, nor Murray, nor Hare has been able to +replace it. The tourist reads it within the walls it commemorates as +conscientiously as the devout read Ruskin in Florence." [Footnote: +Introduction to Pennell's illustrated edition of _The Alhambra_.] + +In his three works, _The Sketch Book_, _The Tales of a Traveller_, and _The +Alhambra_, Irving proved himself the first American master of the short +tale or sketch, yet he is not the father of the modern short story, which +aims to avoid every sentence unless it directly advances the narrative or +heightens the desired impression. His description and presentation of +incident do not usually tend to one definite goal, after the fashion +theoretically prescribed by the art of the modern short story. The author +of a modern short tale would need to feel the dire necessity of recording +the sage observation of a Dutch housewife, that "ducks and geese are +foolish things, and must be looked after, but girls can take care of +themselves." Irving, however, in _The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_, has +sufficient leisure to make this observation and to stop to listen to "the +pensive whistle of the quail," or to admire "great fields of Indian corn, +with its golden ears peeping from their leafy coverts, and holding out the +promise of cakes and hasty puddings." + +Some have even proposed that his stories be called "narrative-essays," but +they show a step beyond Addison in the evolution of the short story because +they contain less essay and more story. It is true that Irving writes three +pages of essay before beginning the real story in _The Legend of Sleepy +Hollow_, but the most of this preliminary matter is very interesting +description. The quiet valley with its small brook, the tapping woodpecker, +the drowsy shade of the trees, the spots haunted by the headless +Hessian,--all fascinate us and provide an atmosphere which the modern +short-story teller too seldom secures. The novice in modern short-story +writing should know at the outset that it takes more genius to succeed with +a story like _The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_ than with a tale where the +writer relies on the more strait-laced narration of events to arouse +interest. + +HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.--Of _The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus_ +(1828), Irving said "it cost me more toil and trouble than all my other +productions." While the method of scientific historical study has +completely changed since his time, no dry-as-dust historian has yet equaled +Irving in presenting the human side of Columbus, his ideals, his dreams, +and his mastery of wind and wave and human nature in the greatest voyage of +the ages. Others have written of him as a man who once lived but who died +so very long ago that he now has no more life than the portraits of those +old masters who made all their figures look like paralytics. Irving did not +write this work as if he were imagining a romance. He searched for his +facts in all the musty records which he could find in Spain, but he then +remembered that they dealt with a living, enthusiastic human being, +sometimes weak, and sometimes invested with more than the strength of all +the generations that had died without discovering the New World. It was +this work which, more than any other, brought Irving the degree of D.C.L. +from Oxford University. And yet, when he appeared to take his degree, the +undergraduates of Oxford voiced the judgment of posterity by welcoming him +with shouts of "Diedrich Knickerbocker!" "Ichabod Crane!" "Rip Van Winkle!" + +_The Conquest of Granada_ (1829) is a thrilling narrative of the +subjugation by Ferdinand and Isabella of the last kingdom of the Moors in +Spain. In this account, royal leaders, chivalrous knights, single-handed +conflicts, and romantic assaults make warfare seem like a carnival instead +of a tragedy. + +The life of _Oliver Goldsmith_ (1849) ranks among the best biographies yet +written by an American, not because of its originality, but for its +exquisitely sympathetic portraiture of an English author with whom Irving +felt close kinship. + +His longest work, the _Life of George Washington_ (1855-1859), lacks the +imaginative enthusiasm of youth, but it does justice to "the magnificent +patience, the courage to bear misconstruction, the unfailing patriotism, +the practical sagacity, the level balance of judgment combined with the +wisest toleration, the dignity of mind, and the lofty moral nature," which +made George Washington the one man capable of leading a forlorn army in the +Revolution, of presiding over the destinies of the young Republic, and of +taking a sure place among the few great heroes of all time. This work is +also an almost complete history of the Revolutionary War. It is unfortunate +that the great length of this _Life_ (eight volumes) has resulted in such a +narrowing of its circle of readers. + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--Washington Irving is the earliest American whose +most popular works are read for pure pleasure and not for some historical +or educational significance. His most striking qualities are humor and +restrained sentiment. The work by which he will be longest known is his +creation of the "Knickerbocker Legend" in the _History of New York_ and his +two most famous short stories, _Rip Van Winkle_ and _The Legend of Sleepy +Hollow_. Although he is not the father of the modern short story, which +travels like an airship by the shortest line to its destination, he is yet +one of the great nineteenth-century story tellers. Some of his essays or +papers, like _Westminster Abbey_, _Stratford-on-Avon_, and _Christmas_ do +not suffer by comparison with Addison's writings. + +Much of Irving's historical work and many of his essays do not show great +depth or striking originality. He did some hack writing, dealing with our +great West, but the work by which he is best known is so original that no +other American writers can for a moment compare with him in his special +field. He gave us our own Homeric age and peopled it with Knickerbockers, +who are as entertaining as Achilles, Priam, or Circe. + +[Illustration: IRVING'S GRAVE IN THE SLEEPY HOLLOW CEMETERY] + +His best work is a product of the romantic imagination, but his romanticism +is of a finer type than that of Charles Brockden Brown and the English +Gothic school (p. 88), for Irving's fondness for Addison and Goldsmith, in +conjunction with his own keen sense of humor, taught him restraint, +balance, and the adaptation of means to ends. + +Irving has an unusual power of investing his subjects with the proper +atmosphere. In this he resembles the greatest landscape painters. If he +writes of early settlers of New York, we are in a Dutch atmosphere. If he +tells the legends of the Alhambra, the atmosphere is Moorish. If he takes +us to the Hudson or the Catskills or Sleepy Hollow or Granada, he adds to +our artistic enjoyment by enveloping everything in its own peculiar +atmosphere. + +His clear, simple, smooth prose conceals its artistic finish so well and +serves as the vehicle for so much humor, that readers often pass a long +time in his company without experiencing fatigue. His style has been +criticized for lack of vigor and for resemblance to Goldsmith's. Irving's +style, however, is his own, and it is the style natural to a man of his +placid, artistic temperament. + +America takes special pride in Washington Irving, because he was the first +author to invest her brief history with the enduring fascination of +romance. We shall the better appreciate our debt to him, if we imagine that +some wizard has the power to subtract from our literature the inimitable +Knickerbocker, Rip Van Winkle, Sleepy Hollow, and our national romantic +river, the storied Hudson. + + +JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, 1789-1851 + +[Illustration: JAMES FENIMORE COOPER] + +YOUTH.--Cooper's place in American literature is chiefly based on his +romantic stories of the pioneer and the Indian. We have seen how Captain +John Smith won the ear of the world by his early story of Indian adventure, +how Charles Brockden Brown in _Edgar Huntly_ deliberately selected the +Indian and the life of the wilderness as good material for an American +writer of romance. Cooper chose these very materials and used them with a +success attained by no other writer. Let us see how his early life fitted +him to write of the Indian, the pioneer, the forest, and the sea. + +He was born in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1789, the year made memorable by +the French Revolution. While he was still an infant, the Cooper family +moved to the southeastern shore of Otsego Lake and founded the village of +Cooperstown, at the point where the Susquehanna River furnishes an outlet +for the lake. In this romantic place he passed the most impressionable part +of his boyhood. + +At the close of the eighteenth century, Cooperstown was one of the outposts +of civilization. Few clearings had been made in the vast mysterious +forests, which appealed so deeply to the boy's imagination, and which still +sheltered deer, bear, and Indians. The most vivid local story which his +young ears heard was the account of the Cherry Valley massacre, which had +taken place a few miles from Cooperstown only eleven years before he was +born. Cooper himself felt the fascination of the trackless forests before +he communicated it to his readers. + +He entered Yale in 1802, but he did not succeed in eradicating his love of +outdoor life and of the unfettered habits of the pioneer, and did not +remain to graduate. The faculty dismissed him in his junior year. It was +unfortunate that he did not study more and submit to the restraints and +discipline of regular college life; for his prose often shows in its +carelessness of construction and lack of restraint his need for that formal +discipline which was for the moment so grievous to him. + +After Cooper had left college, his father decided to have him prepare for +the navy. As there was no naval academy, he adopted the usual course of +having the boy serve a year on a merchant vessel. After this +apprenticeship, Cooper entered the navy as a midshipman. From such +experiences he gained sufficient knowledge of the ocean and ships to enable +him to become the author of some of our best tales of the sea. He resigned +from the navy, however, in 1811, when he married. + +BECOMES AN AUTHOR.--Cooper had reached the age of thirty without even +attempting to write a book. In 1820 he remarked one day to his wife that he +thought he could write a better novel than the one which he was then +reading to her. She immediately challenged him to try, and he promptly +wrote the novel called _Precaution_. He chose to have this deal with +English life because the critics of his time considered American subjects +commonplace and uninteresting. As he knew nothing of English life at first +hand, he naturally could not make the pages of _Precaution_ vivid with +touches of local color. + +This book was soon forgotten, and Cooper might never have written another, +had not some sensible friends insisted that it was his patriotic duty to +make American subjects fashionable. A friend related to him the story of a +spy of Westchester County, New York, who during the Revolution served the +American cause with rare fidelity and sagacity. Cooper was then living in +this very county, and, being attracted by the subject, he soon completed +the first volume of _The Spy_, which was at once printed. As he still +doubted, however, whether his countrymen would read "a book that treated of +their own familiar interests," he delayed writing the second volume for +several months. When he did start to write it, his publisher feared that it +might be too long to pay, so before Cooper had thought out the intervening +chapters, he wrote the last chapter and had it printed and paged to satisfy +the publisher. When _The Spy_ was published in 1821, it immediately sold +well in America, although such was the bondage to English standards of +criticism that many who read the book hesitated to express an opinion until +they had heard the verdict from England. When the English received the +book, however, they fairly devoured it, and it became one of the most +widely read tales of the early nineteenth century. Harvey Birch, the hero +of the story, is one of the great characters of our early fiction. + +[Illustration: OTSEGO HALL, COOPERSTOWN] + +Cooper now adopted writing as a profession. In less than thirty years, he +wrote more than thirty romances, in most cases of two volumes each. When he +went to Europe in 1826, the year of the publication of _The Last of the +Mohicans_, he found that his work was as well known abroad as at home. Sir +Walter Scott, who met Cooper in Paris, mentions in his diary for November +6, 1826, a reception by a French princess, and adds the note, "Cooper was +there, so the American and Scotch lions took the field together." + +LATER YEARS.--After Cooper's return from Europe in 1833, he spent the most +of the remaining seventeen years of his life in writing books at his early +home, known as Otsego Hall, in Cooperstown. Here in the summer of 1837 +there occurred an unfortunate incident which embittered the rest of his +life and for a while made him the most unpopular of American authors. Some +of his townspeople cut down one of his valuable trees and otherwise misused +the picnic grounds on a part of his estate fronting the lake. When he +remonstrated, the public denounced him and ordered his books removed from +the local library. He then forbade the further use of his grounds by the +public. Many of the newspapers throughout the state misrepresented his +action, and he foolishly sued them for libel. From that time the press +persecuted him. He sued the Albany _Evening Journal_, edited by Thurlow +Weed, and received four hundred dollars damage. Weed thereupon wrote in the +New York _Tribune_:-- + + "The value of Mr. Cooper's character has been judicially determined. It + is worth exactly four hundred dollars." + +Cooper promptly sued _The Tribune_, and was awarded two hundred dollars. In +the heat of this controversy Thurlow Weed incautiously opened Cooper's _The +Pathfinder_, which had just appeared, and sat up all night to finish the +book. During the progress of these suits, Cooper unfortunately wrote a +novel, _Home as Found_, satirizing, from a somewhat European point of view, +the faults of his countrymen. A friend, trying to dissuade him from +publishing such matter, wrote, "You lose hold on the American public by +rubbing down their shins with brickbats, as you do." Cooper, however, +published the book in 1838, and then there was a general rush to attack +him. A critic of his _History of the Navy of the United States of America_ +(1839), a work which is still an authority for the time of which it treats, +abused the book and made reflections on Cooper's veracity. The author +brought suit for libel, and won his case in a famous trial in which he was +his own lawyer. These unfortunate incidents, which would have been avoided +by a man like Benjamin Franklin, diminished the circulation of Cooper's +books in America during the rest of his life. + +[Illustration: STATUE OF LEATHERSTOCKING OVERLOOKING OTSEGO LAKE] + +Even on his deathbed he thought of the unjust criticism from which he had +suffered, and asked his family not to aid in the preparation of any account +of his life. He died in 1851 at the age of sixty-two, and was buried at +Cooperstown. Lounsbury thus concludes an excellent biography of this great +writer of romance:-- + + "America has had among her representatives of the irritable race of + writers many who have shown far more ability to get on pleasantly with + their fellows than Cooper.... But she counts on the scanty roll of her + men of letters the name of no one who acted from purer patriotism or + loftier principle. She finds among them all no manlier nature and no more + heroic soul." + +GREATEST ROMANCES.--Cooper's greatest achievement is the series known as +_The Leatherstocking Tales_. These all have as their hero Leatherstocking, +a pioneer variously known as Hawkeye, _La Longue Carabine_ (The Long +Rifle), and Natty Bumppo. A statue of this great original creation of +American fiction now overlooks Otsego Lake. Leatherstocking embodies the +fearlessness, the energy, the rugged honesty, of the worthiest of our +pioneers, of those men who opened up our vast inland country and gave it to +us to enjoy. Ulysses is no more typically Grecian than Leatherstocking is +American. + +_The Leatherstocking Tales_ are five in number. The order in which they +should be read to follow the hero from youth to old age is as follows:-- + +[Footnote: The figures in parenthesis refer to the date of publication.] + +_The Deerslayer; or The First War Path_ (1841). + +_The Last of the Mohicans; a Narrative of 1757_ (1826). + +_The Pathfinder; or the Inland Sea_ (1840). + +_The Pioneers; or the Sources of the Susquehanna_ (1823). + +_The Prairie; a Tale_ (1827) + +[Illustration: LEATHERSTOCKING] + +This sequence may be easily remembered from the fact that the first chief +words in the titles, "Deerslayer," "Mohicans," "Pathfinder," "Pioneers," +and "Prairie," are arranged in alphabetical order. These books are the +prose _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ of the eighteenth-century American pioneer. +Instead of relating the fall of Ilium, Cooper tells of the conquest of the +wilderness. The wanderings or Leatherstocking in the forest and the +wilderness are substituted for those of Ulysses on the sea. This story +could not have been related with much of the vividness of an eye-witness of +the events, if it had been postponed beyond Cooper's day. Before that time +had forever passed, he fixed in living romance one remarkable phase of our +country's development. The persons of this romantic drama were the Pioneer +and the Indian; the stage was the trackless forest and the unbroken +wilderness. + +[Illustration: COOPER AT THE AGE OF FORTY FIVE] + +_The Last of the Mohicans_ has been the favorite of the greatest number of +readers. In this story Chingachgook, the Indian, and Uncas, his son, share +with Hawkeye our warmest admiration. The American boy longs to enter the +fray to aid Uncas. Cooper knew that the Indian had good traits, and he +embodied them in these two red men. Scott took the same liberty of +presenting the finer aspects of chivalry and neglecting its darker side. +Cooper, however, does show an Indian fiend in Magua. + +Cooper's work in this series brings us face to face with the activities of +nature and man in God's great out of doors. Cooper makes us realize that +the life of the pioneer was not without its elemental spirit of poetry. We +may feel something of this spirit in the reply of Leatherstocking to the +trembling Cora, when she asked him at midnight what caused a certain +fearful sound:-- + + "'Lady,' returned the scout, solemnly, 'I have listened to all the sounds + of the woods for thirty years, as a man will listen, whose life and death + depend so often on the quickness of his ears. There is no whine of the + panther, no whistle of the catbird, nor any invention of the devilish + Mingos, that can cheat me. I have heard the forest moan like mortal men + in their affliction; often and again have I listened to the wind playing + its music in the branches of the girdled trees; and I have heard the + lightning cracking in the air, like the snapping of blazing brush, as it + spitted forth sparks and forked flames; but never have I thought that I + heard more than the pleasure of him, who sported with the things of his + hand. But neither the Mohicans, nor I, who am a white man without a + cross, can explain the cry just heard.'" + +In addition to the five _Leatherstocking Tales_, three other romances show +special power. They are:-- + +_The Spy; a Tale of the Neutral Ground_ (1821). + +_The Pilot; a Tale of the Sea_ (1824). + +_The Red Rover; a Tale_ (1828). + +The last two show Cooper's mastery in telling stories of the sea. Tom +Coffin, in _The Pilot_, is a fine creation. + +Some of the more than thirty works of fiction that Cooper wrote are almost +unreadable, and some appeal more to special students than to general +readers. _Satanstoe_ (1845), for instance, gives vivid pictures of +mid-eighteenth century colonial life in New York. + +The English critic's query, "Who reads an American book?" could have +received the answer in 1820, "The English public is reading Irving." In +1833, Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph, had another answer +ready--"Europe is reading Cooper." He said that as soon as Cooper's works +were finished they were published in thirty-four different places in +Europe. American literature was commanding attention for its original work. + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--Cooper's best romances are masterpieces of action +and adventure in the forest and on the sea. No other writer has so well +told the story of the pioneer. He is not a successful novelist of the +drawing-room. His women are mediocre and conventional, of the type +described in the old Sunday school books. But when he leaves the haunts of +men and enters the forest, power comes naturally to his pen. His greatest +stage of action is the forest. He loved wild nature and the sea. + +He often availed himself of the Gothic license of improbability, his +characters being frequently rescued from well-nigh impossible situations. +His plots were not carefully planned in advance; they often seem to have +been suggested by an inspiration of the moment. He wrote so rapidly that he +was careless about the construction of his sentences, which are sometimes +not even grammatical. + +It is easy, however, to exaggerate Cooper's faults, which do not, after +all, seriously interfere with the enjoyment of his works. A teacher, who +was asked to edit critically _The Last of the Mohicans_, said that the +first time he read it, the narrative carried him forward with such a rush, +and bound him with such a spell, that he did not notice a single blemish in +plot or style. A boy reading the same book obeyed the order to retire at +eleven, but having reached the point where Uncas was taken prisoner by the +Hurons, found the suspense too great, and quietly got the book and read the +next four chapters in bed. Cooper has in a pre-eminent degree the first +absolutely necessary qualification of the writer of fiction--the power to +hold the interest. In some respects he resembles Scott, but although the +"Wizard of the North" has a far wider range of excellence, Leatherstocking +surpasses any single one of Scott's creations and remains a great original +character added to the literature of the world. These romances have strong +ethical influence over the young. They are as pure as mountain air, and +they teach a love for manly, noble, and brave deeds. "He fought for a +principle," says Cooper's biographer, "as desperately as other men fight +for life." + + +WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, 1794-1878 + +[Illustration: WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT] + +LIFE.-The early environment of each of the three great members of the New +York group determined to an unusual degree the special literary work for +which each became famous. Had Irving not been steeped in the legends of the +early Dutch settlers of Manhattan, hunted squirrels in Sleepy Hollow, and +voyaged up the Hudson past the Catskills, he would have had small chance of +becoming famous as the author of the "Knickerbocker Legend." Had Cooper not +spent his boyhood on the frontier, living in close touch with the forest +and the pioneer, we should probably not have had _The Leatherstocking +Tales_. Had it not been for Bryant's early Puritan training and his +association with a peculiar type of nature, he might have ended his days as +a lawyer. + +Bryant was born in Cummington, among the hills of western Massachusetts. In +her diary, his mother thus records his birth:-- + + "Nov. 3, 1794. Stormy, wind N. E. Churned. Seven in the evening a son + born." + +His poetry will be better understood, if we emphasize two main facts in his +early development. In the first place, he was descended from John and +Priscilla Alden of Mayflower stock and reared in strict Puritan fashion. +Bryant's religious training determined the general attitude of all his +poetry toward nature. His parents expected their children to know the +_Bible_ in a way that can scarcely be comprehended in the twentieth +century. Before completing his fourth year, his older brother "had read the +_Scriptures_ through from beginning to end." At the age of nine, the future +poet turned the first chapter of _Job_ into classical couplets, +beginning:-- + + "Job, good and just, in Uz had sojourned long, + He feared his God and shunned the way of wrong. + Three were his daughters and his sons were seven, + And large the wealth bestowed on him by heaven." + +Another striking fact is that the prayers which he heard from the Puritan +clergy and from his father and grandfather in family worship gave him a +turn toward noble poetic expression. He said that these prayers were often +"poems from beginning to end," and he cited such expressions from them as, +"Let not our feet stumble on the dark mountains of eternal death." From the +Puritan point of view, the boy made in his own prayers one daring variation +from the petitions based on scriptural sanction. He prayed that he "might +receive the gift of poetic genius, and write verses that might endure." His +early religious training was responsible for investing his poetry with the +dignity, gravity, and simplicity of the Hebraic _Scriptures_. + +[Illustration: BRYANT AS A YOUNG MAN] + +In the second place, he passed his youth in the fine scenery of western +Massachusetts, which is in considerable measure the counterpart of the Lake +Country which bred Wordsworth. The glory of this region reappears in his +verse; the rock-ribbed hills, the vales stretching in pensive quietness +between them, the venerable woods of ash, beech, birch, hemlock, and maple, +the complaining brooks that make the valleys green, the rare May days:-- + + "When beechen buds begin to swell, + And woods the blue bird's warble know." + +[Footnote: Bryant: _The Yellow Violet_.] + +His association with such scenes determined the subject matter of his +poetry, and his Puritan training prescribed the form of treatment. + +He had few educational advantages,--a little district schooling, some +private tutoring by a clergyman, seven month's stay in Williams College, +which at the time of his entrance in 1810 had a teaching staff of one +professor and two tutors, besides the president. Bryant left Williams, +intending to enter Yale; but his father, a poor country physician who had +to ride vast distances for small fees, was unable to give him any further +college training. + +Bryant, at about the age of eighteen, soon after leaving Williams, wrote +_Thanatopsis_,--with the exception of the opening and the closing parts. He +had already written at the age of thirteen a satiric poem, _The Embargo_, +which had secured wide circulation in New England. Keenly disappointed at +not being able to continue his college education, he regretfully began the +study of law in order to earn his living as soon as possible. He celebrated +his admission to the bar by writing one of his greatest short poems, _To a +Waterfowl_ (1815). When he was a lawyer practicing in Great Barrington, +Massachusetts, he met Miss Fanny Fairchild, to whom he addressed the +poem,-- + + "O fairest of the rural maids!" + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF RECORD OF BRYANT'S MARRIAGE] + +Religious in all things, he prepared this betrothal prayer, which they +repeated together before they were married in the following year-- + + "May Almighty God mercifully take care of our happiness here and + hereafter. May we ever continue constant to each other, and mindful of + our mutual promises of attachment and truth. In due time, if it be the + will of Providence, may we become more nearly connected with each other, + and together may we lead a long, happy, and innocent life, without any + diminution of affection till we die." + +In 1821, the year in which Cooper published _The Spy_ and Shelley wrote his +_Adonais_ lamenting the death of Keats, Bryant issued the first volume of +his verse, which contained eight poems, _Thanatopsis_, _The Inscription for +Entrance to a Wood_, _To a Waterfowl_, _The Ages_, _The Fragment from +Simonides_, _The Yellow Violet_, _The Song_, and _Green River_. This was an +epoch-making volume for American poetry. Freneau's best lyrics were so few +that they had attracted little attention, but Bryant's 1821 volume of verse +furnished a new standard of excellence, below which poets who aspired to +the first rank could not fall. During the five years after its publication, +the sales of this volume netted him a profit of only $14.92, but a Boston +editor soon offered him two hundred dollars a year for an average of one +hundred lines of verse a month. Bryant accepted the offer, and wrote poetry +in connection with the practice of law. + +Unlike Irving and Charles Brockden Brown, Bryant attended to his legal work +doggedly and conscientiously for nine years, but he never liked the law, +and he longed to be a professional author. In 1825 he abandoned the law and +went to New York City. Here he managed to secure a livelihood for awhile on +the editorial force of short-lived periodicals. In 1827, however, he became +assistant editor, and in 1829 editor-in-chief, of _The New York Evening +Post_--a position which he held for nearly fifty years, until his death. + +The rest of his life is more political and journalistic than literary. He +made _The Evening Post_ a power in the development of the nation, but his +work as editor interfered with his poetry, although he occasionally wrote +verse to the end of his life. + +In middle life he began a series of trips abroad, and wrote many letters +describing his travels. To occupy his attention after his wife died in +1866, he translated Homer's _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, at the nearly uniform +rate of forty lines a day. This work still remains one of the standard +poetic translations of Homer. + +[Illustration: BRYANT'S HOME, ROSLYN, L.I.] + +As the years passed, he became New York's representative citizen, noted for +high ideals in journalism and for incorruptible integrity, as well as for +the excellence of his poetry. He died in 1878, at the age of eighty four, +and was buried at Roslyn, Long Island, beside his wife. + +POETRY.--_Thanatopsis_, probably written in 1811, was first published in +1817 in _The North American Review_, a Boston periodical. One of the +editors said to an associate, "You have been imposed upon. No one on this +side of the Atlantic is capable of writing such verses." The associate +insisted that Dr. Bryant, the author, had left them at the office, and that +the Doctor was at that moment sitting in the State Senate, representing his +county. The editor at once dashed away to the State House, took a long look +at the Doctor, and reported, "It is a good head, but I do not see +_Thanatopsis_ in it." When the father was aware of the misunderstanding, he +corrected it, but there were for a long time doubts whether a boy could +have written a poem of this rank. In middle age the poet wrote the +following to answer a question in regard to the time of the composition of +_Thanatopsis_:-- + + "It was written when I was seventeen or eighteen years old--I have not + now at hand the memorandums which would enable me to be precise--and I + believe it was composed in my solitary rambles in the woods. As it was + first committed to paper, it began with the half line--'Yet a few days, + and thee'--and ended with the beginning of another line with the + words--'And make their bed with thee.' The rest of the poem--the + introduction and the close--was added some years afterward, in 1821." + +_Thanatopsis_ remains to-day Bryant's most famous production. It is a +stately poem upon death, and seems to come directly from the lips of +Nature:-- + + "... from all around-- + Earth and her waters and the depth of air-- + Comes a still voice.-- + Yet a few days, and thee + The all-beholding sun shall see no more ..." + +No other poem presents "all-including death" on a scale of such vastness. +The majestic solemnity of the poem and the fine quality of its blank verse +may be felt in this selection:-- + + "... The hills + Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,--the vales + Stretching in pensive quietness between; + The venerable woods--rivers that move + In majesty, and the complaining brooks + That make the meadows green; and, poured round all, + Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste,-- + Are but the solemn decorations all + Of the great tomb of man." + +_Thanatopsis_ shows the old Puritan tendency to brood on death, but the +_Inscription for Entrance to a Wood_, written in 1815 and published in the +same number of _The North American Review_ as his first great poem, takes +us where + + "... the thick roof + Of green and stirring branches is alive + And musical with birds." + +The gladness of the soft winds, the blue sky, the rivulet, the mossy rocks, +the cleft-born wild-flower, the squirrels, and the insects,--all focus our +attention on the "deep content" to be found in "the haunts of Nature," and +suggest Wordsworth's philosophy of the conscious enjoyment of the flower, +the grass, the mountains, the bird, and the stream, voicing their "thousand +blended notes." + +We may say of Bryant what was true of Cooper, that when he enters a forest, +power seems to come unbidden to his pen. Bryant's _Forest Hymn_ (1825) +finds God in those green temples:-- + + "Thou art in the soft winds + That run along the summit of these trees + In music." + +He points out the divinity that shapes our ends in:-- + + "That delicate forest flower, + With scented breath and look so like a smile." + +No Puritan up to this time had represented God in a guise more pleasing +than the smile of a forest flower. This entire _Hymn_ seems like a great +prayer rooted deep in those earlier prayers to which the boy used to +listen. + +Although Bryant lived to be eighty-four, he wrote less poetry than Keats, +who died at the age of twenty-five, and about one third as much as Shelley, +who was scarcely thirty when he was drowned. It is not length of days that +makes a poet. Had Bryant died in his thirtieth year, his excellence and +limitations would be fairly well shown in his work finished at that time. +At this age, in addition to the five poems in his 1821 volume (p. 139), he +had written _The Winter Piece_, _A Forest Hymn_, and _The Death of the +Flowers_. These and a number of other poems, written before he had finished +his thirtieth year, would have entitled him to approximately the same rank +that he now holds in the history of American poetry. It is true that if he +had then passed away, we should have missed his exquisite call to _The +Evening Wind_ (1829), and some of his other fine productions, such as _To +the Fringed Gentian_ (1829), _The Prairies_ (1832), _The Battle-Field_ +(1837), with its lines which are a keynote to Bryant's thought and +action:-- + + "Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again, + Th' eternal years of God are hers." + +We are thankful for the ideals voiced in _The Poet_ (1863), and we listen +respectfully to _The Flood of Years_ (1876), as the final utterance of a +poet who has had the experience of fourscore years. + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--Bryant is the first great American poet. His +poetry is chiefly reflective and descriptive, and it is remarkable for its +elevation, simplicity, and moral earnestness. He lacks dramatic power and +skill in narration. Calmness and restraint, the lack of emotional +intensity, are also evident in his greatest work. His depths of space are +vast, but windless. In _The Poet_ he says that verse should embody:-- + + "... feelings of calm power and mighty sweep, + Like currents journeying through the windless deep." + +His chosen field is describing and interpreting nature. He has been called +an American Wordsworth. In the following lines Bryant gives poetic +expression to his feeling that a certain maiden's heart and face reflected +the beauty of the natural scenes amid which she was reared:-- + + "... all the beauty of the place + Is in thy heart and on thy face. + The twilight of the trees and rocks + Is in the light shade of thy locks." + +[Footnote: "O Fairest of the Rural Maids." (1820.)] + +With these lines compare Wordsworth's _Three Years She Grew in Sun and +Shower_ (1799):-- + + "... she shall lean her ear + In many a secret place + Where rivulets dance their wayward round, + And beauty born of murmuring sound + Shall pass into her face." + +Bryant himself says that under the influence of Wordsworth, nature suddenly +changed "into a strange freshness and life." It is no discredit to him to +have been Wordsworth's pupil or to have failed to equal the magic of +England's greatest poet of nature. + +Bryant's range was narrow for a great poet, and his later verse usually +repeated his earlier successes. As a rule, he presented the sky, forest, +flower, stream, animal, and the composite landscape, only as they served to +illumine the eternal verities, and the one verity toward which nature most +frequently pointed was death. His heart, unlike Wordsworth's, did not dance +with the daffodils waving in the breeze, for the mere pleasure of the +dancing. + +The blank verse of his _Thanatopsis_ has not been surpassed since Milton. +In everything that he did, Bryant was a careful workman. Painters have +noticed his skill in the use of his poetic canvas and his power to suggest +subjects to them, such as:-- + + "... croft and garden and orchard, + That bask in the mellow light." + +Three vistas from _To a Waterfowl_,--"the plashy brink of weedy lake," +"marge of river wide," and "the chafed ocean side,"--long ago furnished the +suggestion for three paintings. + +Bryant's Puritan ancestry and training laid a heavy hand upon him. Thoughts +of "the last bitter hour" are constantly recurring in his verse. The third +line of even his poem _June_ brings us to the grave. His great poems are +often like a prayer accompanied by the subdued tones of a mighty organ. +Nothing foul or ignoble can be found in his verse. He has the lofty ideals +of the Puritans. + +ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE PERIOD + +As we saw in the preceding chapter, WORDSWORTH and COLERIDGE at the close +of the last century began to exert a new influence on literature. +Wordsworth's new philosophy of nature (p. 99) can be traced in the work of +Bryant. The other poets of this age belong to the romantic school. BYRON +(1788-1824), the poet of revolt against the former world, shows the same +influences that manifest themselves in the American and the French +Revolution. He voices the complaints, and, to some extent, the aspirations +of Europe. He shows his influence in Fitz-Greene Halleck's _Marco +Bozzaris_. Shelley, who also belongs to the school of revolt, has a +peculiar position as a poet of ethereal, evanescent, and spirit-like +beauty. He is heard in the voice of the West Wind, the Cloud, the unseen +Skylark, the "Spirit of Night," and "the white radiance of Eternity." +Bryant's call in _The Evening Wind_ (1829) to + + "... rouse + The wide old wood from his majestic rest, + Summoning from the innumerable boughs + The strange, deep harmonies that haunt his breast," + +may even have been suggested by Shelley's _Ode to the West Wind_ (1819) + + "Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: + What if my leaves are falling like its own? + The tumult of thy mighty harmonies + Will take from both a deep autumnal tone." + +In the early part of this period, Wordsworth and Shelley were both making +these harmonies of nature audible to ears which had hitherto not heard +them. KEATS (1795-1821) is the poet of beauty, and he makes more of an +appeal to the senses than Shelley. The favorite creed of Keats was:-- + + "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." + +His influence will gradually extend to later American verse. + +SIR WALTER SCOTT was the great prose writer of the age preceding the +Victorian. The first of his series of _Waverley_ novels was published in +1814, and he continued until his death in 1832 to delight the world with +his genius as a writer of romances. His influence may be traced in Cooper's +work, although the American author occupies an original field. Readers are +still charmed with the exquisite flavor and humor in the essays of CHARLES +LAMB (1775-1834). The essays of DE QUINCEY (1785-1859) are remarkable for +precision, stateliness, and harmony. + + +LEADING HISTORICAL FACTS, 1809-1849. + +During these forty years, the facts most important for the student of +literature are connected with the expansion and social ideals of the +country. Progress was specially manifest in two ways: in "the manufacture +of farms" and in the introduction and use of steam. At the time of the +inauguration of Washington in 1789, the center of population of the entire +country was thirty miles east of Baltimore. The progress of settlements +westward, which had already begun in the last period, became in an +increasing degree one of the remarkable events in the history of the world. + +We may observe that the second war with England (1812) resulted in welding +the Union more closely together and in giving it more prestige abroad. We +should next note the unparalleled material development of the country; the +opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, the rapid extension of steamboats on +rivers, the trial of the first steam locomotive in 1828, the increased +westward movement of population, which reached California in 1849, several +hundred years ahead of schedule time, as those thought who prophesied +before the introduction of steam. The story of the material progress of the +country sounds like a new _Arabian Nights' Tale_. + +The administration of Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) is really the beginning of +the modern history of the United States. The change during these years was +due more to steam than to any other single cause. At the beginning of his +administration, there were no steam railroads, but fifteen hundred miles +were in operation before the end of his second term. His predecessor in the +presidential chair was John Quincy Adams, a Harvard graduate and an +aristocrat. Jackson was illiterate, a man of the people. There was an +extension of the social democratic feeling. + +All classes, the poor as well as the rich, spoke their minds more freely on +every subject. Even Jackson's messages relating to foreign nations were +sometimes not couched in very diplomatic terms. Every one felt that he was +as good as anybody else, and in the new settlements all mingled on terms of +equality. When Cooper came back to the United States in 1833, after an +absence of six years in Europe, he found that he had returned to a new +country, where "everybody was everywhere," and nobody was anywhere, and +where the chase for the dollar seemed to have grown more absorbing than +ever before. + +Slavery had become one of the leading questions of the day. To keep the +balance between the North and the South, states were often admitted in +pairs, one free and one slave state. In 1845 there were in the Union +thirteen free and fourteen slave states. The decade between 1840 and 1850 +witnessed the war with Mexico and the acquisition from her of our vast +southwestern territory,--Texas, California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New +Mexico, and some interior lands to the north of these. The South was +chiefly instrumental in bringing about this extension of our boundaries, +hoping that this additional territory would be open for the employment of +slaves and would tend to make more nearly even the influence of each +section in the national government. + + +SUMMARY + +With the publication of Irving's _Knickerbocker's History of New York_ in +1809, the literary center of the United States shifted to New York, then +the second city in the country. Drake and Halleck, two minor poets, calling +themselves "The Croakers," issued a series of poems with the principal +object of entertaining readers. Drake wrote a fine romantic poem called +_The Culprit Fay_. Halleck's best works are the poems on the death of Drake +and _Marco Bozzaris_. + +Washington Irving's chief fame is based on his original creation of the +"Knickerbocker Legend" in his _History of New York_, _Rip Van Winkle_, and +_The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_. He is an unusually successful writer of +short stories, of essays like those in Addison's _Spectator_, and of +popular history and biography. He is the first American writer whose works +are still read for pure pleasure. Humor and restrained sentiment are two of +his pronounced qualities. While the subject matter of his best work is +romantic, in his treatment of that matter he shows the restraint of the +classical school. His style is simple and easy-flowing but not remarkable +for vigor. + +James Fenimore Cooper's _Leatherstocking Tales_ recreate in a romantic way +the life of the pioneer in the forest and the wilderness. The Indian +figures more largely in these Tales than in those of any preceding writer. +Leatherstocking deserves a place in the world's temple of fame as a great +original character in fiction. Cooper is also our greatest writer of +stories of the sea. _The Pilot_ and _The Red Rover_ still fascinate readers +with the magic of the ocean. The scenes of all of his best stories are laid +out of doors. His style is often careless, and he sometimes does not take +the trouble to correct positive errors, but his power of arousing interest +is so great that these are seldom noticed. His romances are pure, and they +inspire a love for what is noble and manly. Irving was almost as popular in +England as in the United States, but Cooper was the first American author +to be read widely throughout Europe. + +William Cullen Bryant is the first great American poet. He belongs to +Wordsworth's school of nature poets. Bryant's verse, chiefly reflective and +descriptive, is characterized by elevation, simplicity, and moral +earnestness. His range is narrow. His communion with nature often leads him +to the grave, but no other American poet invests it with as much majesty as +is found in _Thanatopsis_. His strict Puritan training causes him to +present the eternal verities in his poetry. Unlike Irving, Cooper, and the +minor writers, his object is not entertainment. + +The influence of steam, the more rapid emigration westward, the increase of +the democratic spirit, and the beginning of the modern era with its +strenuous materialistic trend in the administration of Andrew Jackson +marked a great change in the development of the nation. The taking of our +vast southwest territory from Mexico was an event second only in importance +to the Louisiana Purchase. + + +REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY + +HISTORICAL + +In addition to the American and English histories suggested on pp. 60, 61, +the following may be consulted: Burgess's _The Middle Period_, 1817-1858; +Coman's _The Industrial History of the United States_, Chaps. VI. and VII.; +Bogart's _Economic History of the United States_, Chap. XIV; Sparks's _The +Expansion of the American People_. + +LITERARY + +Richardson's _American Literature_. + +Trent's _A History of American Literature_. + +Wendell's _History of Literature in America_. + +Stanton's _A Manual of American Literature_. + +Herford's _The Age of Wordsworth_. + +Stedman's _Poets of America_. (Drake, Halleck, Bryant.) + +_The Croakers_, pp. 255-385, in _The Poetical Writings of Fitz-Greene +Halleck_, edited by James Grant Wilson. + +Wilson's _Fitz-Greene Halleck's Life and Letters_. + +Irving's, Pierre M.: _Life and Letters of Washington Irving_, 4 vols. + +Warner's _The Work of Washington Irving_ (60 pages, excellent). + +Warner's _Washington Irving_ (304 pages, _American Men of Letters_). + +Payne's _Leading American Essayists_, pp. 43-134. (Irving.) + +Canby's _The Short Story in English_, pp. 218-226. (Irving.) + +Lounsbury's _James Fenimore Cooper_. (_American Men of Letters_; +excellent.) + +Clymer's _James Fenimore Cooper_. (_Beacon Biographies_.) + +Brownell's _American Prose Masters_. (Cooper.) + +Erskine's _Leading American Novelists_, pp. 51-129. (Cooper.) + +Cooper's _Last of the Mohicans_, edited with _Introduction_ by Halleck. + +Godwin's _A Biography of William Cullen Bryant, with Extracts from his +Private Correspondence_, 2 vols. (The standard authority.) + +Godwin's _The Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant_, 2 vols. + +Bigelow's _William Cullen Bryant_. (_American Men of Letters_.) + +Bradley's _William Cullen Bryant_. (_English Men of Letters, American +Series_.) + +Chadwick's _The Origin of a Great Poem (Thanatopsis)_, _Harper's Magazine_, +September, 1894, + +SUGGESTED READINGS + +MINOR WRITERS.--_The Croakers_, in Wilson's edition of Halleck's _Poetical +Writings_. + +Selections from the poetry of Drake and Halleck may be found in Stedman's +_American Anthology_, pp. 36-47, and in S. & H., Vol. V. + +IRVING.--His _Knickerbocker's History of New York_ begins with somewhat +tiresome matter, condensed from chapters which he and his brother had +jointly written on a different plan. The first part may well be omitted, +but _Books III., V., VI., VII._ should at least be read. + +Read his best two short stories, _Rip Van Winkle_ and _The Legend of Sleepy +Hollow_. Lovers of Irving will also wish to read some tales from _The +Alhambra_, and some of his essays: _e.g. Westminster Abbey_ and +_Stratford-on-Avon_. For selections from his various works, see Carpenter, +124-134; S. & H., V., 41-62. + +COOPER.--One of his _Leather stocking Tales_ (p. 131), _e.g. The Last of +the Mohicans_, which is deservedly the most popular, should be read. If a +tale of the sea is desired, read either _The Pilot_ or _The Red Rover_. +Selections may be found in Carpenter, 124-134; S. & H., V., 138-183. + +Bryant.--Read _Thanatopsis, To a Waterfowl, O Fairest of the Rural Maids, A +Forest Hymn, The Death of the Flowers, The Evening Wind, To the Fringed +Gentian_, and _The Poet_. All of these are accessible in Bryant's poetical +works, and almost all may be found in Page's _The Chief American Poets_. +Selections are given in Stedman's _American Anthology_; S. & H., Vol. V.; +and Long's _American Poems_, 1776-1900. + + +QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS + +What are some of the chief qualities in the poetry of "The Croakers"? What +do these qualities indicate in the readers of contemporary New York? Do you +find a genuine romantic element in Drake's _Culprit Fay_? Compare Halleck's +_Marco Bozzaris_ with his lines on the death of Drake, and give reasons for +your preference. + +Select what you consider the best three specimens of humor in Irving's +_Knickerbocker's History of New York_. How is the humorous effect secured? +Why does it not make us dislike the Dutch? Why is this _History_ an +original work? Why have _Rip Van Winkle_ and _The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_ +been such general favorites? Compare these with any of Addison's _Sir Roger +de Coverley Papers_ and with any modern short story. Is Irving a romantic +writer? Compare his style with Addison's and with Goldsmith's in _The Vicar +of Wakefield._ + +Why does Cooper deserve to rank as an original American author? What is his +chosen field? In what does his special power consist? Who before him made +use of the Indian in literature? Can you find any point of similarity +between his work and _The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_? What are the most +striking points of dissimilarity? How does his use of the romantic element +differ from Irving's? What blemishes have you actually noticed in Cooper? + +What lines in Bryant's _Thanatopsis_ are the keynote of the entire poem? +What are its general qualities? What are the finest thoughts in _A Forest +Hymn_? What do these suggest in regard to Bryant's early training and the +cast of his mind? Of all Bryant's poems indicated for reading, which do you +prefer? Which of his references to nature do you like best? Compare his +poem: _O fairest of the rural maids!_ with Wordsworth's: _Three years she +grew in sun and shower_. In Bryant's _The Poet_, what noteworthy poetical +ideals do you find? + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE NEW ENGLAND GROUP + + +CHANGE IN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT.--Since the death of Jonathan Edwards in the +middle of the seventeenth century, New England had done little to sustain +her former literary reputation. As the middle of the nineteenth century +approaches, however, we shall find a remarkable group of writers in Boston +and its vicinity. The causes of this wonderful literary awakening are in +some respects similar to those which produced the Elizabethan age. In the +sixteenth century the Reformation and the Revival of Learning exerted their +joint force on England. In the nineteenth century, New England also had its +religious reformation and intellectual awakening. We must remember that +"re-formation" strictly means "forming again" or "forming in a different +way." It is not the province of a history of literature to state whether a +change in religious belief is for the better or the worse, but it is +necessary to ascertain how such a change affects literature. + +The old Puritan religion taught the total depravity of man, the eternal +damnation of the overwhelming majority, of all but the "elect." A man's +election to salvation depended on God's foreordination. If the man was not +elected, he was justly treated, for he merely received his deserts. Even +Jonathan Edwards, in spite of his sweet nature, felt bound to preach hell +fire in terms of the old Puritan theology. In one of his sermons, he +says:-- + + "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, + or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully + provoked; his wrath toward you burns like fire; he looks upon you as + worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire." + +This quotation was not given when we discussed the works of Edwards, +because it misrepresents his most often recurring idea of God. But the fact +that even he felt impelled to preach such a sermon shows most emphatically +that Puritan theology exerted its influence by presenting more vivid +pictures of God's wrath than of his love. + +A tremendous reaction from such beliefs came in the first quarter of the +nineteenth century. William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), pastor of the +Federal Street Church in Boston and one of the greatest leaders of this +religious reform, wrote in 1809 of the old Puritan creed:-- + + "A man of plain sense, whose spirit has not been broken to this creed by + education or terror, will think that it is not necessary for us to travel + to heathen countries, to learn how mournfully the human mind may + misrepresent the Deity." + +He maintained that human nature, made in the image of God, is not totally +depraved, that the current doctrine of original sin, election, and eternal +punishment "misrepresents the Deity" and makes him a monster. This view +was speedily adopted by the majority of cultivated people in and around +Boston. The Unitarian movement rapidly developed and soon became dominant +at Harvard College. Unitarianism was embraced by the majority of +Congregational churches in Boston, including the First Church, and the +Second Church, where the great John Cotton (see p. 14.) and Cotton Mather +(p. 46.) had preached the sternest Puritan theology. Nearly all of the +prominent writers mentioned in this chapter adopted liberal religious +views. The recoil had been violent, and in the long run recoil will +usually be found proportional to the strength of the repression. Dr. +Oliver Wendell Holmes even called the old theology largely "diabology." +The name of one of his poems is _Homesick in Heaven_. Had he in the early +days chosen such a title, he would either, like Roger Williams, have been +exiled, or, like the Quakers, have suffered a worse fate. + +Many adopted more liberal religious beliefs without embracing Unitarianism. +Perhaps these three lines voice most briefly the central thought in man's +new creed and his changed attitude toward God:-- + + "For Thou and I are next of kin; + The pulses that are strong within, + From the deep Infinite heart begin." + +THE NEW ENGLAND RENAISSANCE.--The stern theology of the Puritans may have +been absolutely necessary to make them work with a singleness and an +inflexibility of purpose to lay the foundations of a mighty republic; but +this very singleness of aim had led to a narrowness of culture which had +starved the emotional and aesthetic nature. Art, music, literature, and the +love of beauty in general had seemed reprehensible because it was thought +that they took away the attention from a matter of far graver import, the +salvation of the immortal soul. Now there gradually developed the +conviction that these agencies not only helped to save the soul, but made +it more worth saving. People began to search for the beautiful and to enjoy +it in both nature and art. Emerson says:-- + + "... if eyes were made for seeing, + Then Beauty is its own excuse for being." + +The first half of the nineteenth century saw the New Englanders engaged in +a systematic attempt at self-culture, to an extent never before witnessed +in America and rarely elsewhere. Many with an income barely sufficient for +comfortable living set aside a fund for purchasing books before anything +else. Emerson could even write to Carlyle that all the bright girls in New +England wanted something better than morning calls and evening parties, and +that a life of mere trade did not promise satisfaction to the boys. + +In 1800 there were few foreign books in Boston, but the interest in them +developed to such an extent that Hawthorne's father-in-law and +sister-in-law, Dr. and Miss Peabody, started a foreign bookstore and +reading room. Longfellow made many beautiful translations from foreign +poetry. In 1840 Emerson said that he had read in the original fifty-five +volumes of Goethe. Emerson superintended the publication in America of +Carlyle's early writings, which together with some of Coleridge's works +introduced many to German philosophy and idealism. + +In this era, New England's recovery from emotional and aesthetic starvation +was rapid. Her poets and prose writers produced a literature in which +beauty, power, and knowledge were often combined, and they found a +cultivated audience to furnish a welcome. + +THE TRANSCENDENTAL PHILOSOPHY.--The literature and thought of New England +were profoundly modified by the transcendental philosophy. Ralph Waldo +Emerson (p. 178) was the most celebrated expounder of this school of +thought. The English philosopher, Locke, had maintained that intellectual +action is limited to the world of the senses. The German metaphysician, +Kant, claimed that the soul has ideas which are not due to the activity of +any of the senses: that every one has an idea of time and space although no +one has ever felt, tasted, seen, eaten, or smelled time or space. He called +such an idea an intuition or transcendental form. + +The student of literature need not worry himself greatly about the +metaphysical significance of transcendentalism, but he must understand its +influence on literary thought. It is enough for him to realize that there +are two great classes of fact confronting every human being. There are the +ordinary phenomena of life, which are apparent to the senses and which are +the only things perceived by the majority of human beings. But behind all +these appearances are forces and realities which the senses do not +perceive. One with the bodily eye can see the living forms moving around +him, but not the meaning of life. It is something more than the bodily hand +that gropes in the darkness and touches God's hand. To commune with a +Divine Power, we must transcend the experience of the senses. We are now +prepared to understand what a transcendentalist like Thoreau means when he +says:-- + + "I hear beyond the range of sound, + I see beyond the range of sight." + +The transcendentalists, therefore, endeavored to transcend, that is, to +pass beyond, the range of human sense and experience. We are all in a +measure transcendentalists when we try to pierce the unseen, to explain +existence, to build a foundation of meaning under the passing phenomena of +life. To the old Puritan, the unseen was always fraught with deeper meaning +than the seen. Sarah Pierrepont and Jonathan Edwards (p. 51) were in large +measure transcendentalists. The trouble was that the former Puritan +philosophy of the unseen was too rigid and limited to satisfy the widening +aspirations of the soul. + +It should be noted that in this period the term "transcendentalist" is +extended beyond its usual meaning and loosely applied to those thinkers who +(1) preferred to rely on their own intuitions rather than on the authority +of any one, (2) exalted individuality, (3) frowned on imitation and +repetition, (4) broke with the past, (5) believed that a new social and +spiritual renaissance was necessary and forthcoming, (6) insisted on the +importance of culture, on "plain living and high thinking," and (7) loved +isolation and solitude. An excellent original exposition of much of this +philosophy may be found in Emerson's _Nature_ (1836) and in his lecture on +_The Transcendentalist_ (1842). + +THE ECSTASY OF THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS.--Any age that accomplishes great +things is necessarily enthusiastic. According to Emerson, one of the +articles of the transcendental creed was a belief "in inspiration and +ecstasy." With this went an overmastering consciousness of newly discovered +power. "Do you think me the child of circumstances?" asked the +transcendentalist, and he answered in almost the same breath, "I make my +circumstance." + +The feeling of ecstasy, due to the belief that he was really a part of an +infinite Divine Power, made Emerson say:-- + + "I see the spectacle of morning from the hill-top over against my house, + from daybreak to sunrise, with emotions which an angel might share. The + long slender bars of cloud float like fishes in the sea of crimson light. + From the earth, as a shore, I look out into that silent sea. I seem to + partake its rapid transformations; the active enchantment reaches my + dust, and I dilate and conspire with the morning wind." + +The greatest of the women transcendentalists, MARGARET FULLER (1810-1850), +a distinguished early pleader for equal rights for her sex, believed that +when it was fashionable for women to bring to the home "food and fire for +the mind as well as for the body," an ecstatic "harmony of the spheres +would ensue." + +To her, as to Emerson, Nature brought an inspiring message. On an early May +day she wrote:-- + + "The trees were still bare, but the little birds care not for that; they + revel and carol and wildly tell their hopes, while the gentle voluble + south wind plays with the dry leaves, and the pine trees sigh with their + soul-like sounds for June. It was beauteous; and care and routine fled + away, and I was as if they had never been." + +[Illustration: MARGARET FULLER] + +The transcendentalist, while voicing his ecstasy over life, has put himself +on record as not wishing to do anything more than once. For him God has +enough new experiences, so that repetition is unnecessary. He dislikes +routine. "Everything," Emerson says, "admonishes us how needlessly long +life is," that is, if we walk with heroes and do not repeat. Let a machine +add figures while the soul moves on. He dislikes seeing any part of a +universe that he does not use. Shakespeare seemed to him to have lived a +thousand years as the guest of a great universe in which most of us never +pass beyond the antechamber. + +[Illustration: AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT] + +Critics were not wanting to point out the absurdity of many transcendental +ecstasies. AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT (1799-1888), one of the leading +transcendentalists, wrote a peculiar poem called _The Seer's Rations_, in +which he speaks of + + "Bowls of sunrise for breakfast, + Brimful of the East." + +His neighbors said that this was the diet which he provided for his hungry +family. His daughter, Louisa May, the author of that fine juvenile work, +_Little Women_ (1868), had a sad struggle with poverty while her father was +living in the clouds. The extreme philosophy of the intangible was soon +called "transcendental moonshine." The tenets of Bronson Alcott's +transcendental philosophy required him to believe that human nature is +saturated with divinity. He therefore felt that a misbehaving child in +school would be most powerfully affected by seeing the suffering which his +wrongdoing brought to others. He accordingly used to shake a good child for +the bad deeds of others. Sometimes when the class had offended, he would +inflict corporal punishment on himself. His extreme applications of the new +principle show that lack of balance which many of this school displayed, +and yet his reliance on sympathy instead of on the omnipresent rod marks a +step forward in educational practice. Emerson was far-seeing enough to say +of those who carried the new philosophy to an extreme, "What if they eat +clouds and drink wind, they have not been without service to the race of +man." + +[Illustration: ORCHARD HOUSE, HOME OF THE ALCOTTS] + +THE NEW VIEW OF NATURE.--To the old Puritan, nature seemed to groan under +the weight of sin and to bear the primal curse. To the transcendentalist, +nature was a part of divinity. The question was sometimes asked whether +nature had any real existence outside of God, whether it was not God's +thoughts. Emerson, being an idealist, doubted whether nature had any more +material existence than a thought. + +The majority of the writers did not press this idealistic conception of +nature, but much of the nature literature of this group shows a belief in +the soul's mystic companionship with the bird, the flower, the cloud, the +ocean, and the stars. Emerson says:-- + + "The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister is the + suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not + alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them." + +Hawthorne exclaims:-- + + "O, that I could run wild!--that is, that I could put myself into a true + relation with Nature, and be on friendly terms with all congenial + elements." + +Thoreau (p. 194) often enters Nature's mystic shrine and dilates with a +sense of her companionship. Of the song of the wood thrush, he says:-- + + "Whenever a man hears it, he is young, and Nature is in her spring. + Whenever he hears it, it is a new world and a free country, and the gates + of heaven are not shut against him.... It changes all hours to an eternal + morning. It banishes all trivialness. It reinstates me in my dominion, + makes me the lord of creation, is chief musician of my court. This + minstrel sings in a time, a heroic age, with which no event in the + village can be contemporary." + +Thoreau could converse with the Concord River and hear the sound of the +rain in its "summer voice." Hiawatha talked with the reindeer, the beaver, +and the rabbit, as with his brothers. In dealing with nature, Whittier +caught something of Wordsworth's spirituality, and Lowell was impressed +with the yearnings of a clod of earth as it + + "Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers." + +One of the chief glories of this age was the fuller recognition of the +companionship that man bears to every child of nature. This phase of the +literature has reacted on the ideals of the entire republic. Flowers, +trees, birds, domestic animals, and helpless human beings have received +more sympathetic treatment as a result. In what previous time have we heard +an American poet ask, as Emerson did in his poem _Forbearance_ (1842):-- + + "Hast thou named all the birds without a gun? + Loved the wood-rose, and left it on its stalk?" + +[Illustration: MARGARET FULLER'S COTTAGE, BROOK FARM] + +THE DIAL.--Transcendentalism had for its organ a magazine called _The +Dial_, which was published quarterly for four years, from 1840 to 1844. +Margaret Fuller, its first editor, was a woman of wide reading and varied +culture, and she had all the enthusiasm of the Elizabethans. Carlyle said +of her, "Such a predetermination to eat this big Universe as her oyster or +her egg, and to be absolute empress of all height and glory in it that her +heart could conceive, I have not before seen in any human soul." She was +determined to do her part in ushering in a new social and spiritual world, +and it seemed to her that _The Dial_ would be a mighty lever in +accomplishing this result. She struggled for two years to make the magazine +a success. Then ill health and poverty compelled her to turn the editorship +over to Emerson, who continued the struggle for two years longer. + +Some of Emerson's best poems were first published in _The Dial_, as were +his lecture on _The Transcendentalist_ and many other articles by him. +Thoreau wrote for almost every number. Some of the articles were dull, not +a few were vague, but many were an inspiration to the age, and their +resultant effect is still felt in our life and literature. Much of the +minor poetry was good and stimulating. William Channing (1818-1901) +published in _The Dial_ his _Thoughts_, in which we find lines that might +serve as an epitaph for a life approved by a transcendentalist:-- + + "It flourished in pure willingness; + Discovered strongest earnestness; + Was fragrant for each lightest wind; + Was of its own particular kind;-- + Nor knew a tone of discord sharp; + Breathed alway like a silver harp; + And went to immortality." + +While turning the pages of _The Dial_, we shall often meet with sentiments +as full of meaning to us as to the people of that time. Among such we may +instance:-- + + "Rest is not quitting + The busy career; + Rest is the fitting + Of self to its sphere." + +Occasionally we shall find an expression fit to become a fireside motto:-- + + "I slept, and dreamed that life was beauty; + I woke, and found that life was duty." + +The prose in _The Dial_ reflects the new spirit. In the first volume we may +note such expressions of imaginative enthusiasm as:-- + + "The reason why Homer is to me like dewy morning is because I too lived + while Troy was and sailed in the hollow ships of the Grecians.... And + Shakespeare in _King John_ does but recall me to myself in the dress of + another age, the sport of new accidents. I, who am Charles, was sometime + Romeo. In _Hamlet_ I pondered and doubted. We forget that we have been + drugged with the sleepy bowl of the Present." + +In the same volume we find some of Alcott's famous _Orphic Sayings_, of +which the following is a sample:-- + + "Engage in nothing that cripples or degrades you. Your first duty is + self-culture, self-exaltation: you may not violate this high trust. + Yourself is sacred, profane it not. Forge no chains wherewith to shackle + your own members. Either subordinate your vocation to your life or quit + it forever." + +A writer on _Ideals of Every Day Life_ in _The Dial_ for January, 1841, +suggested a thought that is finding an echo in the twentieth century:-- + + "No one has a right to live merely to get a living. And this is what is + meant by drudgery." + +Two lines in the last volume voice the new spirit of growth and action:-- + + "I am never at anchor, I never shall be; + I am sailing the glass of infinity's sea." + +_The Dial_ afforded an outlet for the enthusiasms, the aspirations, the +ideals of life, during a critical period in New England's renaissance. No +other periodical during an equal time has exerted more influence on the +trend of American literature. + +BROOK FARM.--In 1841 a number of people, headed by GEORGE RIPLEY +(1802-1880), a Unitarian clergyman, purchased a tract of land of about two +hundred acres at West Roxbury, nine miles from Boston. This was known as +Brook Farm, and it became the home of a group who wished to exemplify in +real life some of the principles that _The Dial_ and other agencies of +reform were advocating. + +[Illustration: POOL AT BROOK FARM] + +In _The Dial_ for January, 1842, we may find a statement of the aims of the +Brook Farm community. The members especially wanted "_leisure to live in +all the faculties of the soul_" and they determined to combine manual and +mental labor in such a way as to achieve this result. Probably the majority +of Americans are in sympathy with such an aim. Many have striven to find +sufficient release from their hard, unimproving routine work to enable them +to escape its dwarfing effects and to live a fuller life on a higher plane. + +The Brook Farm settlement included such people as Nathaniel Hawthorne, +Charles A. Dana (1819-1897), afterward editor of the New York _Sun_, George +Ripley, in later times distinguished as the literary critic of the New York +_Tribune_, and GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS (1824-1892), who became a well-known +essayist, magazine editor, and civil service reformer. The original +pioneers numbered about twenty; but the membership increased to nearly one +hundred and fifty. Brook Farm had an influence, however, that could not be +measured by the number of its inmates. In one year more than four thousand +visitors came to see this new social settlement. + +Hawthorne, the most famous literary member of the Brook Farm group, has +recorded many of his experiences during his residence there in 1841:-- + + "April 13. I have not yet taken my first lesson in agriculture, except + that I went to see our cows foddered, yesterday afternoon. We have eight + of our own; and the number is now increased by a transcendental heifer + belonging to Miss Margaret Fuller. She is very fractious, I believe, and + apt to kick over the milk pail.... April 16. I have milked a cow!!! ... + May 3. The whole fraternity eat together, and such a delectable way of + life has never been seen on earth since the days of the early + Christians.... May 4.... there is nothing so unseemly and disagreeable in + this sort of toil as you could think. It defiles the hands, indeed, but + not the soul." + +Unfortunately, in order to earn a living, it was found necessary to work +ten hours a day in the summer time, and this toil was so fatiguing that the +mind could not work clearly at the end of the day. We find Hawthorne +writing on June 1 of the same year:-- + + "It is my opinion that a man's soul may be buried and perish ... in a + furrow of the field, just as well as under a pile of money." + +On August 12, he asks:-- + + "Is it a praiseworthy matter that I have spent five golden months in + providing food for cows and horses? It is not so." + +On October 9, he says:-- + + "Our household, being composed in great measure of children and young + people, is generally a cheerful one enough, even in gloomy weather.... It + would be difficult to conceive beforehand how much can be added to the + enjoyment of a household by mere sunniness of temper and liveliness of + disposition...." + +Hawthorne remained at Brook Farm for only one of the six years of its +existence. An important building, on which there was no insurance, burned +in 1846, and the next year the association was forced for financial reasons +to disband. This was probably the most ideal of a series of social +settlements, every one of which failed. The problem of securing sufficient +leisure to live in all the faculties of the soul has not yet been solved, +but attempts toward a satisfactory solution have not yet been abandoned. + +The influence of Brook Farm on our literature survives in Hawthorne's +_Blithedale Romance_ (p. 219), in his _American Note Books_, in Emerson's +miscellaneous writings, and in many books and hundreds of articles by less +well-known people. Almost all of those who participated in this social +experiment spoke of it in after years with strong affection. + +IDEALS OF THE NEW ENGLAND AUTHORS.--When we examine with closest scrutiny +the lives of the chief New England authors, of Emerson and Thoreau, +Longfellow and Whittier, Holmes and Lowell, we find that all were men of +the highest ideals and character. Not one could be accused of double +dealing and intentional misrepresentation, like Alexander Pope; not one was +intemperate, like Robert Burns or Edgar Allan Poe; not one was dissolute, +like Byron; not one uttered anything base, like many a modern novelist and +dramatist. + +The mission of all the great New England writers of this age was to make +individuals freer, more cultivated, more self-reliant, more kindly, more +spiritual. Puritan energy and spirituality spoke through them all. Nearly +all could trace their descent from the early Puritans. It is not an +infusion of new blood that has given America her greatest writers, but an +infusion of new ideals. Some of these ideals were illusions, but a noble +illusion has frequently led humanity upward. The transcendentalists could +not fathom the unknowable, but their attempts in this direction enabled +them to penetrate deeper into spiritual realities. + +The New Englander demanded a cultivated intellect as the servant of the +spirit. He still looked at the world from the moral point of view. For the +most part he did not aim to produce a literature of pleasure, but of +spiritual power, which he knew would incidentally bring pleasure of the +highest type. Even Holmes, the genial humorist, wished to be known to +posterity by his trumpet call to the soul to build itself more stately +mansions. + +THE INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY.--The question of human slavery profoundly +modified the thought and literature of the nation. In these days we often +make the mistake of thinking that all of the people of New England +disapproved of slavery at the end of the first half of the nineteenth +century. The truth is that many of the most influential people in that +section agreed with the South on the question of slavery. Not a few of the +most cultivated people at the North thought that an antislavery movement +would lead to an attack on other forms of property and that anarchy would +be the inevitable result. + +Opposition to slavery developed naturally as a result of the new spirit in +religion and human philosophy. This distinctly affirmed the right of the +individual to develop free from any trammels. _The Dial_ and Brook Farm +were both steps toward fuller individuality and more varied life and both +were really protests against all kinds of slavery. This new feeling in the +air speedily passed beyond the color line, and extended to the animals. + +One of the earliest to advocate the abolition of slavery was WILLIAM LLOYD +GARRISON (1805-1879), a printer at Newburyport, Massachusetts. In 1831 he +founded _The Liberator_, which became the official organ of the New England +abolitionists. He influenced the Quaker poet Whittier to devote the best +years of his life to furthering the cause of abolition. Emerson and Thoreau +spoke forcibly against slavery. Lowell attacked it with his keenest poetic +shafts. + +HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (1811-1896).--It was, however, left for the daughter +of an orthodox Congregational clergyman of New England to surpass every +other antislavery champion in fanning into a flame the sentiment against +enslaving human beings. Harriet Beecher, the sister of Henry Ward Beecher, +the greatest pulpit orator of anti-slavery days, was born in Litchfield, +Connecticut. When she was twenty-one, she went with her father, Lyman +Beecher, to Cincinnati. Her new home was on the borderland of slavery, and +she often saw fugitive slaves and heard their stories at first hand. In +1833 she made a visit to a slave plantation in Kentucky and obtained +additional material for her most noted work. + +[Illustration: HARRIET BEECHER STOWE] + +In 1836 she married Calvin E. Stowe, a colleague of her father in the Lane +Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. During the next twelve years she had +six children to rear. + +In 1850 Professor Stowe and his family moved to Bowdoin College, in +Brunswick, Maine. This year saw the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, +which required the citizens of free states to aid in catching and returning +escaped slaves. This Act roused Mrs. Stowe, and she began _Uncle Tom's +Cabin_, which was published in book form in 1852. + +Perhaps no other American book of note has been written under so great a +handicap. When Mrs. Stowe began this work, one of her large family of +children was not a year old, and the others were a constant care. +Nevertheless, she persevered with her epoch-making story. One of her +friends has given us a picture of the difficulties in her way, the baby on +her knee, the new hired girl asking whether the pork should be put on top +of the beans, and whether the gingerbread should stay longer in the oven. + +In _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ Mrs. Stowe endeavored to translate into concrete +form certain phases of the institution of slavery, which had been merely an +abstraction to the North. Of Senator John Bird, who believed in stringent +laws for the apprehension of fugitive slaves, she wrote:-- + + "... his idea of a fugitive was only an idea of the letters that spell + the word,--or, at the most, the image of a little newspaper picture of a + man with a stick and bundle, with 'Ran away from the subscriber' under + it. The magic of the real presence of distress,--the imploring human + eye, the frail, trembling human hand, the despairing appeal of helpless + agony,--these he had never tried. He had never thought that a fugitive + might be a hapless mother, a defenceless child...." + +In chapters of intense dramatic power, Mrs. Stowe shows a slave mother and +her child escaping on the floating ice across the Ohio. They come for +refuge to the home of Senator Bird. + + "'Were you a slave?' said Mr. Bird. + + "'Yes, sir; I belonged to a man in Kentucky.' + + "'Was he unkind to you?' + + "'No, sir; he was a good master.' + + "'And was your mistress unkind to you?' + + "'No, sir,--no! my mistress was always good to me.'" + +Senator Bird learned that the master and mistress were in debt, and that a +creditor had a claim which could be discharged only by the sale of the +child. "Then it was," said the slave mother, "I took him and left my home +and came away." + +Mrs. Stowe's knowledge of psychological values is shown in the means taken +to make it appear to Senator John Bird that it would be the natural thing +for him to defeat his own law, by driving the woman and her child seven +miles in the dead of night to a place of greater safety. + +All sections of the country do not agree in regard to whether _Uncle Tom's +Cabin_ gives a fairly representative picture of slavery. This is a question +for the historian, not for the literary critic. We study _Macbeth_ for its +psychology, its revelation of human nature, its ethics, more than for its +accurate exposition of the Scottish history of the time. We read _Uncle +Tom's Cabin_ to find out how the pen of one woman proved stronger than the +fugitive slave laws of the United States, how it helped to render of no +avail the decrees of the courts, and to usher in a four years' war. We +decide that she achieved this result because the pictures, whether +representative or not, which she chose to throw on her screen, were such as +appealed to the most elemental principles of human nature, such as the +mother could not forget when she heard her own children say their evening +prayer, such as led her to consent to send her firstborn to the war, such +as to make _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ outsell every other book written by an +American, to cause it to be translated into more than thirty foreign +languages, to lead a lady of the Siamese court to free all her slaves in +1867, and to say that Mrs. Stowe "had taught her as even Buddha had taught +kings to respect the rights of her fellow creatures." + +It may be noted in this connection that Mark Twain, who was of southern +descent and whose parents and relatives owned slaves, introduces in his +greatest work, _Huckleberry Finn_ (1884), a fugitive slave to arouse our +sympathies. The plot of _Pudd'nhead Wilson_ (1894) turns on one of Mrs. +Stowe's points of emphasis, the fear of the mother that her child would be +sold and taken away from her, down the river. + +The story of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ is intensely dramatic, and it accomplished +its author's purpose far beyond her expectations. When we study it merely +as a literary performance, we shall notice the effect of the handicap under +which Mrs. Stowe labored at the time of composition, as well as her +imperfect conception of the art technique of the modern novel. There are +faults of plot, style, and characterization. Modern fiction would call for +more differentiation in the dialogue of the different characters and for +more unity of structure, and yet there are stories with all these technical +excellencies which do not live a year. We may say with W. P. Trent, a +Virginian by birth, and a critic who has the southern point of view: +"_Uncle Tom's Cabin_ is alive with emotion, and the book that is alive with +emotion after the lapse of fifty years is a great book. The critic of today +cannot do better than to imitate George Sand when she reviewed the story on +its first appearance--waive its faults and affirm its almost unrivaled +emotional sincerity and strength." + +ORATORY.--The orators of this period made their strongest speeches on +questions connected with human liberty and the preservation of the Union. +Most public speeches die with the success or the failure of the reforms +that they champion or the causes that they plead. A little more than half a +century ago, schoolboys declaimed the speeches of EDWARD EVERETT +(1794-1865), CHARLES SUMNER (1811-1874), and WENDELL PHILLIPS (1811-1884), +all born in Massachusetts, and all graduates of Harvard. But even the best +speeches of these men are gradually being forgotten, although a stray +sentence or paragraph may still occasionally be heard, such as Wendell +Phillips's reply to those who hissed his antislavery sentiments, "Truth +dropped into the pit of hell would make a noise just like that," or Edward +Everett's apostrophe to "that one solitary adventurous vessel, the +_Mayflower_ of a forlorn hope, freighted with the prospects of a future +state and bound across the unknown sea." + +DANIEL WEBSTER (1782-1852).--New England furnished in Daniel Webster one of +the world's great orators. He was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire, and +educated at Dartmouth College. It was said half humorously that no one +could really be as great as he looked. Whittier called him + + "New England's stateliest type of man, + In port and speech Olympian; + Whom no one met, at first, but took + A second awed and wondering look." + +Before his death he was known as the best lawyer, the most noted statesman, +and the greatest orator in the country. He is still considered America's +greatest orator. + +[Illustration: DANIEL WEBSTER] + +A study of the way in which Webster schooled himself to become a speaker +will repay every one who wishes to use our spoken language effectively. In +Webster's youth, a stilted, unnatural style was popular for set speeches. +He was himself influenced by the prevailing fashion, and we find him +writing to a friend:-- + + "In my melancholy moments I presage the most dire calamities. I already + see in my imagination the time when the banner of civil war shall be + unfurled; when Discord's hydra form shall set up her hideous yell, and + from her hundred mouths shall howl destruction through our empire." + +Such unnatural prose impresses us to-day as merely an insincere play with +words, but in those days many thought a stilted, ornate style as necessary +for an impressive occasion as Sunday clothes for church. An _Oratorical +Dictionary_ for the use of public speakers, was actually published in the +first part of the nineteenth century. This contained a liberal amount of +sonorous words derived from the Latin, such as "campestral," "lapidescent," +"obnubilate," and "adventitious." Such words were supposed to give dignity +to spoken utterance. + +Edward Everett, the most finished classical speaker of the time, loved to +introduce the "Muses of Hellas," and to make allusions to the fleets "of +Tyre, of Carthage, of Rome," and to Hannibal's slaughtering the Romans +"till the Aufidus ran blood." He painted Warren "moving resplendent over +the field of honor, with the rose of Heaven upon his cheek, and the fire of +liberty in his eye." + +Webster was cured of such tendencies by an older lawyer, Jeremiah Mason, +who graduated at Yale about the time Webster was born. Mason, who was +frequently Webster's opponent, took pleasure in ridiculing all ornate +efforts and in pricking rhetorical bubbles. Webster says that Mason talked +to the jury "in a plain conversational way, in short sentences, and using +no word that was not level to the comprehension of the least educated man +on the panel. This led me to examine my own style, and I set about +reforming it altogether." Note the simplicity in the following sentences +from Webster's speech on _The Murder of Captain Joseph White_:-- + + "Deep sleep had fallen on the destined victim, and on all beneath his + roof. A healthful old man, to whom sleep was sweet, and the first sound + slumbers of the night held him in their soft but strong embrace.... The + face of the innocent sleeper is turned from the murderer, and the beams + of the moon, resting on the gray locks of his aged temple, show him where + to strike." + +In his speech on _The Completion of the Bunker Hill Monument_, we find the +following paragraph, containing two sentences which present in simple +language one of the great facts in human history:-- + + "America has furnished to the world the character of Washington! And if + our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have + entitled them to the respect of mankind." + +He knew when illustrations and figures of rhetoric could be used to +advantage to impress his hearers. In discussing the claim made by Senator +Calhoun of South Carolina that a state could nullify a national law, +Webster said:-- + + "To begin with nullification, with the avowed intent, nevertheless, not + to proceed to secession, dismemberment, and general revolution, is as if + one were to take the plunge of Niagara, and cry out that he would stop + half way down." + +To show the moral bravery of our forefathers and the comparative greatness +of England, at that time, he said:-- + + "On this question of principle, while actual suffering was yet afar off, + they raised their flag against a power, to which, for purposes of foreign + conquest and subjugation, Rome, in the height of her glory, is not to be + compared; a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe + with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drumbeat, + following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth + with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." + +For nearly a generation prior to the Civil War, schoolboys had been +declaiming the peroration of his greatest speech, his _Reply to Hayne_ +(1830):-- + + "When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in + heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments + of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; + on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal + blood!" + +This peroration brought Webster as an invisible presence into thousands of +homes in the North. The hearts of the listeners would beat faster as the +declaimer continued:-- + + "Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous + ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still + full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original + luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured...." + +When the irrepressible conflict came, it would be difficult to estimate how +many this great oration influenced to join the army to save the Union. The +closing words of that speech, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and +inseparable!" kept sounding like the voice of many thunders in the ear of +the young men, until they shouldered their muskets. His _Seventh of March +Speech_ (1850), which seemed to the North to make compromises with slavery, +put him under a cloud for awhile, but nothing could stop youth from +declaiming his _Reply to Hayne_. + +Although the majority of orators famous in their day are usually forgotten +by the next generation, it is not improbable that three American orations +will be quoted hundreds of years hence. So long as the American retains his +present characteristics, we cannot imagine a time when he will forget +Patrick Henry's speech in 1775, or Daniel Webster's peroration in his +_Reply to Hayne_, or Abraham Lincoln's _Gettysburg Address_ (p. 344), +entrusting the American people with the task of seeing "that government of +the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the +earth." + + +RALPH WALDO EMERSON, 1803-1882 + +[Illustration: RALPH WALDO EMERSON] + +LIFE.--Ralph Waldo Emerson, the most distinguished of New England +transcendentalists, came from a family of clergy. Peter Bulkeley, his +ancestor, was the first pastor of Concord in 1635. William Emerson, his +grandfather, was pastor in Concord at the opening of the Revolutionary War +and witnessed the fight of Concord Bridge from the window of the Old Manse, +that famous house which he had built and which Hawthorne afterwards +occupied. By that Bridge there stands a monument, commemorating the heroic +services of the men who there made the world-famous stand for freedom. On +the base of this monument are Ralph Waldo Emerson's lines:-- + + "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, + Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, + Here once the embattled farmers stood, + And fired the shot heard round the world." + +Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston in 1803. His father, who was pastor +of the First Church in Boston, died when Ralph Waldo was eight years old, +leaving in poverty a widow with six children under ten years of age. His +church promptly voted to pay his widow five hundred dollars a year, for +seven years, but even with this help the family was so poor that in cold +weather it was noticed that Ralph and his brother went to school on +alternate days. The boys divined the reason, and were cruel enough to call +out, "Whose turn is it to wear the coat to-day?" But the mother struggled +heroically with poverty, and gave her sons a good education. Ralph Waldo +entered Harvard in 1817. He saved the cost of his lodging by being +appointed "President's Freshman," as the official message bearer was +called, and earned most of his board by waiting on the table at the college +Commons. + +Emerson was descended from such a long line of clergymen that it was +natural for him to decide to be a minister. After graduating at Harvard and +taking a course in theology, he received a call from Cotton Mather's (p. +46) church and preached there for a short time; but he soon resigned +because he could not conscientiously conform to some of the customs of the +church. Although he occasionally occupied pulpits for a few years after +this, the greater part of his time for the rest of his life was spent in +writing and lecturing. + +When he was temporarily preaching in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1827, he +met Miss Ellen Tucker, then sixteen years old. This meeting was for two +reasons a noteworthy event in his life. In the first place, her inspiration +aided in the development of his poetical powers. He seemed to hear the +children of Nature say to her:-- + + "Thou shalt command us all,-- + April's cowslip, summer's clover, + To the gentian in the fall, + Blue-eyed pet of blue-eyed lover." + +[Illustration: ELLEN TUCKER] + +His verses tell how the flower and leaf and berry and rosebud ripening into +rose had seemed to copy her. He married her in 1829 and wrote the +magnificent prophecy of their future happiness in the poem beginning:-- + + "And Ellen, when the graybeard years," + +a poem which he could not bear to have published in his lifetime, for Mrs. +Emerson lived but a few years after their marriage. In the second place, in +addition to stimulating his poetical activity, his wife's help did not end +with her death; for she left him a yearly income of twelve hundred dollars, +without which he might never have secured the leisure necessary to enable +him "to live in all the faculties of his soul" and to become famous in +American literature. + +In the fall of 1833 he sailed for Europe, going by way of the +Mediterranean. Returning by way of England, he met Coleridge, Wordsworth, +and Carlyle, whose influence he had already felt. His visit to Carlyle led +to a lifelong friendship. Emerson helped to bring out an American edition +of the _Sartor Resartus_ (1836) before it was published in England. + +[Illustration: EMERSON'S STUDY] + +After returning from Europe, Emerson permanently settled at Concord, +Massachusetts, the most famous literary town of its size in the United +States. The appreciation of the Concord people for their home is shown by +the naive story, told by a member of Emerson's family, of a fellow townsman +who read of the rapidly rising price of building lots in Chicago, and +remarked, "Can't hardly believe that any lands can be worth so much money, +so far off." After Henry D. Thoreau (p. 194) had received a medal at school +for proficiency in geography, he went home and asked his mother if Boston +was located in Concord. It was to Concord that Emerson brought his second +wife, Lidian Jackson Emerson, whom he married in 1835. In Concord he wrote +his most famous _Essays_, and from there he set out on his various +lecturing tours. There he could talk daily to celebrities like Nathaniel +Hawthorne, Henry Thoreau, and Bronson Alcott. Louisa May Alcott relates +that when eight years old she was sent to the Emerson home to inquire about +the health of his oldest son, a boy of five. Emerson answered her knock, +and replied, "Child, he is dead!" Years later she wrote, "I never have +forgotten the anguish that made a familiar face so tragical, and gave those +few words more pathos than the sweet lamentation of the _Threnody_" Like +Milton and Tennyson, Emerson voiced his grief in an elegy, to which he gave +the title _Threnody_. In this poem the great teacher of optimism wrote:-- + + "For this losing is true dying; + This is lordly man's down-lying, + This his slow but sure reclining, + Star by star his world resigning." + +Aside from domestic incidents, his life at Concord was uneventful. As he +was by nature averse to contests, he never took an extreme part in the +antislavery movement, although he voiced his feelings against slavery, even +giving antislavery lectures, when he thought the occasion required such +action. His gentleness and tenderness were inborn qualities. Oliver Wendell +Holmes said that Emerson removed men's "idols from their pedestals so +tenderly that it seemed like an act of worship." + +He widened his influence by substituting the platform for the pulpit, and +year after year he enlarged his circle of hearers. He lectured in New +England, the South, and the West. Sometimes these lecture tours kept him +away from home the entire winter. In 1847 he lectured in England and +Scotland. He visited Carlyle again, and for four days listened to "the +great and constant stream" of his talk. On this second trip abroad, Emerson +met men like De Quincey, Macaulay, Thackeray, and Tennyson. Emerson gained +such fame in the mother country that, long after he had returned, he was +nominated for the Lord Rectorship of Glasgow University and received five +hundred votes against seven hundred for Disraeli, one of England's best +known statesmen. + +Something of his character and personality may be learned from the accounts +of contemporary writers. James Russell Lowell, who used to go again and +again to hear him, even when the subject was familiar, said, "We do not go +to hear what Emerson says so much as to hear Emerson." Hawthorne wrote, "It +was good to meet him in the wood paths or sometimes in our avenue with that +pure intellectual gleam diffusing about his presence like the garment of a +shining one." Carlyle speaks of seeing him "vanish like an angel" from his +lonely Scotch home. + +Emerson died in 1882 and was buried near Hawthorne, in Sleepy Hollow +cemetery at Concord, on the "hilltop hearsed with pines." Years before he +had said, "I have scarce a daydream on which the breath of the pines has +not blown and their shadow waved." The pines divide with an unhewn granite +boulder the honor of being his monument. + +EARLY PROSE.--Before he was thirty-five, Emerson had produced some prose +which, so far as America is concerned, might be considered epoch-making in +two respects: (1) in a new philosophy of nature, not new to the world, but +new in the works of our authors and fraught with new inspiration to +Americans; and (2) in a new doctrine of self-reliance and intellectual +independence for the New World. + +[Illustration: EMERSON'S GRAVE, CONCORD] + +In 1836 he published a small volume entitled _Nature_, containing fewer +than a hundred printed pages, but giving in embryo almost all the peculiar, +idealistic philosophy that he afterwards elaborated. By "Nature" he +sometimes means everything that is not his own soul, but he also uses the +word in its common significance, and talks of the beauty in cloud, river, +forest, and flower. Although _Nature_ is written in prose, it is evident +that the author is a poet. He says:-- + + "How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements! Give me + health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous. + The dawn is my Assyria; the sunset and moonrise my Paphos, and + unimaginable realms of faerie; broad noon shall be my England of the + senses and the understanding; the night shall be my Germany of + mystic philosophy and dreams." + +Emerson tried to make men feel that the beauty of the universe is the +property of every individual, but that the many divest themselves of their +heritage. When he undertook to tell Americans how to secure a warranty deed +to the beauties of nature, he specially emphasized the moral element in the +process. The student who fails to perceive that Emerson is one of the great +moral teachers has studied him to little purpose. To him all the processes +of nature "hint or thunder to man the laws of right and wrong, and echo the +Ten Commandments." In _Nature_, he says:-- + + "All things with which we deal, preach to us. What is a farm but a + mute gospel? The chaff and the wheat, weeds and plants, blight, + rain, insects, sun,--it is a sacred emblem from the first furrow of + spring to the last stack which the snow of winter overtakes in the + fields." + +In _Nature_, Emerson sets forth his idealistic philosophy. "Idealism sees +the world in God" is with him an axiom. This philosophy seems to him to +free human beings from the tyranny of materialism, to enable them to use +matter as a mere symbol in the solution of the soul's problems, and to make +the world conformable to thought. His famous sentence in this connection +is, "The sensual man conforms thoughts to things; the poet conforms things +to his thoughts." + +In _The American Scholar_, an address delivered at Cambridge in 1837, +Emerson announced what Oliver Wendell Holmes calls "our intellectual +Declaration of Independence." Tocqueville, a gifted Frenchman who visited +America in 1831, wrote: "I know no country in which there is so little +independence of opinion and freedom of discussion as in America.... If +great writers have not existed in America, the reason is very simply given +in the fact that there can be no literary genius without freedom of +opinion, and freedom of opinion does not exist in America." Harriet +Martineau, an English woman, who came to America in 1830, thought that the +subservience to opinion in and around Boston amounted to a sort of mania. +We have already seen how Cooper in his early days deferred to English taste +(p. 127), and how Andrew Jackson in his rough way proved something of a +corrective (p. 148). + +Emerson proceeded to deal such subserviency a staggering blow. He denounced +this "timid, imitative, tame spirit," emphasized the new importance given +to the single person, and asked, "Is it not the chief disgrace in the world +not to be a unit;--not to be reckoned one character;--not to yield that +peculiar fruit which each man was created to bear; but to be reckoned in +the gross, in the hundred, or the thousand, of the party, the section, to +which we belong, and our opinion predicted geographically, as the North, or +the South?" Then followed his famous declaration to Americans, "We will +walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our +own minds." + +No American author has done more to exalt the individual, to inspire him to +act according to his own intuitions and to mold the world by his own will. +Young Americans especially listened to his call, "O friend, never strike +sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas." + +ESSAYS.--The bulk of Emerson's work consists of essays, made up in large +part from lectures. In 1841 he published a volume, known as _Essays, First +Series_, and in 1844, another volume, called _Essays, Second Series_. Other +volumes followed from time to time, such as _Miscellanies_ (1849), +_Representative Men_ (1850), _English Traits_ (1856), _The Conduct of Life_ +(1860), _Society and Solitude_ (1870). While the _First Series_ of these +_Essays_ is the most popular, one may find profitable reading and even +inspiring passages scattered through almost all of his works, which +continued to appear for more than forty years. + +When we examine his _Essays, First Series_, we find that the volume is +composed of short essays on such subjects as _History_, _Self-Reliance_, +_Friendship_, _Heroism_, and the _Over-Soul_. If we choose to read +_Self-Reliance_, one of his most typical essays, we shall find that the +sentences, or the clauses which take the place of sentences, are short, +vigorous, and intended to reach the attention through the ear. For +instance, he says in this essay:-- + + "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the + conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that + he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion." + +Before we have finished _Self-Reliance_, he has made us feel that, with the +exercise of self-trust, new powers will appear; that a man should not +postpone his life, but live now; that a man is weak if he expects aid from +others; that discontent is want of self-reliance. + +We pick up another volume of essays, _Society and Solitude_, and wonder +whether we shall read _Success_, or _Books_, or _Civilization_, or any one +of nine others. While we are turning the pages, we see this sentence:-- + + "Hitch your wagon to a star," + +and we decide to read _Civilization_. + + "Now that is the wisdom of a man, in every instance of his labor, to + hitch his wagon to a star, and see his chore done by the gods + themselves. ... We cannot bring the heavenly powers to us, but, if + we will only choose our jobs in directions in which they travel, + they will undertake them with the greatest pleasure.... Let us not + lie and steal. No god will help. We shall find all their teams going + the other way." + +The youth is to be pitied if this does not quicken his determination to +choose his work in the direction in which the aiding forces of the universe +are traveling. + +Some of Emerson's best social philosophy may be found in the essay, +_Considerations by the Way_, published in the volume called _The Conduct of +Life_. His _English Traits_ records in a vigorous, interesting, +common-sense way his impressions from his travels in the mother country. +The English find in this volume some famous sentences, which they love to +quote, such as,-- + + "That which lures a solitary American in the woods with the wish to + see England, is the moral peculiarity of the Saxon race,--its + commanding sense of right and wrong,--the love and devotion to + that,--this is the imperial trait which arms them with the sceptre + of the globe." + +POETRY.--Emerson's verse is noteworthy for its exposition (1) of nature and +(2) of his transcendental philosophy. He produced a comparatively small +amount of poetry, but much more than he is popularly supposed to have +written. Some of his verse is of a high degree of excellence; in fact, his +nature poetry deserves to be ranked with the best that America has +produced. Like Bryant, Emerson loves the forest. He says:-- + + "I go to the god of the wood + To fetch his word to men." + +In _The Poet_, we see how great he thought the poet's debt to communion +with nature:-- + + "The gods talk in the breath of the woods, + They talk in the shaken pine, + And fill the long reach of the old seashore + With dialogue divine; + And the poet who overhears + Some random word they say + Is the fated man of men + Whom the ages must obey." + +Hawthorne saw Emerson one August day, wandering in Sleepy Hollow near +Concord, and wrote, "He appeared to have had a pleasant time; for he said +there were Muses in the woods to-day and whispers to be heard in the +breezes." When Emerson was twenty-four years old, he wrote the following +lines, which show the new feeling of mystic companionship with nature:-- + + "These trees and stones are audible to me, + These idle flowers, that tremble in the wind, + I understand their faery syllables." + +His verses make us feel how nature enriches human life, increases its joys, +and lessens its sorrows. What modern lover of nature has voiced a more +heartfelt, unaffected appreciation of her ministrations than may be found +in these lines from Emerson's _Musketaquid_?-- + + "All my hurts + My garden spade can heal. A woodland walk, + A quest of river grapes, a mocking thrush, + A wild rose or rock-loving columbine, + Salve my worst wounds." + +From reading his best nature poem, _Woodnotes_, first published in The +Dial, an appreciative person may find it easy to become + + "Lover of all things alive, + Wonderer at all he meets," + +to feel that in the presence of nature, every day is the best day of the +year, and possibly even to sing with Emerson of any spring or summer day:-- + + "'Twas one of the charmed days + When the genius of God doth flow; + The wind may alter twenty ways, + A tempest cannot blow; + It may blow north, it still is warm; + Or south, it still is clear; + Or east, it smells like a clover farm; + Or west, no thunder fear." + +All who love nature or who wish to become interested in her should read at +least his _Woodnotes_, _The Humble Bee_, _The Rhodora_, _Each and All_, +_The Snow Storm,_ and _To Ellen at the South_. + +Some of his philosophy may be found in poems like _The Problem_ (1839), +_The Sphinx_ (1841), and _Brahma_ (1857). The immanence of God in +everything, in the sculptor's hand, for instance, is well expressed in +_The Problem_:-- + + "The hand that rounded Peter's dome + And groined the aisles of Christian Rome + Wrought in a sad sincerity; + Himself from God he could not free; + He builded better than he knew;-- + The conscious stone to beauty grew." + +_The Sphinx_ thus expresses one of Emerson's favorite thoughts:-- + + "To vision profounder, + Man's spirit must dive," + +and concludes with the Sphinx's thought-provoking statement:- + + "Who telleth one of my meanings, + Is master of all I am." + +This line in _Brahma_:-- + + "I am the doubter and the doubt," + +shows his belief in the unity of all things, his conviction that all +existence and action result from one underlying force. His own personal +philosophy, that which actuated him in dealing with his fellow-men, is +expressed in the following lines, which are worthy a place in the active +memory of every American:-- + + "Life is too short to waste + In critic peep or cynic bark, + Quarrel or reprimand: + 'Twill soon be dark." + +While we are enjoying his poetry, we feel its limitations. Having slight +ear for music, he often wrote halting lines. Sometimes his poetic flight is +marked by too sudden a descent, but we shall often find in his verse rare +jewels, such as:-- + + "When Duty whispers low, '_Thou must_,' + The youth replies, '_I can._'" + +These lines seemed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, the moment he saw them, as if +they had been "carved on marble for a thousand years." Emerson's poetry +does not pulsate with warm human feeling, but it "follows the shining trail +of the ethereal," the ideal, and the eternal. His prose overshadows his +poetry, but no one without natural poetical ability of a high order could +have written the lines:-- + + "O tenderly the haughty day + Fills his blue urn with fire," + +or even have seen + + "The frolic architecture of the snow." + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--The central aim of Emerson's writing is moral +development. He is America's greatest ethical teacher. He thus voices his +fixed belief:-- + + "A breath of will blows eternally through the universe of + souls in the direction of the Right and Necessary." + +This belief gives rise to his remarkable optimism for the future, to his +conviction that evil is but a stepping stone to good. + +In a material age he is the great apostle of the spiritual. "Will you not +tolerate," he asks, "one or two solitary voices in the land, speaking for +thoughts not marketable or perishable?" To him "mind is the only reality," +and his great man is never the one who can merely alter matter, but who can +change our state of mind. He believed in reaching truth, guided by +intuition. He would not argue to maintain his positions. He said that he +did not know what argument signified with reference to a thought. To him a +thought was just as natural a product as a rose and did not need argument +to prove or justify its existence. Much of his work is tinged with Plato's +philosophy. + +Of all American writers, he is the most inspiring teacher of the young. One +of his chief objects is, in his own phrase, "to help the young soul, add +energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into a useful flame; to redeem +defeat by new thought, by firm action." John Tyndall, the eminent English +scientist, declared that the reading of two men, Carlyle and Emerson, had +made him what he was. He said to his students: "I never should have gone +through Analytical Geometry and Calculus, had it not been for these men. I +never should have become a physical investigator, and hence without them I +should not have been here to-day. They told me what I ought to do in a way +that caused me to do it, and all my consequent intellectual action is to be +traced to this purely moral force." After hearing one of Emerson's +lectures, James Russell Lowell wrote, "Were we enthusiasts? I hope and +believe we were, and am thankful to the man who made us worth something for +once in our lives." + +Few authors, excepting Shakespeare, have more of the quality of +universality in their writings. Many things in Emerson will fit certain +stages of individual development as well a thousand years hence as to-day +and be as applicable to the moral improvement of the Chinese as of +Americans. If he is not as much read in the future, it will be largely due +to the fact that his most inspiring subject matter has been widely diffused +through modern thought. + +Emerson's style is condensed. He spoke of his own paragraphs as +incompressible, "each sentence an infinitely repellent particle." Because +of this condensation, it is best not to read more than one essay at a time. +Years ago some joker said that Emerson's _Essays_ could be read as well +backward as forward, because there was no connection between the sentences. +The same observation could have been made with almost equal truth about +_Proverbs_, some of Bacon's _Essays_, Polonius's _Advice to Laertes_, parts +of Hamlet's _Soliloquy_, and, in general, about any condensed sentences +that endeavor to convey a complete, striking truth. Lowell remarks acutely: +"Did they say he was disconnected? So were the stars ... And were _they_ +not knit together by a higher logic than our mere sense could master?" We +should look for unity and connection in Emerson's chosen subject matter and +trend of thought. + +We must not forget that Emerson has in his prose as well as in his verse +many of the general characteristics of a poet. In his _Essays_, he +sometimes avails himself of the poetic license to be obscure and +contradictory and to present philosophy that will not walk on all fours. +When we examine some of the best passages on nature in his early prose +(_e.g._ p. 158), we shall find that they are highly poetical. + +Much of his verse is filled with the charm of nature and shows here and +there remarkable power of putting great riches in a little room, although +there may be intervening waste spaces. Critics may say that his poetry +lacks deep feeling, that it is mostly intellectual; if so, it is nobly +intellectual. Both his poetry and prose, to use an Emersonian expression, +"sail the seas with God." + + +HENRY DAVID THOREAU, 1817-1862 + +[Illustration: HENRY DAVID THOREAU] + +LIFE.--Henry David Thoreau, America's poet-naturalist, was born in 1817 at +Concord, Massachusetts. He was one of the youngest of the famous Concord +group of writers and the only one who could claim Concord as his birthplace +He was a lifelong student of nature, and he loved the district around +Concord. As a boy he knew its woods and streams because he had hunted and +fished in them. After his graduation from Harvard in 1837, he substituted +for the fishing rod and gun, the spyglass, microscope, measuring tape, and +surveying instruments, and continued his out-of-door investigations. + +[Illustration: THOREAU'S SPY-GLASS, FLUTE, ETC.] + +He taught school with his brother and lectured, but in order to add to his +slender income also did work unusual for a Harvard graduate, such as odd +jobs of carpentering, planting trees, and surveying. He also assisted his +father in his business of pencil making, and together they made the best +pencils in New England. Whatever he undertook, he did thoroughly. He had no +tolerance for the shoddy or for compromises. Exact workmanship was part of +his religion. "Drive a nail home," he writes in _Walden_, "and clinch it so +faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with +satisfaction." + +Like so many of the transcendentalists, Thoreau desired to surround his +life with a "wide margin of leisure" in order that he might live in his +higher faculties and not be continuously dwarfed with the mere drudgery of +earning his sustenance. He determined to divest himself of as many of the +burdens of civilization as possible, to lead the simple life, and to waste +the least possible time in the making of mere money. The leisure thus +secured, he spent in studying birds, plants, trees, fish, and other objects +of nature, in jotting down a record of his experiences, and in writing +books. + +[Illustration: SITE OF THOREAU'S HUT, WALDEN POND] + +Since he did not marry and incur responsibilities for others, he was free +to choose his own manner of life. His regular habit was to reserve half of +every day for walking in the woods; but for two years and two months he +lived alone in the forest, in a small house that he himself built upon a +piece of Emerson's property beside Walden Pond, about a mile south of +Concord. Thoreau found that he could earn enough in six weeks to support +himself in this simple way for the rest of the year. He thus acquired the +leisure to write books that are each year read with increasing interest. +The record of his life at Walden forms the basis for his best known work. A +few people practice the return to nature for a short time, but Thoreau +spent his available life with nature. + +He was a pronounced individualist, carrying out Emerson's doctrine by +becoming independent of others' opinions. What he thought right, he said or +did. He disapproved, for example, of slavery, and consequently refused to +pay his poll tax to a government that upheld slavery. When he was +imprisoned because of non-payment, Emerson visited him and asked, "Why are +you here, Henry?" Thoreau merely replied, "Why are you _not_ here?" + +His intense individualism made him angular, and his transcendental love of +isolation caused him to declare that he had never found "the companion that +was so companionable as solitude"; but he was, nevertheless, spicy, +original, loyal to friends, a man of deep family affection, stoical in his +ability to stand privations, and Puritanic in his conviction about the +moral aim of life. His last illness, induced by exposure to cold, confined +him for months away from the out of doors that he loved. In 1862, at the +age of forty-five, he said, as he lay on his deathbed, "When I was a very +little boy, I learned that I must die, and I set that down, so, of course, +I am not disappointed now." He was buried not far from Emerson's lot in the +famous Sleepy Hollow cemetery at Concord. + +WORKS.--Only two of his books were published during his lifetime. These +were _A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers_ (1849) and _Walden_ +(1854). The first of these, usually referred to as _The Week_, is the +record of a week spent in a rowboat on the rivers mentioned in the title. +The clearness and exactness of the descriptions are remarkable. Whenever he +investigated nature, he took faithful notes so that when he came to write a +more extended description or a book, he might have something more definite +than vague memory impressions on which to rely. When he describes in _The +Week_ a mere patch of the river bank, this definiteness of observation is +manifest:-- + + "The dead limbs of the willow were rounded and adorned by the + climbing milkania, _Milkania scandens_, which filled every + crevice in the leafy bank, contrasting agreeably with the gray bark + of its supporter and the balls of the button-bush." + +This book did not prove popular, and almost three fourths of the edition +were left on his hands. This unfortunate venture caused him to say, "I have +now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which +were written by myself." + +_Walden_ is the book by which Thoreau is best known. It is crisper, +livelier, more concise and humorous, and less given to introspective +philosophizing than _The Week_. _Walden_, New England's _Utopia_, is the +record of Thoreau's experiment in endeavoring to live an ideal life in the +forest. This book differs from most of its kind in presenting actual life, +in not being mainly evolved from the inner consciousness on the basis of a +very little experience. He thus states the reason why he withdrew to the +forest:-- + + "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front + only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what + it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had + not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so + dear." + +[Illustration: FURNITURE FROM THOREAU'S CABIN, WALDEN POND] + +His food during his twenty-six months of residence there cost him +twenty-seven cents a week. "I learned," he says, "from my two years' +experience that it would cost incredibly little trouble to obtain one's +necessary food, even in this latitude; that a man may use as simple a diet +as the animals, and yet retain health and strength.... I am convinced both +by faith and experience that to maintain one's self on this earth is not a +hardship, but a pastime." This book has, directly or indirectly, caused +more to desire the simple life and a return to nature than any other work +in American literature. + +In _Walden_ he speaks of himself as a "self-appointed inspector of +snowstorms and rainstorms." His companionship with nature became so +intimate as to cause him to say, "Every little pine needle expanded and +swelled with sympathy and befriended me." When a sparrow alighted upon his +shoulder, he exclaimed, "I felt that I was more distinguished by that +circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn." +When nature had some special celebration with the trees, such as decking +them with snow or ice or the first buds of spring, he frequently tramped +eight or ten miles "to keep an appointment with a beech-tree or a +yellow-birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines." It is amusing to +read how on such a walk he disturbed the daytime slumbers of a large owl, +how the bird opened its eyes wide, "but their lids soon fell again, and he +began to nod," and how a sympathetic hypnotization began to take effect on +Thoreau. "I too," he says, "felt a slumberous influence after watching him +half an hour, as he sat thus with his eyes half open, like a cat, winged +brother of the cat." + +In spite of some Utopian philosophy and too much insistence on the +self-sufficiency of the individual, _Walden_ has proved a regenerative +force in the lives of many readers who have not passed the plastic stage. +The book develops a love for even commonplace natural objects, and, like +poetry, discloses a new world of enjoyment. _Walden_ is Thoreau's most +vital combination of his poetic apprehension of wild nature with his +philosophy and aggressive individualism. + +Almost all of his work is autobiographical, a record of actual experience. +_The Maine Woods_ (1864), _Cape Cod_ (1865), and _A Yankee in Canada_ +(1866) are records of his tramps in the places named in the titles-, but +these works do not possess the interest of _Walden_. + +His voluminous manuscript _Journal_ is an almost daily record of his +observations of nature, mingled with his thoughts, from the time when he +left college until his last sickness. At periods for nearly fifty years +after his death, various works have been compiled from this _Journal_. The +volumes published under the titles, _Early Spring in Massachusetts_ (1881), +_Summer_ (1884), _Winter_ (1887), _Autumn_ (1892), and _Notes on New +England Birds_ (1910) were not arranged by him in their present form. +Editors searched his _Journal_ for entries dealing with the same season or +type of life, and put these in the same volume. Sometimes, as, for +instance, in _Winter_, paragraphs separated by an interval of nineteen +years in composition become neighbors. In spite of the somewhat fragmentary +nature of these works, lovers of Thoreau become intensely interested in +them. His _Journal_ in the form in which he left it was finally published +in 1906, in fourteen volumes containing 6811 printed pages. He differs from +the majority of writers because the interest in his work increases with the +passing of the years. + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--Thoreau's object was to discover how to live a +rich, full life with a broad margin of leisure. Intimate companionship with +nature brought this secret to him, and he has taught others to increase the +joys of life from sympathetic observation of everyday occurrences. + +A mere unimaginative naturalist may be a bore; but Thoreau regarded nature +with the eyes of a poet. His ear was thrilled with the vesper song of the +whippoorwill, the lisping of the chickadee among the evergreens, and the +slumber call of the toads. For him the bluebird "carries the sky on its +back." The linnets come to him "bearing summer in their natures." When he +asks, "Who shall stand godfather at the christening of the wild apples?" +his reply shows rare poetic appreciation of nature's work:-- + + "We should have to call in the sunrise and the sunset, the rainbow and + the autumn woods and the wild flowers, and the woodpecker and the purple + finch and the squirrel and the jay and the butterfly, the November + traveler and the truant boy, to our aid." + +He is not only a poet-naturalist, but also a philosopher, who shows the +influence of the transcendental school, particularly of Emerson. Some of +Thoreau's philosophy is impractical and too unsocial, but it aims to +discover the underlying basis of enchantment. He thus sums up the +philosophy which his life at Walden taught him:-- + + "I learned this at least by my experiment--that if one advances + confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the + life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in + common hours.... If you have built castles in the air, your work need not + be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under + them." + +The reason why he left Walden shows one of his pronounced transcendental +characteristics, a dread of repetition. He gives an account of only his +first year of life there, and adds, "the second year was similar to it." He +says:-- + + "I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed + to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more + time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall + into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not + lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond + side." + +He does not demand that other human beings shall imitate him in devoting +their lives to a study of nature. He says, "Follow your genius closely +enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour." He +thus expresses his conception of the fundamental basis of happiness in any +of the chosen avenues of life:-- + + "Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce + between virtue and vice. Goodness is the only investment that never + fails." + +His insistence on the necessity of a moral basis for a happy life is a +characteristic that he shared in common with the great authors of the New +England group, but he had his own individual way of impressing this truth. +He thought life too earnest a quest to tolerate the frivolous or the +dilettante, and he issued his famous warning that no one can "kill time +without injuring eternity." His aim in studying nature was not so much +scientific discovery as the revelation of nature's joyous moral message to +the spiritual life of man. He may have been unable to distinguish between +the song of the wood thrush and the hermit thrush. To him the most +important fact was that the thrush is a rare poet, singing of "the immortal +wealth and vigor that is in the forest." "The thrush sings," says Thoreau, +in his _Journal_, "to make men take higher and truer views of things." + +The sterling honesty and directness of Thoreau's character are reflected in +his style. He says, "The one great rule of composition--and if I were a +professor of rhetoric I should insist on this--is to _speak the truth_." +This was his aim in presenting the results of the experience of his soul, +as well as of his senses. If he exaggerated the importance of a certain way +of regarding things, he did so only because he thought the exaggeration was +necessary to secure attention for that particular truth, which would even +then not be apprehended at its full value. His style has a peculiar flavor, +difficult to describe. Lowell's characterization of Thoreau's style has +hardly been surpassed. "His range was narrow, but to be a master is to be a +master. There are sentences of his as perfect as anything in the language, +and thoughts as clearly crystallized; his metaphors and images are always +fresh from the soil." + +Thoreau's style shows remarkable power of description. No American has +surpassed him in unique description of the most varied incidents in the +procession of all the seasons. We shall find frequent illustrations of this +power scattered through his _Journal_:-- + + "_June_ 1, 1857. I hear the note of a bobolink concealed in the top of an + apple tree behind me.... He is just touching the strings of his theorbo, + his glassichord, his water organ, and one or two notes globe themselves + and fall in liquid bubbles from his teeming throat. It is as if he + touched his harp within a vase of liquid melody, and when he lifted it + out, the notes fell like bubbles from the trembling string ... the meadow + is all bespattered with melody. His notes fall with the apple blossoms, + in the orchard." + +Even more characteristic is an entry in his _Journal_ for June 11, 1840, +where he tries to fathom the consciousness of the solitary bittern:-- + + "With its patient study by rocks and sandy capes, has it wrested the + whole of her secret from Nature yet? It has looked out from its dull eye + for so long, standing on one leg, on moon and stars sparkling through + silence and dark, and now what a rich experience is its! What says it of + stagnant pools, and reeds, and damp night fogs? It would be worth while + to look in the eye which has been open and seeing in such hours and in + such solitudes. When I behold that dull yellowish green, I wonder if my + own soul is not a bright invisible green. I would fain lay my eye side by + side with its and learn of it." + +In this entry, which was probably never revised for publication, we note +three of his characteristics: his images "fresh from the soil," adding +vigor to his style; his mystic and poetic communion with nature; and the +peculiar transcendental desire to pass beyond human experience and to +supplement it with new revelations of the gospel of nature. + + +NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, 1804-1864 + +[Illustration: NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE] + +ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS.--William Hathorne, the ancestor of America's +greatest prose writer, sailed at the age of twenty-three from England on +the ship _Arbella_ with John Winthrop (p. 30), and finally settled at +Salem, Massachusetts. He brought with him a copy of Sir Philip Sidney's +_Arcadia_, a very unusual book for the library of a New England Puritan. + +[Illustration: HAWTHORNES BIRTHPLACE, SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS] + +John Hathorne, a son of the first settler, was a judge of the poor +creatures who were put to death as witches at Salem in 1692. The great +romance writer says that this ancestor "made himself so conspicuous in the +martyrdom of the witches, that their blood may fairly be said to have left +a stain upon him. ...I, the present writer, as their representative, hereby +take shame upon myself for their sakes, and pray that any curse incurred by +them--as I have heard, and as the dreary and unprosperous condition of the +race, for many a long year back, would argue to exist--may be now and +henceforth removed." Tradition says that the husband of one of the tortured +victims appealed to God to avenge her sufferings and murder. Probably the +ancestral curse hanging over _The House of the Seven Gables_ would not have +been so vividly conceived, if such a curse had not been traditional in the +Hawthorne family. + +Nathaniel Hawthorne, the sixth in descent from the first New England +ancestor, and the first of his family to add a "w" to his name, was born in +Salem in 1804. His father, a sea captain, died of a fever at a foreign port +in 1808. Hawthorne's mother was twenty-seven years old at this time, and +for forty years after this sad event, she usually took her meals in her own +room away from her three children. Everybody in that household became +accustomed to loneliness. At the age of fourteen, the boy went to live for +a while on the shore of Sebago Lake, Maine. "I lived in Maine," he said, +"like a bird of the air, so perfect was the freedom I enjoyed. But it was +there I got my cursed habits of solitude." Shyness and aversion to meeting +people became marked characteristics. + +His solitariness predisposed him to reading, and we are told that Bunyan's +_Pilgrim's Progress_ and Shakespeare's plays were special favorites. +Spenser's _Faerie Queene_ was the first book that he bought with his own +money. Bunyan and Spenser probably fostered his love of the allegorical +method of presenting truth, a method that is in evidence in the bulk of +Hawthorne's work. He even called his daughter Una, after one of Spenser's +allegorical heroines, and, following the suggestion in the _Faerie Queene_, +gave the name of "Lion" to the large cat that came to her as a playmate. + +At the age of seventeen, Hawthorne went to Bowdoin College, Maine, where he +met such students as Longfellow, Franklin Pierce, and Horatio Bridge, in +after years a naval officer, who published in 1893 a delightful volume +called _Personal Reminiscences of Nathaniel Hawthorne_. These friends +changed the course of Hawthorne's life. In his dedication of _The Snow +Image_ to Bridge in 1850, Hawthorne says, "If anybody is responsible for my +being at this day an author, it is yourself." + +LITERARY APPRENTICESHIP.--After leaving college, Milton spent nearly six +years in studious retirement; but Hawthorne after graduating at Bowdoin, in +1825, passed in seclusion at Salem a period twice as long. Here he lived +the life of a recluse, frequently postponing his walks until after dark. He +was busy serving his apprenticeship as an author. In 1828 he paid one +hundred dollars for the publication of _Fanshawe_, an unsuccessful short +romance. In mortification he burned the unsold copies, and his rejected +short stories often shared the same fate. He was so depressed that in 1836 +his friend Bridge went quietly to a publisher and by guaranteeing him +against loss induced him to bring out Hawthorne's volume entitled +_Twice--Told Tales_. + +[Illustration: MISS PEABODYS DRAWING FOR "THE GENTLE BOY"] + +The Peabodys of Salem then invited the author to their home, where he met +the artistic Miss Sophia Peabody, who made an illustration for his fine +historical story, _The Gentle Boy_. Of her he wrote, "She is a flower to be +worn in no man's bosom, but was lent from Heaven to show the possibilities +of the human soul." We find that not long after he wrote in his _American +Note-Books_:-- + + "All that seems most real about us is but the thinnest substance of a + dream,--till the heart be touched. That touch creates us,--then we begin + to be,--thereby we are beings of reality and inheritors of eternity." + +He was thinking of Sophia Peabody's creative touch, for he had become +engaged to her. + +[Illustration: 'THE OLD MANSE,' HAWTHORNE'S FIRST CONCORD HOME] + +Fired with the ambition of making enough money to enable him to marry, he +secured a subordinate position in the Boston customhouse, from which the +spoils system was soon responsible for his discharge. He then invested in +Brook Farm a thousand dollars which he had saved, thinking that this would +prove a home to which he could bring his future wife and combine work and +writing in an ideal way. A year's trial of this life convinced him of his +mistake. He was then thirty eight, and much poorer for his last experiment; +but he withdrew and in a few months married Miss Peabody and took her to +live in the famous Old Manse at Concord. The first entry in his _American +Note-Books_ after this transforming event is:-- + + "And what is there to write about? Happiness has no succession of events, + because it is a part of eternity, and we have been living in eternity + ever since we came to this old manse. Like Enoch we seem to have been + translated to the other state of being, without having passed through + death." + +The history of American literature can record no happier marriage and no +more idyllic life than this couple lived for nearly four years in the Old +Manse. While residing here, Hawthorne wrote another volume, known as +_Mosses from an Old Manse_ (1846). The only serpent to enter that Eden was +poverty. Hawthorne's pen could not support his family. He found himself in +debt before he had finished his fourth year in Concord. Moncure D. Conway, +writing Hawthorne's _Life_ in 1890, the year before American authors were +protected by international copyright, says, "In no case has literature, +pure and simple, ever supported an American author, unless, possibly, if he +were a bachelor." Hawthorne's college friends, Bridge and Pierce, came to +his assistance, and used their influence with President Polk to secure for +Hawthorne the position of surveyor of customs at Salem, with a yearly +salary of twelve hundred dollars. + +HIS PRIME AND LATER YEARS.--He kept his position as head customs officer at +Salem for three years. Soon after President Taylor was inaugurated in 1849, +the spoils system again secured Hawthorne's removal. When he came home +dejected with this news, his wife smiled and said, "Oh, then you can write +your book!" _The Scarlet Letter_, published in 1850, was the result. The +publisher printed five thousand copies, all that he had ever expected to +sell, and then ordered the type to be distributed at once. Finding in ten +days, however, that every copy had been sold, he gave the order to have the +type reset and permanent plates made. Hawthorne had at last, at the age of +forty-six, become one of the greatest writers of English prose romance. +From this time he wrote but few short tales. + +He left Salem in the year of the publication of _The Scarlet Letter_, never +again to return to it as a place of residence, although his pen continued +to help immortalize his birthplace. + +In 1852 he bought of Bronson Alcott in Concord a house since known as the +"Wayside." This was to be Hawthorne's American home during his remaining +years. Here he had a tower room so constructed as to be well-nigh +inaccessible to visitors, and he also had a romantic study bower built in +the pine trees on a hill back of his house. + +[Illustration: HAWTHORNE'S PINE STUDY, CONCORD] + +His college friend, Pierce, was inaugurated President of the United States +in 1853, and he appointed Hawthorne consul at Liverpool. This consulship +then netted the holder between $5000 and $7000 a year. After nearly four +years' service in this position, he resigned and traveled in Europe with +his family. They lived in Rome sufficiently long for him to absorb the +local color for his romance of _The Marble Faun_. He remained abroad for +seven years. The record of his travels and impressions may be found in his +_English Note-Books_ and in his _French and Italian Note-Books_. _Our Old +Home_, a volume based on his _English Note-Books_, is a more finished +account of his thoughts and experiences in England. + +In 1860 he returned quietly to his Concord home. His health was failing, +but he promised to write for the _Atlantic Monthly_ another romance, called +_The Dolliver Romance_. This, however, was never finished, and _The Marble +Faun_ remains the last of his great romances. His health continued to fail, +and in May, 1864, Pierce, thinking that a trip might prove beneficial, +started with him on a journey to the White Mountains. Hawthorne retired for +the night at the hotel in Plymouth, New Hampshire, and the next morning +Pierce found that Hawthorne's wish of dying unawares in his sleep had been +gratified. He had passed away before the completion of his fifty-ninth +year. He was buried underneath the pines in the Sleepy Hollow cemetery at +Concord. His classmate, Longfellow, wrote:-- + + "There in seclusion and remote from men, + The wizard hand lies cold." + +"TWICE TOLD TALES" AND "MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE."--Many do not realize +that these two volumes contain eighty-two tales or sketches and that they +represent the most of Hawthorne's surviving literary work for the first +forty-five years of his life. The title for _Twice-Told Tales_ (1837) was +probably suggested by the line from Shakespeare's _King John:_ "Life is as +tedious as a twice-told tale." The second volume, _Mosses from an Old +Manse_ (1846), took its name from Hawthorne's first Concord home. His last +collection is called _The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales_ (1851). +Each one of these volumes contains some of his short-story masterpieces, +although, taken as a whole, the collection in _Mosses from an Old Manse_ +shows the greatest power and artistic finish. + +The so-called tales in these volumes are of several different types. (1) +There is the story which presents chiefly allegorical or symbolic truth, +such as _Rappacini's Daughter, The Great Stone Face, The Birthmark, The +Artist of the Beautiful, and The Snow Image._ The last story, one of the +greatest of this class, relates how two children make a companion out of a +snow image, how Jack Frost and the pure west wind endow this image with +life and give them a little "snow sister." She grows more vigorous with +every life-giving breath inhaled from the west wind. She extends her hands +to the snow-birds, and they joyously flock to her. The father of these +children is a deadly literal man. No tale of fairy, no story of dryad, of +Aladdin's lamp, or of winged sandal had ever carried magical meaning to his +unimaginative literal mind, and he proceeds to disenchant the children. +Like Nathan the prophet, Hawthorne wished to say, "Thou art the man," to +some tens of thousands of stupid destroyers of those ideals which bring +something of Eden back to our everyday lives. This story, like so many of +the others, was written with a moral purpose. There are to-day people who +measure their acquaintances by their estimates of this allegorical story. + +(2) Another type of Hawthorne's stories illustrates the history of New +England. Such are _The Gentle Boy_, _The Maypole of Merry Mount_, +_Endicotts Red Cross_, and _Lady Eleanore's Mantle_. We may even include in +this list _Young Goodman Brown_, in one sense an unreal and fantastic tale, +but in another, historically true to the Puritanic idea of the orgies of +witches in a forest. If we wish, for instance, to supplement the cold page +of history with a tale that breathes the very atmosphere of the Quaker +persecution of New England, let us open _The Twice-Told Tales_ and read the +story of _The Gentle Boy_, a Quaker child of six, found sobbing on his +father's newly-made grave beside the scaffold under the fir tree. Let us +enter the solemn meeting house, hear the clergyman inveigh against the +Quakers, and sit petrified when, at the end of the sermon, that boy's +mother, like a Daniel entering the lion's den, ascends the pulpit, and +invokes woe upon the Puritans. + +(3) We shall occasionally find in these volumes what eighteenth-century +readers of the _Spectator_ would have called a "paper," that is, a +delightful bit of mixed description and narration, "a narrative essay" or +"a sketch," as some prefer to call it. In this class we may include _The +Old Manse_, _The Old Apple-Dealer_, _Sights from a Steeple_, _A Rill from +the Town Pump_, and the masterly _Introduction to The Scarlet Letter_. + +_The Old Manse_, the first paper in _Mosses from an Old Manse_, is +excellent. Hawthorne succeeds in taking his readers with him up the +Assabeth River, in a boat made by Thoreau. We agree with Hawthorne that a +lovelier river "never flowed on earth,--nowhere indeed except to lave the +interior regions of a poet's imagination." When we return with him at the +end of that day's excursion, we are almost tempted to say that we can never +again be enslaved as before. We feel that we can say with him:-- + + "We were so free to-day that it was impossible to be slaves again + tomorrow. When we crossed the threshold of the house or trod the thronged + pavements of a city, still the leaves of the trees that overhang the + Assabeth were whispering to us, 'Be free! Be free.'" + +These volumes entitle Hawthorne to be ranked among the greatest of +short-story writers. Like Irving, Hawthorne did not take the air line +directness of narration demanded by the modern short story; but the moral +truth and beauty of his tales will long prove their elixir of life, after +the passing of many a modern short story which has divested itself of +everything except the mere interest in narration. + +CHILDREN'S STORIES.--Hawthorne's _Grandfather's Chair_ (1841) is a series +of simple stories of New England history, from the coming of the Mayflower +to the death of Samuel Adams in 1803. Hawthorne's greatest success in +writing for children is to be found in his _A Wonder Book_ (1851) and +_Tanglewood Tales_ (1853). In these volumes he has adapted the old +classical myths to the tastes of American children. His unusual version of +these myths meets two supreme tests. Children like it, and are benefited by +it. Many would rejoice to be young enough again to hear for the first time +the story of _The Golden Touch_,--how Midas prized gold above all things, +how he secured the golden touch, and how the flies that alighted on his +nose fell off little nuggets of gold. What a fine thing we thought the +golden touch until he touched his beautiful little daughter, Marygold! No +sermon could better have taught us that gold is not the thing above all to +be desired. + +[Illustration: THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES] + +Hawthorne stands in the front rank of a very small number whose writings +continue to appeal to the children of succeeding generations. He loved and +understood children and shared their experiences. He was one of those whose +sixteenth amendment to the Constitution reads, "The rights and caprices of +children in the United States shall not be denied or abridged on account of +age, sex, or formal condition of tutelage." + +GREAT ROMANCES.--Hawthorne wrote four long romances: _The Scarlet Letter_ +(1850), the scene of which is laid in Boston in Governor Winthrop's time, +_The House of the Seven Gables_ (1851), with the scene laid in Salem, _The +Marble Faun_ (1860), in Rome, and _The Blithedale Romance_ (1852), in an +ideal community similar to Brook Farm. The first three of these works have +a great moral truth to present. Accordingly, the details of scene, plot, +description, and conversation are handled so as to emphasize this central +truth. + +_The Scarlet Letter_ was written to show that the consequences of a sin +cannot be escaped and that many different lives are influenced by one wrong +deed. The lives of Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger +Chillingworth are wrecked by the crime in _The Scarlet Letter_. Roger +Chillingworth is transformed into a demon of revenge. So malevolent does he +become that Hester wonders "whether the tender grass of early spring would +not be blighted beneath him." She would not be surprised to see him "spread +bat's wings and flee away." The penalty paid by Arthur Dimmesdale is to +appear to be what he is not, and this is a terrible punishment to his +sensitive nature. The slow steps by which his soul is tortured and darkened +are followed with wonderful clearness, and the agony of his soul alone with +God is presented with an almost Shakespearean pen. The third sufferer is +the beautiful Hester Prynne. Her fate is the most terrible because she not +only writhes under a severe punishment inflicted by the authorities, but +also suffers from daily, even hourly, remorse. To help assuage her grief, +and to purify her soul, Hester becomes the self-effacing good Samaritan of +the village. Her uncomplaining courage, noble beauty, and self-sacrifice +make her the center of this tragic story. + +[Illustration: CUSTOMERS OF ONE CENT SHOP, "HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES"] + +Shakespeare proposed no harder problem than the one in _The Scarlet +Letter_,--the problem of the expiation of sin. The completeness with which +everything is subordinated to the moral question involved, and the +intensity with which this question is treated, show the Puritanic +temperament and the imaginative genius of the author. Hawthorne is Puritan +in the earnestness of his purpose, but he is wholly the artist in carrying +out his design. Such a combination of Puritan and artist has given to +American literature in _The Scarlet Letter_ a masterpiece, somber yet +beautiful, ethical yet poetic, incorporating both the spirit of a past time +and the lessons of an eternal present. This incomparable romance is unified +in conception, symmetrical in form, and nobly simple in expression. + +Far less somber than _The Scarlet Letter_ is _The House of the Seven +Gables_. This has been called a romance of heredity, because the story +shows the fulfillment of a curse upon the distant descendants of the +wrongdoer, old Judge Pyncheon. The present inhabitants of the Pyncheon +mansion, who are among the worst sufferers, are Hepzibah Pyncheon and her +brother Clifford. Hawthorne's pages contain nothing more pathetic than the +picture of helplessness presented by these two innocent souls, bearing a +burden of crime not their own. The brightness of the story comes through +the simple, joyous, home-making nature of Phoebe Pyncheon. She it is who +can bring a smile to Clifford's face and can attract custom to Hepzibah's +cent shop. Hawthorne never loses sight of his purpose. The curse finds its +last victim, and the whole story is a slow preparation for this event. The +scenes, however, in which Phoebe, that "fair maker of sunshine," reigns as +queen, are so peaceful and attractive, the cent shop, which Hepzibah is +forced to open for support, offers so many opportunities for comic as well +as pathetic incidents, and the outcome of the story is so satisfactory that +it is the brightest of all Hawthorne's long romances. + +In _The Marble Faun_, Hawthorne's last complete romance, the Puritan +problem of sin is transplanted to Italian soil. The scene is laid in Rome, +where the art of Michael Angelo and Raphael, the secret orders of the +Church, the tragic history of the eternal city, with its catacombs and +ruins, furnish a rich and varied background for the story. So faithfully +indeed are the galleries, churches, and historic corners of Rome described, +that _The Marble Faun_ has served as a guide for the cultured visitor. This +expression of opinion by the late A. P. Stanley (1815-1881), a well-known +author and dean of Westminster Abbey, is worth remembering: "I have read it +seven times. I read it when it appeared, as I read everything from that +English master. I read it again when I expected to visit Rome, then when on +the way to Rome, again while in Rome, afterwards to revive my impressions +of Rome. Recently I read it again because I wanted to." In this historic +setting, Hawthorne places four characters: Donatello, the faun, Miriam, the +beautiful and talented young artist, Kenyon, the American sculptor, and +Hilda, the Puritan maid who tends the lamp of the Virgin in her tower among +the doves and makes true copies of the old masters. From the beginning of +the story some mysterious evil power is felt, and this power gains fuller +and fuller ascendency over the characters. What that is the author does not +say. It seems the very spirit of evil itself that twines its shadow about +human beings and crushes them if they are not strong enough to resist. + +[Illustration: HILDA'S TOWER, VIA PORTOGHESE, ROME] + +In _The Scarlet Letter_ it was shown that the moral law forces evildoers to +pay the last farthing of the debt of sinning. _In The Marble Faun_ the +effect of sin in developing character is emphasized, and Donatello, the +thoughtless creature of the woods is portrayed in his stages of growth +after his moral nature has first been roused by a great crime. The question +is raised, Can the soul be developed and strengthened by sin? The problem +is handled with Hawthorne's usual moral earnestness of purpose, and is +expressed in his easiest and most flexible style. Nevertheless this work +has not the suppressed intensity, completeness of outline, and artistic +symmetry possessed by _The Scarlet Letter_. The chief defects of _The +Marble Faun_ are a vagueness of form, a distracting variety of scene, and a +lack of the convincing power of reality. The continued popularity of this +romance, however, is justly due to its poetic conception, its atmosphere of +ancient mystery, and its historic Roman background. + +_The Blithedale Romance_ and the cooperative settlement described in it +were suggested to Hawthorne by his Brook Farm experience, although he +disclaims any attempt to present an actual picture of that community. The +idea of the division of labor, the transcendental conversations, and many +of the incidents owe their origin to his sojourn at Brook Farm (p. 166). +Although _The Blithedale Romance_ does not equal the three romances already +described, it contains one character, Zenobia, who is the most original and +dramatic of Hawthorne's men and women, and some scenes which are as +powerful as any drawn by him. + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--Hawthorne gave the Puritan to literature. This +achievement suggests Irving's canonization of the Knickerbockers and +Cooper's of the pioneer and the Indian. Himself a Unitarian and out of +sympathy with the Puritans' creed, Hawthorne nevertheless says, "And yet, +let them scorn me as they will, strong traits of their nature have +intertwined themselves with mine." He and they had the same favorite +subject,--the human soul in its relation to the judgment day. He could no +more think of sin unrelated to the penalty, than of a serpent without shape +or color. Unlike many modern novelists, his work never wanders beyond a +world where the Ten Commandments rule. Critics have well said that he never +painted a so-called man of the world, because such a man, by Hawthorne's +definition, would really be a man out of the great moral world, which to +Hawthorne seemed the only real world. + +He is preeminently a writer of romance. He was always powerfully influenced +by such romantic materials as may be found in the world of witchcraft and +the supernatural, or such as are suggested by dim foreshadowings of evil +and by the many mysteries for which human philosophy does not account. For +this reason, his works are removed from the commonplace and enveloped in an +imaginative atmosphere. He subjects his use of these romantic +materials--the unusual, the improbable, and the supernatural--to only one +touchstone. He is willing to avail himself of these, so long as he does +not, in his own phrase, "swerve aside from the truth of the human heart." + +His stories are frequently symbolic. He selects some object, token, or +utterance, in harmony with his purpose, and uses it as a symbol to +prefigure some moral action or result. The symbol may be an embroidered +mantle, indicative of pride; a butterfly, typical of emergence from a dead +chrysalis to a state of ideal beauty; or the words of a curse, which +prophesy a ghastly death. His choice of scene, plot, and character is in +harmony with the moral purpose indicated by the symbol. Sometimes this +purpose is dimly veiled in allegory, but even when his stories are sermons +in allegory, like _The Snow Image_, he so invests them with poetic fancy or +spiritual beauty as to make them works of art. His extensive use of +symbolism and allegory has been severely criticized. It is unfortunate that +he did not learn earlier in life what _The Scarlet Letter_ should have +taught him, that he did not need to rely on these supports. He becomes one +of the great masters when he paints character from the inside with a touch +so vivid and compelling that the symbolism and the allegory vanish like a +dissolving picture and reveal human forms. When he has breathed into them +the creator's breath of life, he walks with them hand in hand in this lost +Eden. He ascends the pillory with Hester Prynne, and writhes with Arthur +Dimmesdale's agony. He plays on the seashore with little Pearl. He shares +Hepzibah Pyncheon's solitude and waits on the customers in the cent shop +with Phoebe. He eats two dromedaries and a gingerbread locomotive with +little Ned Higgins. + +Hawthorne did not care much for philosophical systems, and never concerned +himself with the intricacies of transcendentalism. Yet he was affected by +that philosophy, as is shown by his personal isolation and that of his +characters. His intense belief in individuality is also a transcendental +doctrine. He holds that the individual is his own jailer, his own +liberator, the preserver or loser of his own Eden. Moral regeneration seems +to him an individual, not a social, affair. + +His style is easy, exact, flowing, and it shows the skill of a literary +artist. He never strains after effect, never uses excessive ornament, never +appears hurried. There was not another nineteenth-century prose master on +either side of the Atlantic who could in fewer words or simpler language +have secured the effect produced by _The Scarlet Letter_. He wished to be +impressive in describing Phoebe, that sunbeam in _The House of the Seven +Gables_, but he says simply:-- + + "She was like a prayer, offered up in the homeliest beauty of one's + mother tongue." + +Sincerity is the marked characteristic of this simplicity in style, and it +makes an impression denied to the mere striver after effect, however +cunning his art. + +A writer of imperishable romances, a sympathetic revealer of the soul, a +great moralist, a master of style, Hawthorne is to be classed with the +greatest masters of English fiction. His artist's hand + + "Wrought in a sad sincerity; + Himself from God he could not free." + + +HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, 1807-1882 + +[Illustration: HENRY W. LONGFELLOW] + +LIFE--Longfellow, the most widely read of American poets, was born in +Portland, Maine, in 1807. His father was a Harvard graduate, and his +mother, like Bryant's, was descended from John and Priscilla Alden of +Plymouth. Longfellow, when three years old, began to go to school, and, +like Bryant, he published at the ripe age of thirteen his first poem, +_Battle of Lovell's Pond_, which appeared in the _Portland Gazette_. + +Portland made a great impression on the boy. To his early life there is due +the love of the sea, which colors so much of his poetry. In his poem, _My +Lost Youth_, he says:-- + + "I remember the black wharves and the slips, + And the sea tides tossing free; + And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, + And the beauty and mystery of the ships, + And the magic of the sea." + +He went to Bowdoin College, Maine, where he had Nathaniel Hawthorne for a +classmate. In his senior year Longfellow wrote to his father, "I most +eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature; my whole soul burns +most ardently for it, and every earthly thought centers in it." His father +replied, "There is not enough wealth in this country to afford +encouragement and patronage to merely literary men. And as you have not had +the fortune ... to be born rich, you must adopt a profession which will +afford you subsistence as well as reputation." The son then chose the law, +saying, "This will support my real existence; literature, my ideal one." +Bowdoin College, however, came to the rescue, and offered him the +professorship of modern languages on condition that he would go abroad for +study. He accepted the offer, and remained abroad three years. His travel +sketches on this trip were published in book form in 1835, under the title +of _Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage beyond the Sea_. This is suggestive of the +_Sketch Book_ (p. 119), the earliest book which he remembered reading. +After five years' service at Bowdoin, he accepted Harvard's offer of the +professorship of modern languages and again went abroad. This journey was +saddened by the death of his first wife. His prose romance; _Hyperion_, was +one of the fruits of this sojourn abroad. The second Mrs. Longfellow, whose +real name was Frances Appleton, appears in this book under the name of Mary +Ashburton. Her father bought the Craigie House, which had been Washington's +headquarters in Cambridge, and gave it to Longfellow as a residence. In +1854, after eighteen years' teaching at Harvard, he resigned, for his means +were then ample to enable him to devote his full time to literature. + +[Illustration: LONGFELLOW'S HOME, CRAIGIE HOUSE, CAMBRIDGE] + +From 1854 until 1861 he lived in reality the ideal existence of his +youthful dreams. In 1861 his wife's summer dress caught fire, and although +he struggled heroically to save her, she died the next day, and he himself +was so severely burned that he could not attend her funeral. Years +afterwards he wrote:-- + + "Here in this room she died; and soul more white + Never through martyrdom of fire was led + To its repose." + +Like Bryant, he sought refuge in translating. Longfellow chose Dante, and +gave the world the fine rendering of his _Divine Comedy_ (1867). + +Outside of these domestic sorrows, Longfellow's life was happy and +prosperous. His home was blessed with attractive children. Loved by +friends, honored by foreigners, possessed of rare sweetness and lovableness +of disposition, he became the most popular literary man in America. He +desired freedom from turmoil and from constant struggling for daily bread, +and this freedom came to him in fuller measure than to most men. + +The children of the country felt that he was their own special poet. The +public schools of the United States celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday, +February 27, 1882. Less than a month later he died, and was laid to rest in +Mount Auburn cemetery, Cambridge. + +[Illustration: LONGFELLOW AS A YOUNG MAN] + +"LAUREATE OF THE COMMON HUMAN HEART."--"God must love the common people," +said President Lincoln, "because he has made so many of them." Longfellow +wrote for "the common human heart." In him the common people found a poet +who could gild the commonplace things of life and make them seem more +attractive, more easily borne, more important, more full of meaning. + +In his first published volume of poems, _Voices of the Night_ (1839), he +shows his aim distinctly in such poems as _A Psalm of Life_. Its lines are +the essence of simplicity, but they have instilled patience and noble +purpose into many a humble human soul. The two stanzas beginning + + "Life is real! Life is earnest," + +and + + "Lives of great men all remind us," + +can be repeated by many who know but little poetry, and these very stanzas, +as well as many others like them, have affected the lives of large numbers +of people. Those born a generation ago not infrequently say that the +following stanza from _The Ladder of St. Augustine_ (1850) has been the +stepping-stone to their success in life:-- + + "The heights by great men reached and kept + Were not attained by sudden flight, + But they, while their companions slept, + Were toiling upward in the night." + +His poem, _The Rainy Day_ (1841), has developed in many a person the +qualities of patience, resignation, and hopefulness. Repetition makes the +majority of things seem commonplace, but even repetition has not robbed +lines like these of their power:-- + + "Be still, sad heart! and cease repining, + Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; + Thy fate is the common fate of all; + Into each life some rain must fall, + Some days must be dark and dreary." + +Nine days before he died, he wrote his last lines with the same simplicity +and hopefulness of former days:-- + + "Out of the shadows of night + The world rolls into light. + It is daybreak everywhere." + +As we examine these typical poems, we shall find that all of them appeal to +our common experiences or aspirations, and that all are expressed in that +simple language which no one need read twice to understand. + +BALLADS.--Longfellow knew how to tell a story which preserved the +simplicity and the vigor of the old ballad makers. His _The Wreck of the +Hesperus_ (1839) starts in the true fashion to make us wish to finish the +tale:-- + + "It was the schooner Hesperus, + That sailed the wintry sea; + And the skipper had taken his little daughter + To bear him company." + +Longfellow says that he wrote this ballad between twelve and three in the +morning and that the composition did not come to him by lines, but by +stanzas. + +Even more vigorous is his ballad of _The Skeleton in Armor_ (1840). The +Viking hero of the tale, like young Lochinvar, won the heart of the +heroine, the blue-eyed daughter of a Norwegian prince. + + "When of old Hildebrand + I asked his daughter's hand, + Mute did the minstrels stand + To hear my story." + +The Viking's suit was denied. He put the maiden on his vessel before he was +detected and pursued by her father. Those who think that the gentle +Longfellow could not write poetry as energetic as Scott's _Lochinvar_ +should read the following stanza:-- + + "As with his wings aslant, + Sails the fierce cormorant, + Seeking some rocky haunt, + With his prey laden,-- + So toward the open main, + Beating to sea again, + Through the wild hurricane, + Bore I the maiden." + +Those who are fond of this kind of poetry should turn to Longfellow's +_Tales of a Wayside Inn_ (1863), where they will find such favorites as +_Paul Revere's Ride_ and _The Birds of Killingworth_. + +LONGER POEMS.--No other American poet has equaled Longfellow's longer +narrative poems. Bryant and Poe would not attempt long poems. The flights +of Whittier and Emerson were comparatively short. It is unusually difficult +to write long poems that will be read. In the case of _Evangeline_ (1847), +_Hiawatha_ (1855), and _The Courtship of Miles Standish_ (1858), Longfellow +proved an exception to the rule. + +_Evangeline_ is based upon an incident that occurred during the French and +Indian War. In 1755 a force of British and colonial troops sailed from +Boston to Acadia (Nova Scotia) and deported the French inhabitants. +Hawthorne heard the story, how the English put Evangeline and her lover on +different ships and how she began her long, sad search for him. When +Hawthorne and Longfellow were discussing this one day at dinner at the +Craigie House, the poet said, "If you really do not want this incident for +a tale, let me have it for a poem." Hawthorne consented to give his +classmate all poetical rights to the story. + +_Evangeline_ is the tale of a love "that hopes and endures and is patient." +The metrical form, dactylic hexameter, is one that few of our poets have +successfully used, and many have thought it wholly unfitted to English +verse. Longfellow has certainly disproved their theory, for his success +with this meter is pronounced. The long, flowing lines seem to be exactly +adapted to give the scenes the proper atmosphere and to narrate the +heroine's weary search. The poem became immediately popular. It was the +first successful long narrative poem to appear in the United States. +Whittier had studied the same subject, but had delayed making verses on it +until he found that it had been suggested to Longfellow. In a complimentary +review of the poem, Whittier said, "Longfellow was just the one to write +it. If I had attempted it, I should have spoiled the artistic effect of the +poem by my indignation at the treatment of the exiles by the colonial +government." + +From the moment that Evangeline appears, our interest does not lag. + + "Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen summers. + * * * * * + When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music." + +[Illustration: LONGFELLOW'S STUDY] + +The imagery of the poem is pleasing, no matter whether we are listening to +"the murmuring pines and the hemlocks," the softly sounding Angelus, the +gossiping looms, the whir of wings in the drowsy air, or seeing the barns +bursting with hay, the air filled with a dreamy and mystical light, the +forest arrayed in its robes of russet and scarlet and yellow, and the +stars, those "forget-me-nots of the angels," blossoming "in the infinite +meadows of heaven." + +[Illustration: HIAWATHA] + +_The Song of Hiawatha_ was begun by Longfellow in 1854, after resigning the +professorship of modern languages at Harvard. He seemed to revel in his new +freedom, and in less than a year he had produced the poem by which he will +probably be longest known to posterity. He studied Schoolcraft's _Algic +Researches_ and the same author's _History, Condition, and Prospects of the +Indian Tribes of the United States_, and familiarized himself with Indian +legends. The simplicity of Longfellow's nature and his ability as a poetic +artist seemed rarely suited to deal with these traditions of a race that +never wholly emerged from childhood. + +Longfellow's invitation to hear this _Song_ does not include all, but only + + "Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple, + Who have faith in God and nature." + +Those who accept this invitation will rejoice to accompany Shawondasee, the +South-Wind, when he sends northward the robin, bluebird, and swallow. They +will also wish to go with Kabibonokka, the North-Wind, as he paints the +autumn woods with scarlet and sends the snowflakes through the forests. +They will be glad to be a child with Hiawatha, to hear again the magical +voices of the forest, the whisper of the pines, the lapping of the waters, +the hooting of the owl, to learn of every bird and beast its language, and +especially to know the joy of calling them all brothers. They will gladly +accompany Hiawatha to the land of the Dacotahs, when he woos Minnehaha, +Laughing Water, and hears Owaissa, the bluebird, singing:-- + + "Happy are you, Hiawatha, + Having such a wife to love you!" + +But the guests will be made of stern stuff if their eyes do not moisten +when they hear Hiawatha calling in the midst of the famine of the cold and +cruel winter:-- + + "Give your children food, O father! + Give us food or we must perish! + Give me food for Minnehaha, + For my dying Minnehaha." + +_Hiawatha_ overflows with the elemental spirit of childhood. The sense of +companionship with all earth's creatures, the mystery of life and of +Minnehaha's departure to the Kingdom of Ponemah, make a strong appeal to +all who remember childhood's Eden. + +_The Courtship of Miles Standish_ (1858), in the same meter as +_Evangeline_, is a romantic tale, the scene of which is laid + + "In the Old Colony days, in Plymouth, the land of the Pilgrims." + +We see Miles Standish, the incarnation of the Puritan church militant, as +he + + "... wistfully gazed on the landscape, + Washed with a cold gray mist, the vapory breath of the east-wind, + Forest and meadow and hill, and the steel-blue rim of the ocean, + Lying silent and sad in the afternoon shadows and sunshine." + +Priscilla Mullins, the heroine of the poem, is a general favorite. +Longfellow and Bryant were both proud to trace their descent from her. This +poem introduces her + + "Seated beside her wheel, and the carded wool like a snow-drift + Piled at her knee, her white hands feeding the ravenous spindle, + While with her foot on the treadle she guided the wheel in its motion. + * * * * * + She, the Puritan girl, in the solitude of the forest, + Making the humble house and the modest apparel of homespun + Beautiful with her beauty, and rich with the wealth of her being!" + +This story has more touches of humor than either _Evangeline_ or +_Hiawatha_. Longfellow uses with fine effect the contradiction between the +preaching of the bluff old captain, that you must do a thing yourself if +you want it well done, and his practice in sending by John Alden an offer +of marriage to Priscilla. Her reply has become classic: + + "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" + +Longfellow's _Christus, a Mystery_, was the title finally given by him to +three apparently separate poems, published under the titles, _The Golden +Legend_ (1851), _The Divine Tragedy_ (1871), and _The New England +Tragedies_ (1868). His idea was to represent the origin, the medieval +aspect, and the Puritan conception of Christianity--a task not well suited +to Longfellow's genius. _The Golden Legend_ is the most poetic, but _The +New England Tragedies_ is the most likely to be read in future years, not +for its poetic charms, but because it presents two phases of New England's +colonial history, the persecution of the Quakers and the Salem witchcraft +delusion. + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--An eminent Scotch educator says that Longfellow +has probably taught more people to love poetry than any other +nineteenth-century poet, English or American. He is America's best and most +widely read story-teller in verse. Success in long narrative poems is rare +in any literature. Probably the majority of critics would find it difficult +to agree on any English poet since Chaucer who has surpassed Longfellow in +this field. + +He has achieved the unusual distinction of making the commonplace +attractive and beautiful. He is the poet of the home, of the common people, +and of those common objects in nature which in his verses convey a lesson +to all. He has proved a moral stimulus to his age and he has further helped +to make the world kindlier and its troubles more easily borne. This was his +message:-- + + "Bear through sorrow, wrong and ruth + In thy heart the dew of youth, + On thy lips the smile of truth." + +His poetry is usually more tinctured with feeling than with thought. +Diffuseness is his greatest fault. The _Sonnets_ of his later years and an +occasional poem, like _Morituri Salutamus_ (1875), show more condensation, +but parts of even _Hiawatha_ would be much improved if told in fewer words. + +Some complain that Longfellow finds in books too much of the source of his +inspiration; that, although he did not live far from Evangeline's country, +he never visited it, and that others had to tell him to substitute pines or +hemlocks for chestnut trees. Many critics have found fault with his poetry +because it does not offer "sufficient obstruction to the stream of +thought,"--because it does not make the mind use its full powers in +wrestling with the meaning. It is a mistake, however, to underestimate the +virtues of clearness and simplicity. Many great men who have been +unsuccessful in their struggle to secure these qualities have consequently +failed to reach the ear of the world with a message. While other poets +should be read for mental development, the large heart of the world still +finds a place for Longfellow, who has voiced its hopes that + + "... the night shall be filled with music, + And the cares that infest the day, + Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, + And as silently steal away." + +Like most Puritans, Longfellow is usually over-anxious to teach a lesson; +but the world must learn, and no one has surpassed him as a poetic teacher +of the masses. + + +JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, 1807-1892 + +[Illustration: JOHN G. WHITTIER] + +Life.--Whittier says that the only unusual circumstance about the migration +of his Puritan ancestor to New England in 1638 was the fact that he brought +over with him a hive of bees. The descendants of this very hive probably +suggested the poem, _Telling the Bees_, for it was an old English custom to +go straightway to the hive and tell the bees whenever a member of the +family died. It was believed that they would swarm and seek another home if +this information was withheld. The poet has made both the bees and the +snows of his northern home famous. He was born in 1807 in the same house +that his first American ancestor built in East Haverhill, about thirty-two +miles northwest of Boston. The Whittiers were farmers who for generations +had wrung little more than a bare subsistence from the soil. The boy's +frail health was early broken by the severe labor. He had to milk seven +cows, plow with a yoke of oxen, and keep busy from dawn until dark. + +Unlike the other members of the New England group of authors, Whittier +never went to college. He received only the scantiest education in the +schools near his home. The family was so poor that he had to work as a +cobbler, making slippers at eight cents a pair, in order to attend the +Haverhill academy for six months. He calculated his expenses so exactly +that he had just twenty-five cents left at the end of the term. + +Two events in his youth had strong influence on his future vocation. When +he was fourteen, his school-teacher read aloud to the family from the poems +of Robert Burns. The boy was entranced, and, learning that Burns had been +merely a plowman, felt that there was hope for himself. He borrowed the +volume of poems and read them again and again. Of this experience, he says: +"This was about the first poetry I had ever read (with the exception of the +Bible, of which I had been a close student) and it had a lasting influence +upon me. I began to make rhymes myself and to imagine stories and +adventures." The second event was the appearance in print of some of his +verses, which his sister had, unknown to him, sent to a Newburyport paper +edited by William Lloyd Garrison. The great abolitionist thought enough of +the poetry to ride out to Whittier's home and urge him to get an education. +This event made an indelible impression on the lad's memory. + +Realizing that his health would not allow him to make his living on a farm, +he tried teaching school, but, like Thoreau, found that occupation +distasteful. Through Garrison's influence, Whittier at the age of +twenty-one procured an editorial position in Boston. At various times he +served as editor on more than half a dozen different papers, until his own +health or his father's brought him back to the farm. Such occupation taught +him how to write prose, of which he had produced enough at the time of his +death to fill three good-sized volumes, but his prose did not secure the +attention given to his verse. While in Hartford, editing _The New England +Review_, he fell in love with Miss Cornelia Russ, and a few days before he +finally left the city, he wrote a proposal to her in three hundred words of +wandering prose. Had he expressed his feelings in one of his inimitable +ballads, it is possible that he might have been accepted, for neither she +nor he ever married. In the year of her death, he wrote his poem, +_Memories_, which recounts some recollections earlier than his Hartford +experiences:-- + + "A beautiful and happy girl, + With step as light as summer air, + Eyes glad with smiles, and brow of pearl + Shadowed by many a careless curl + Of unconfined and flowing hair; + A seeming child in everything, + Save thoughtful brow and ripening charms, + As nature wears the smile of Spring + When sinking into Summer's arms." + +He was a Quaker and he came to Hartford in the homespun clothes of the cut +of his sect. He may have been thinking of Miss Russ and wondering whether +theology had anything to do with her refusal, when in after years he +wrote:-- + + "Thine the Genevan's sternest creed, + While answers to my spirit's need + The Derby dalesman's simple truth." + +[Illustration: WHITTIER AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-NINE] + +As Whittier was a skillful politician, he had hopes of making a name for +himself in politics as well as in literature. He was chosen to represent +his district in the state legislature and there is little doubt that he +would have been sent to the national congress later, had he not taken a +step which for a long time shut off all avenues of preferment. In 1833 he +joined the abolitionists. This step had very nearly the same effect on his +fortunes as the public declaration of an adherence to the doctrines of +anarchy would to-day have on a man similarly situated. "The best magazines +at the North would not open their pages to him. He was even mobbed, and the +office of an anti-slavery paper, which he was editing in Philadelphia, was +sacked. He wrote many poems to aid the abolition cause. These were really +editorials expressed in verse, which caught the attention in a way denied +to prose. For more than thirty years such verse constituted the most of his +poetical production. Lowell noticed that the Quaker doctrine of peace did +not deter Whittier from his vigorous attack on slavery. In A Fable for +Critics (1848), Lowell asks:-- + + "... O leather-clad Fox? + Can that be thy son, in the battlers mid din, + Preaching brotherly love and then driving it in + To the brain of the tough old Goliath of sin, + With the smoothest of pebbles from Castaly's spring + Impressed on his hard moral sense with a sling?" + +Whittier did, however, try to keep the spirit of brotherly love warm +throughout his life. He always preferred to win his cause from an enemy +peacefully. When he was charged with hating the people of the South, he +wrote:-- + + "I was never an enemy to the South or the holders of slaves. I inherited + from my Quaker ancestry hatred of slavery, but not of slaveholders. To + every call of suffering or distress in the South, I have promptly + responded to the extent of my ability. I was one of the very first to + recognize the rare gift of the Carolinian poet Timrod, and I was the + intimate friend of the lamented Paul H. Hayne, though both wrote fiery + lyrics against the North." + +With a few striking exceptions, his most popular poems were written after +the close of the Civil War. His greatest poem, _Snow-Bound_, was published +in the year after the cessation of hostilities (1866). His last thirty +years were a time of comparative calm. He wrote poetry as the spirit moved +him. He had grown to be loved everywhere at the North, and his birthday, +like Longfellow's, was the occasion for frequent celebrations. For years +before the close of the war, in fact until _Snow-Bound_ appeared, he was +very poor, but the first edition of that poem brought him in ten thousand +dollars, and after that he was never again troubled by poverty. In a letter +written in 1866, he says:-- + + "If my health allowed me to write I could make money easily now, as my + anti-slavery reputation does not injure me in the least, at the present + time. For twenty years I was shut out from the favor of booksellers and + magazine editors, but I was enabled by rigid economy to live in spite of + them." + +[Illustration: KITCHEN FIREPLACE IN WHITTIER'S HOME, EAST HAVERHILL, MASS.] + +His fixed home for almost all of his life was in the valley of the Merrimac +River, at East Haverhill, until 1836, and then at Amesbury, only a few +miles east of his birthplace. He died in 1892 and was buried in the +Amesbury cemetery. + +POETRY.--Although Whittier wrote much forcible anti-slavery verse, most of +this has already been forgotten, because it was directly fashioned to +appeal to the interests of the time. One of the strongest of these poems is +_Ichabod_ (1850), a bitter arraignment of Daniel Webster, because Whittier +thought that the great orator's _Seventh of March Speech_ of that year +advised a compromise with slavery. Webster writhed under Whittier's +criticism more than under that of any other man. + + "... from those great eyes + The soul has fled: + When faith is lost, when honor dies + The man is dead!" + +Thirty years later, Whittier, feeling that perhaps Webster merely intended +to try to save the Union and do away with slavery without a conflict, wrote +_The Lost Occasion_, in which he lamented the too early death of the great +orator:-- + + "Some die too late and some too soon, + At early morning, heat of noon, + Or the chill evening twilight. Thou, + Whom the rich heavens did so endow + With eyes of power and Jove's own brow, + * * * * * + Too soon for us, too soon for thee, + Beside thy lonely Northern sea, + Where long and low the marsh-lands spread, + Laid wearily down thy august head." + +Whittier is emphatically the poet of New England. His verses which will +live the longest are those which spring directly from its soil. His poem +entitled _The Barefoot Boy_ tells how the typical New England farmer's lad +acquired:-- + + "Knowledge never learned of schools, + Of the wild bee's morning chase, + Of the wild flower's time and place, + Flight of fowl and habitude + Of the tenants of the wood." + +[Illustration: WHITTIER'S BIRTHPLACE IN WINTER (SCENE OF "SNOW BOUND")] + +His greatest poem, the one by which he will probably be chiefly known to +posterity, is _Snow-Bound_, which describes the life of a rural New England +household. At the beginning of this poem of 735 lines, the coming of the +all-enveloping snowstorm, with its "ghostly finger tips of sleet" on the +window-panes, is the central event, but we soon realize that this storm +merely serves to focus intensely the New England life with which he was +familiar. The household is shut in from the outside world by the snow, and +there is nothing else to distract the attention from the picture of +isolated Puritan life. There is not another poet in America who has +produced such a masterpiece under such limitations. One prose writer, +Hawthorne, in _The Scarlet Letter_, had indeed taken even more unpromising +materials and achieved one of the greatest successes in English romance, +but in this special narrow field Whittier has not yet been surpassed by +poets. + +The sense of isolation and what painters would call "the atmosphere" are +conveyed in lines like these:-- + + "Shut in from all the world without, + We sat the clean-winged hearth about, + Content to let the north wind roar + In baffled rage at pane and door, + While the red logs before us beat + The frost line back with tropic heat; + And ever when a louder blast + Shook beam and rafter as it passed, + The merrier up its roaring draught + The great throat of the chimney laughed." + +In such a focus he shows the life of the household; the mother, who often +left her home to attend sick neighbors, now:-- + + "... seeking to express + Her grateful sense of happiness + For food and shelter, warmth and health, + And love's contentment, more than wealth," + +the uncle:-- + + "... innocent of books, + Was rich in lore of fields and brooks, + * * * * * + A simple, guileless, childlike man, + Strong only on his native grounds, + The little world of sights and sounds + Whose girdle was the parish bounds," + +the aunt, who:-- + + "Found peace in love's unselfishness," + +the sister:-- + + "A full rich nature, free to trust, + Truthful and even sternly just, + Impulsive, earnest, prompt to act, + And make her generous thought a fact, + Keeping with many a light disguise + The secret of self-sacrifice." + +Some read Snow-Bound for its pictures of nature and some for its still more +remarkable portraits of the members of that household. This poem has +achieved for the New England fireside what Burns accomplished for the +hearths of Scotland in _The Cotter's Saturday Night_. + +Whittier wrote many fine short lyrical poems, such as _Ichabod_, _The Lost +Occasion_, _My Playmate_ (which was Tennyson's favorite), _In School Days_, +_Memories_, _My Triumph_, _Telling the Bees_, _The Eternal Goodness_, and +the second part of _A Sea Dream_. His narrative poems and ballads are +second only to Longfellow's. _Maud Muller_, _Skipper Iresons Ride_, +_Cassandra Southwick_, _Barbara Frietchie_, and _Mabel Martin_ are among +the best of these. + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS--Whittier and Longfellow resemble each other in +simplicity. Both are the poets of the masses, of those whose lives most +need the consolation of poetry. Both suffer from diffuseness, Whittier in +his greatest poems less than Longfellow. Whittier was self-educated, and he +never traveled far from home. His range is narrower than Longfellow's, who +was college bred and broadened by European travel. But if Whittier's poetic +range is narrower, if he is the poet of only the common things of life, he +shows more intensity of feeling. Often his simplest verse comes from the +depths of his heart. He wrote _In School Days_ forty years after the grass +had been growing on the grave of the little girl who spelled correctly the +word which the boy had missed:-- + + "'I'm sorry that I spelt the word: + I hate to go above you, + Because,'--the brown eyes lower fell,-- + 'Because you see, I love you!' + + * * * * * + + "He lives to learn, in life's hard school, + How few who pass above him + Lament their triumph and his loss, + Like her,--because they love him." + +Whittier's simplicity, genuineness, and sympathetic heart stand revealed in +those lines. + +His youthful work shows traces of the influence of many poets, but he +learned most from Robert Burns. Whittier himself says that it was Burns who +taught him to see + + "... through all familiar things + The romance underlying," + +and especially to note that + + "Through all his tuneful art, how strong + The human feeling gushes!" + +The critics have found three indictments against Whittier; first, for the +unequal value of his poetry; second, for its loose rhymes; and third, for +too much moralizing. He would probably plead guilty to all of these +indictments. His tendency to moralize is certainly excessive, but critics +have too frequently forgotten that this very moralizing draws him closer to +the heart of suffering humanity. There are times when the majority of human +beings feel the need of the consolation which he brings in his religious +verse and in such lines as these from _Snow-Bound:_-- + + "Alas for him who never sees + The stars shine through his cypress trees + Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, + Nor looks to see the breaking day + Across the mournful marbles play! + Who hath not learned, in hours of faith, + The truth to flesh and sense unknown, + That Life is ever lord of Death + And Love can never lose its own!" + +He strives to impress on all the duty of keeping the windows of the heart +open to the day and of "finding peace in love's unselfishness." + + +JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, 1819-1891 + +[Illustration: J.R. LOWELL] + +Early Years.--James Russell Lowell, the son of the Rev. Charles Lowell, was +a descendant of one of the best of the old New England families. The city +of Lowell and the Lowell Institute of Boston received their names from +uncles of the author. His mother's name was Spence, and she used to tell +her son that the Spence family, which was of Scotch origin, was descended +from Sir Patrick Spens of ballad fame. She loved to sing to her boy in the +gloaming:-- + + "O forty miles off Aberdeen, + 'Tis fifty fathoms deep, + And there lies gude Sir Patrick Spens, + Wi' the Scots lords at his feet." + +[Illustration: LOWELL'S MOTHER] + +From her Celtic blood her son inherited a tendency toward poetry. When a +child, he was read to sleep with Spenser's _Faerie Queene_ and he found +amusement in retelling its stories to his playmates. + +James Russell Lowell was born in 1819, in the suburbs of Cambridge, +Massachusetts, in the fine old historic home called "Elmwood," which was +one of the few homes to witness the birth and death of a great American +author and to remain his native residence for seventy-two years. + +His early opportunities were in striking contrast to those of Whittier; for +Lowell, like his ancestors for three generations, went to Harvard. Because +of what the Lowell side of his family called "the Spence negligence," he +was suspended from college for inattention to his studies and sent to +Concord to be coached by a tutor. We know, however, that a part of Lowell's +negligence was due to his reading and imitating such poetry as suited his +fancy. It was fortunate that he was sent to Concord, for there he had the +opportunity of meeting Emerson and Thoreau and of drinking in patriotism as +he walked "the rude bridge that arch'd the flood" (p. 179). He was elected +class poet, but he was not allowed to return in time to deliver his poem +before his classmates, although he received his degree with them in 1838. + +MARRIAGE AND NEW IMPULSES.--Like Irving and Bryant, Lowell studied law, and +then gave up that profession for literature. In 1839 he met Miss Maria +White, a transcendentalist of noble impulses. Before this he had made fun +of the abolitionists, but under her influence he followed men like Whittier +into the anti-slavery ranks. She was herself a poet and she wrote to Lowell +after they became engaged:-- + + "I love thee for thyself--thyself alone; + For that great soul whose breath most full and rare + Shall to humanity a message bear, + Flooding their dreary waste with organ tone." + +Under such inspiration, "the Spence negligence" left him, and with rapid +steps he entered the temple of fame. In December, 1844, the month in which +he married her, he wrote the finest lines ever penned by him:-- + + "Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,-- + Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, + Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own." + +Lowell's twenty-ninth year, 1848, is called his _annus mirabilis_, the +wonderful year of his life. He had published small volumes of poems in +1840, 1843, and 1847, but in 1848 there appeared three of his most famous +works,--_The Biglow Papers, First Series_, _A Fable for Critics_, and _The +Vision of Sir Launfal._ + +As Mrs. Lowell's health was delicate, Lowell took her abroad, in 1851, for +a year's stay. Thackeray came over on the same ship with them, on their +return in 1852, and proved a genial companion. The next year Mrs. Lowell +died. When he thought of the inspiration which she had given him and of the +thirteen years of her companionship, he said, "It is a million times better +to have had her and lost her, than to have had and kept any other woman I +ever saw." + +[Illustration: MRS. MARIA WHITE LOWELL] + +LATER WORK.--After his great bereavement in 1853, Lowell became one of +America's greatest prose writers. In 1855 he was appointed Longfellow's +successor in the Harvard professorship of modern languages and polite +literature, a position which he held, with the exception of two years spent +in European travel, until 1877. The duties of his chair called for wide +reading and frequent lecturing, and he turned much of his attention toward +writing critical essays. The routine work of his professorship often grew +irksome and the "Spence negligence" was sometimes in evidence in his +failure to meet his classes. As a teacher, he was, however, frequently very +stimulating. + +He was the editor of the _Atlantic Monthly_, from its beginning in 1857 +until 1861. All of the second series of the _Biglow Papers_ appeared in +this magazine. From 1864 to 1872 he was one of the editors of the North +American Review. + +In 1877 he became the minister of the United States to Spain. The Spanish +welcomed him to the post that Washington Irving had once filled. In 1880 +Lowell was transferred to England, where he represented his country until +1885. No other American minister has ever proved a greater success in +England. He was respected for his literary attainments and for his ability +as a speaker. He had the reputation of being one of the very best speakers +in the Kingdom, and he was in much demand to speak at banquets and on +special occasions. Many of his articles and speeches were on political +subjects, the greatest of these being his address on _Democracy_, at +Birmingham, in 1884. + +Although his later years showed his great achievements in prose, he did not +cease to produce poetry. The second series of the _Biglow Papers_ was +written during the Civil War. His _Ode Recited at the Harvard +Commemoration_ in 1865, in honor of those who fell in freeing the slave, + + "Who in warm life-blood wrote their nobler verse," + +his three memorial poems: (1) _Ode Read at the One Hundredth Anniversary of +the Fight at Concord Bridge_ (1875), (2) _Under the Old Elm_ (1875), +written in commemoration of Washington's taking command of the Continental +forces under that tree, a century before, and (3) _Ode for the Fourth of +July_, 1876, are well-known patriotic American poems. + +After returning from England and passing from the excitement of diplomatic +and social life to a quiet New England home, he wrote:-- + + "I take my reed again and blow it free + Of dusty silence, murmuring, 'Sing to me.' + And, as its stops my curious touch retries, + The stir of earlier instincts I surprise,-- + Instincts, if less imperious, yet more strong, + And happy in the toil that ends with song." + +In 1888 he published a volume of poems called _Heartsease and Rue_. He died +in 1891 and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, near his "Elmwood" home, +not far from the last resting place of Longfellow. + +[Illustration: LOWELL'S STUDY, ELMWOOD] + +POETRY.--Lowell wrote many short lyrical poems, which rank high. Some of +them, like _Our Love is not a Fading Earthly Flower_, _O Moonlight Deep and +Tender_, _To the Dandelion_, and _The First Snow-Fall_ are exquisite lyrics +of nature and sentiment. Others, like _The Present Crisis_, have for their +text, "Humanity sweeps onward," and teach high moral ideals. Still others, +like his poems written in commemoration of some event, are instinct with +patriotism. + +He is best known for three long poems, _The Biglow Papers_, _A Fable for +Critics_ and _The Vision of Sir Launfal_. All of these, with the exception +of the second series of _The Biglow Papers_, appeared in his wonderful +poetic year, 1848. + +He will, perhaps, be longest known to posterity for that remarkable series +of papers written in what he called the Yankee dialect and designed at +first to stop the extension of slavery and afterwards to suppress it. These +are called "Biglow Papers" because the chief author is represented to be +Hosea Biglow, a typical New England farmer. The immediate occasion of the +first series of these _Papers_ was the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846. +Lowell said in after years, "I believed our war with Mexico to be +essentially a war of false pretences, and that it would result in widening +the boundaries and so prolonging the life of slavery." The second series of +these _Papers_, dealing with our Civil War, began to be published in the +_Atlantic Monthly_ in 1862. The poem lives to-day, however, not for its +censure of the war or for its attack on slavery, but for its expression of +the mid-nineteenth century New England ideals, hard common sense, and dry +humor. Where shall we turn for a more incisive statement of the Puritan's +attitude toward pleasure? + + "Pleasure doos make us Yankees kind o' winch, + Ez though't wuz sunthin' paid for by the inch; + But yit we du contrive to worry thru, + Ef Dooty tells us thet the thing's to du, + An' kerry a hollerday, ef we set out, + Ez stiddily ez though't wuz a redoubt." + +The homely New England common-sense philosophy is in evidence throughout +the _Papers_. We frequently meet, such expressions as:-- + + "I like the plain all wool o' common-sense + Thet warms ye now, an' will a twelve-month hence." + + "Now's the only bird lays eggs o' gold." + + "Democracy gives every man + The right to be his own oppressor." + + "But Chance is like an amberill,--it don't take twice to lose it." + + "An' you've gut to git up airly, + Ef you want to take in God." + +In the second series of the _Papers_, there is one of Lowell's best lyrics, +_The Courtin'_. It would be difficult to find another poem which gives +within the compass of four lines a better characterization of many a New +England maiden:-- + + "... she was jes' the quiet kind + Whose naturs never vary, + Like streams that keep a summer mind, + Snowhid in Jenooary." + +This series contains some of Lowell's best nature poetry. We catch rare +glimpses of + + "Moonshine an' snow on field an' hill + All silence an' all glisten," + +and we actually see a belated spring + + "Toss the fields full o' blossoms, leaves, an' birds." + +_The Vision of Sir Launfal_ has been the most widely read of Lowell's +poems. This is the _vision_ of a search for the Holy Grail. Lowell in a +letter to a friend called the poem "a sort of story and more likely to be +popular than what I write about generally." But the best part of the poem +is to be found in the apotheosis of the New England June, in the _Prelude +to Part I.:_-- + + "And what is so rare as a day in June? + Then, if ever, come perfect days; + Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, + And over it softly her warm ear lays." + +The poem teaches a noble lesson of sympathy with suffering:-- + + "Not what we give, but what we share,-- + For the gift without the giver is bare; + Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,-- + Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me." + +Lowell said that he "scrawled at full gallop" _A Fable for Critics_, which +is a humorous poem of about two thousand long lines, presenting an +unusually excellent criticism of his contemporary authors. In this most +difficult type of criticism, Lowell was not infallible; but a comparison of +his criticisms with the verdicts generally accepted to-day will show his +unusual ability in this field. Not a few of these criticisms remain the +best of their kind, and they serve to focus many of the characteristics of +the authors of the first half of the nineteenth century. It will benefit +all writers, present and prospective, to read this criticism on Bryant:-- + + "He is almost the one of your poets that knows + How much grace, strength, and dignity lie in Repose; + If he sometimes fall short, he is too wise to mar + His thought's modest fulness by going too far; + 'Twould be well if your authors should all make a trial + Of what virtue there is in severe self-denial, + And measure their writings by Hesiod's staff, + Who teaches that all has less value than half." + +Especially humorous are those lines which give a recipe for the making of a +Washington Irving and those which describe the idealistic philosophy of +Emerson:-- + + "In whose mind all creation is duly respected + As parts of himself--just a little projected." + +Prose.--Lowell's literary essays entitle him to rank as a great American +critic. The chief of these are to be found gathered in three volumes: +_Among My Books_ (1870), _My Study Windows_ (1871), _Among My Books_, +_Second Series_ (1876). These volumes as originally issued contain 1140 +pages. If we should wish to persuade a group of moderately intelligent +persons to read less fiction and more solid literature, it is doubtful if +we could accomplish our purpose more easily than by inducing them to dip +into some of these essays. Lowell had tested many of them on his college +students, and he had noted what served to kindle interest and to produce +results. We may recommend five of his greater literary essays, which would +give a vivid idea of the development of English poetry from Chaucer to the +death of Pope. These five are: _Chaucer_, in _My Study Windows; Spenser_, +in _Among My Books, Second Series; Shakespeare Once More_, and _Dryden_, in +_Among My Books, First Series_; and _Pope_, in _My Study Windows_. If we +add to these the short addresses on _Wordsworth_ and _Coleridge_, delivered +in England, and printed in the volume _Democracy and Other Addresses_ +(1886), we shall have the incentive to continue the study of poetry into +the nineteenth century. + +Lowell's criticism provokes thought. It will not submit to a passive +reading. It expresses truth in unique and striking ways. Speaking of the +French and Italian sources on which Chaucer drew, Lowell says:-- + + "Should a man discover the art of transmuting metals, and present us with + a lump of gold as large as an ostrich egg, would it be in human nature to + inquire too nicely whether he had stolen the lead? ... + + "Chaucer, like Shakespeare, invented almost nothing. Wherever he found + anything directed to Geoffrey Chaucer, he took it and made the most of + it.... + + "Sometimes he describes amply by the merest hint, as where the Friar, + before setting himself softly down, drives away the cat. We know without + need of more words that he has chosen the snuggest corner." + +Lowell usually makes the laziest readers do a little pleasant thinking. It +is common for even inert students to investigate his meaning; for instance, +in his statements that in the age of Pope "everybody ceremoniously took a +bushel basket to bring a wren's egg to market in," and that everybody +"called everything something else." + +The high ideals and sterling common sense of Lowell's political prose +deserve special mention. In _Democracy_ (1886), which should be read by +every citizen, Lowell shows that old age had not shattered his faith in +ideals. "I believe," he said, "that the real will never find an irremovable +basis until it rests on the ideal." Voters and lawmakers are to-day +beginning to realize that they will go far to find in the same compass a +greater amount of common sense than is contained in these words:-- + + "It is only when the reasonable and the practicable are denied that men + demand the unreasonable and impracticable; only when the possible is made + difficult that they fancy the impossible to be easy. Fairy tales are made + out of the dreams of the poor." [Footnote: _Democracy and Other + Addresses_, p. 15.] + +General Characteristics.--Lowell has written verse which shows sympathetic +treatment of nature. His lines _To the Dandelion_:-- + + "Dear common flower, that grow'st beside the way, + Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold, + First pledge of blithesome May + Which children pluck, and full of pride uphold + * * * * * + ... thou art more dear to me + Than all the prouder summer-blooms may be," + +show rare genuineness of feeling. No one not enthusiastic about nature +would ever have heard her calling to him:-- + + "To mix his blood with sunshine, and to take + The winds into his pulses." + +He invites us in March to watch:-- + + "The bluebird, shifting his light load of song + From post to post along the cheerless fence," + +and in June to lie under the willows and rejoice with + + "The thin-winged swallow, skating on the air." + +Another pronounced characteristic which he has in common with the New +England group is nobility of ideals. His poem entitled _For an Autograph_, +voices in one line the settled conviction of his life:-- + + "Not failure, but low aim, is crime." + +He is America's greatest humorist in verse. _The Biglow Papers_ and _A +Fable for Critics_ are ample justification for such an estimate. + +As Lowell grew older, his poetry, dominated too much by his acute +intellect, became more and more abstract. In _Under the Old Elm_, for +example, he speaks of Washington as:-- + + "The equestrian shape with unimpassioned brow + That paces silent on through vistas of acclaim." + +It is possible to read fifty consecutive lines of his _Commemoration Ode_ +without finding any but abstract or general terms, which are rarely the +warp and woof out of which the best poetry is spun. This criticism explains +why repeated readings of some of his poems leave so little impression on +the mind. Some of the poetry of his later life is, however, concrete and +sensuous, as the following lines from his poem _Agassiz_ (1874) show:-- + + "To lie in buttercups and clover-bloom, + Tenants in common with the bees, + And watch the white clouds drift through gulfs of trees, + Is better than long waiting in the tomb." + +In prose literary criticism, he keeps his place with Poe at the head of +American writers. Lowell's sentences are usually simple in form and easily +understood; they are frequently enlivened by illuminating figures of +rhetoric and by humor, or rendered impressive by the striking way in which +they express thought, _e.g._ "The foolish and the dead alone never change +their opinion." A pun, digression, or out-of-the-way allusion may +occasionally provoke readers, but onlookers have frequently noticed that +few wrinkle their brows while reading his critical essays, and that a +pleased expression, such as photographers like, is almost certain to +appear. He has the rare faculty of making his readers think hard enough for +agreeable exercise, and yet he spares them undue fatigue and rarely takes +them among miry bogs or through sandy deserts. + +Lowell's versatility is a striking characteristic. He was a poet, reformer, +college professor, editor, literary critic, diplomatist, speaker, and +writer on political subjects. We feel that he sometimes narrowly escaped +being a genius, and that he might have crossed the boundary line into +genius-land, if he had confined his attention to one department of +literature and had been willing to write at less breakneck speed, taking +time and thought to prune, revise, and suppress more of his productions. +Not a few, however, think that Lowell, in spite of his defects, has left +the impress of genius on some of his work. When his sonnet, _Our Love is +not a Fading Earthly Flower_, was read to a cultured group, some who did +not recognize the authorship of the verses thought that they were +Shakespeare's. + + +OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, 1809-1894 + +[Illustration: OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES] + +LIFE.--The year 1809 was prolific in the birth of great men, producing +Holmes, Poe, Lincoln, Tennyson, and Darwin. Holmes was descended from Anne +Bradstreet, New England's "Tenth Muse" (p. 39) His father was a +Congregational clergyman, preaching at Cambridge when Oliver was born. The +family was in comfortable circumstances, and the boy was reared in a +cultured atmosphere. In middle age Holmes wrote, "I like books,--I was born +and bred among them, and have the easy feeling, when I get into their +presence, that a stable boy has among horses." + +He graduated from Harvard in the famous class of 1829, for which he +afterward wrote many anniversary poems. He went to Paris to study medicine, +a science that held his interest through life. For thirty-five years he was +professor of anatomy in the Harvard Medical School, where he was the only +member of the faculty who could at the end of the day take the class, +fagged and wearied, and by his wit, stories, and lively illustrations both +instruct and interest the students. + +His announcement, "small fevers gratefully received," his humor in general, +and his poetry especially, did not aid him in securing patients. His +biographer says that Holmes learned at his cost as a doctor that the world +had made up its mind "that he who writes rhymes must not write +prescriptions, and he who makes jests should not escort people to their +graves." He later warned his students that if they would succeed in any one +calling they must not let the world find out that they were interested in +anything else. From his own point of view, he wrote:-- + + "It's a vastly pleasing prospect, when you're screwing out a laugh, + That your very next year's income is diminished by a half, + And a little boy trips barefoot that your Pegasus may go, + And the baby's milk is watered that your Helicon may flow." + +He was driven, like Emerson and Lowell, to supplement his modest income by +what he called "lecture peddling." Although Holmes did not have the +platform presence of these two contemporaries, he had the power of reaching +his audiences and of quickly gaining their sympathy, so that he was very +popular and could always get engagements. + +His scientific training made him intolerant of any philosophical or +religious creed which seemed to him to be based merely upon superstition or +tradition. He was thoroughly alert, open-minded, and liberal upon all such +questions. On subjects of politics, war, or the abolition of slavery, he +was, on the other hand, strongly conservative. He had the aristocratic +dread of change. He was distinctly the courtly gentleman, the gifted +talker, and the social, genial, refined companion. + +[Illustration: HOLMES'S STUDY] + +Holmes was a conscientious worker, but he characteristically treated his +mental processes in a joking way, and wrote to a friend: "I like nine +tenths of any matter I study, but I do not like to _lick the plate_. If I +did, I suppose I should be more of a man of science and find my brain tired +oftener than I do." Again he wrote, "my nature is to snatch at all the +fruits of knowledge and take a good bite out of the sunny side--after that +let in the pigs." Despite these statements, Holmes worked steadily every +year at his medical lectures. He was very particular about the exactness +and finish of all that he wrote, and he was neither careless nor slipshod +in anything. His life, while filled with steady, hard work, was a placid +one, full of love and friendships, and he passed into his eightieth year +with a young heart. He died in 1894, at the age of eighty-five, and was +buried in Mt. Auburn cemetery not far from Longfellow and Lowell. + +POETRY.--In 1836 he published his first volume of verse. This contained his +first widely known poem, _Old Ironsides_, a successful plea for saving the +old battleship, _Constitution_, which had been ordered destroyed. With the +exception of this poem and _The Last Leaf_, the volume is remarkable for +little except the rollicking fun which we find in such favorites as _The +Ballad of the Oysterman_ and _My Aunt_. This type of humor is shown in this +simile from _The Ballad_:-- + +"Her hair drooped round her pallid cheeks, like seaweed on a clam," and in +his description of his aunt:-- + + "Her waist is ampler than her life, + For life is but a span." + +He continued to write verses until his death. Among the last poems which he +wrote were memorials on the death of Lowell (1891) and Whittier (1892). As +we search the three volumes of his verse, we find few serious poems of a +high order. The best, and the one by which he himself wished to be +remembered, is The _Chambered Nautilus_. No member of the New England group +voiced higher ideals than we find in the noble closing stanza of this +poem:-- + + "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, + As the swift seasons roll! + Leave thy low-vaulted past! + Let each new temple, nobler than the last, + Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, + Till thou at length art free, + Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!" + +Probably _The Last Leaf_, which was such a favorite with Lincoln, would +rank second. This poem is remarkable for preserving the reader's +equilibrium between laughter and tears. Some lines from _The Voiceless_ are +not likely to be soon forgotten:-- + + "A few can touch the magic string, + And noisy Fame is proud to win them:-- + Alas for those that never sing, + But die with all their music in them!" + +He wrote no more serious poem than _Homesick in Heaven_, certain stanzas of +which appeal strongly to bereaved hearts. It is not easy to forget the song +of the spirits who have recently come from earth, of the mother who was +torn from her clinging babe, of the bride called away with the kiss of love +still burning on her cheek, of the daughter taken from her blind and +helpless father:-- + + "Children of earth, our half-weaned nature clings + To earth's fond memories, and her whispered name + Untunes our quivering lips, our saddened strings; + For there we loved, and where we love is home." + +When Holmes went to Oxford in 1886, to receive an honorary degree, it is +probable that, as in the case of Irving, the Oxford boys in the gallery +voiced the popular verdict. As Holmes stepped on the platform, they called, +"Did he come in the One-Hoss Shay?" This humorous poem, first known as _The +Deacon's Masterpiece_, has been a universal favorite. _How the Old Hoss Won +the Bet_ tells with rollicking humor what the parson's nag did at a race. +_The Boys_, with its mingled humor and pathos, written for the thirtieth +reunion of his class, is one of the best of the many poems which he was so +frequently asked to compose for special celebrations. No other poet of his +time could equal him in furnishing to order clever, apt, humorous verses +for ever recurring occasions. + +PROSE.--He was nearly fifty when he published his first famous prose work. +He had named the _Atlantic Monthly_, and Lowell had agreed to edit it only +on condition that Holmes would promise to be a contributor. In the first +number appeared _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table._ Holmes had hit upon +a style that exactly suited his temperament, and had invented a new prose +form. His great conversational gift was now crystallized in these breakfast +table talks, which the Autocrat all but monopolizes. However, the other +characters at the table of this remarkable boarding house in Boston join in +often enough to keep up the interest in their opinions, feelings, and +relations to each other. The reader always wants to know the impression +that the Autocrat's fine talk makes upon "the young man whom they call +'John.'" John sometimes puts his feelings into action, as when the Autocrat +gives a typical illustration of his mixture of reasoning and humor, in +explaining that there are always six persons present when two people are +talking:-- + +[Illustration: THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE ] + + "Three Johns. + + 1. The real John; known only to his Maker. + + 2. John's ideal John; never the real one, and often very unlike him. + + 3. Thomas's ideal John; never the real John, nor John's John, but often + very unlike either. + + "Three Thomases. + + 1. The real Thomas. + + 2. Thomas's ideal Thomas. + + 3. John's ideal Thomas." + +"A certain basket of peaches, a rare vegetable, little known to +boarding-houses, was on its way to me," says the Autocrat, "_via_ this +unlettered Johannes. He appropriated the three that remained in the basket, +remarking that there was just one apiece for him. I convinced him that his +practical inference was hasty and illogical, but in the meantime he had +eaten the peaches." When John enters the debates with his crushing logic of +facts, he never fails to make a ten strike. + +A few years after the _Autocrat_ series had been closed, Holmes wrote _The +Professor at the Breakfast Table_; many years later _The Poet at the +Breakfast Table_ appeared; and in the evening of life, he brought out _Over +the Teacups_, in which he discoursed at the tea table in a similar vein, +but not in quite the same fresh, buoyant, humorous way in which the +Autocrat talked over his morning coffee. The decline in these books is +gradual, although it is barely perceptible in the _Professor_. The +_Autocrat_ is, however, the brightest, crispest, and most vigorous of the +series, while _Over the Teacups_ is the calmest, as well as the soberest +and most leisurely. + +Holmes wrote three novels, _Elsie Venner_, _The Guardian Angel_, and _The +Mortal Antipathy_, which have been called "medicated novels" because his +medical knowledge is so apparent in them. These books also have a moral +purpose, each in turn considering the question whether an individual is +responsible for his acts. The first two of these novels are the strongest, +and hold the attention to the end because of the interest aroused by the +characters and by the descriptive scenes. + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--Humor is the most characteristic quality of +Holmes's writings. He indeed is the only member of the New England group +who often wrote with the sole object of entertaining readers. Lowell also +was a humorist, but he employed humor either in the cause of reform, as in +The _Biglow Papers_, or in the field of knowledge, in endeavoring to make +his literary criticisms more expressive and more certain to impress the +mind of his readers. + +Whenever Holmes wrote to entertain, he did not aim to be deep or to +exercise the thinking powers of his readers. Much of his work skims the +surface of things in an amusing and delightful way. Yet he was too much of +a New Englander not to write some things in both poetry and prose with a +deeper purpose than mere entertainment. _The Chambered Nautilus_, for +instance, was so written, as were all of his novels. His genial humor is +thus frequently blended with unlooked-for wisdom or pathos. + +Whittier has been called provincial because he takes only the point of view +of New England. The province of Holmes is still narrower, being mainly +confined to Boston. He expresses in a humorous way his own feelings, as +well as those of his fellow townsmen, when he says in _The Autocrat of the +Breakfast Table:_-- + + "Boston State House is the hub of the solar system. You couldn't pry that + out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation straightened out + for a crowbar." + +Like Irving, Holmes was fond of eighteenth-century English writers, and +much of his verse is modeled after the couplets of Pope. Holmes writes +fluid and rippling prose, without a trace of effort. His meaning is never +left to conjecture, but is stated in pure, exact English. He not only +expresses his ideas perfectly, but he seems to achieve this result without +premeditation. This apparent artlessness is a great charm. He has left +America a new form of prose, which bears the stamp of pure literature, and +which is distinguished not so much for philosophy and depth as for grace, +versatility, refined humor, bright intellectual flashes, and artistic +finish. + + +THE HISTORIANS + +Three natives of Massachusetts and graduates of Harvard, William H. +Prescott, John Lothrop Motley, and Francis Parkman, wrote history in such a +way as to entitle it to be mentioned in our literature. We cannot class as +literature those historical writings which are not enlivened with +imagination, invested with at least an occasional poetic touch, and +expressed in rare style. Unfortunately the very qualities that render +history attractive as literature often tend to raise doubts about the +scientific method and accuracy of the historian. For this reason few +histories keep for a great length of time a place in literature, unless, +like Irving's _Knickerbocker's History of New York_, they aim to give +merely an imaginative interpretation of a past epoch. They may then, like +Homer's _Iliad_, Shakespeare's _Macbeth_, and some of Irving's and Cooper's +work, be, in Celtic phrase, "more historical than history itself." History +of this latter type lives, and is a treasure in the literature of any +nation. + +WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT (1796-1859).--Like Washington Irving, Prescott was +attracted by the romantic achievements of Spain during the years of her +brilliant successes, and he wrote four histories upon Spanish subjects: a +_History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella_ (1837), a _History of the +Conquest of Mexico_ (1843), a _History of the Conquest of Peru_ (1847), and +a _History of the Reign of Philip II_. (1855-1858), the last of which he +did not live to complete. + +He was a careful, painstaking student. He learned the Spanish language, had +copies made of all available manuscripts and records in Europe, and closely +compared contemporary accounts so as to be certain of the accuracy of his +facts. Then he presented them in an attractive form. His _Ferdinand and +Isabella_ and the part he finished of _Philip II_. are accurate and +authoritative to-day because the materials which he found for them are +true. The two histories on the Spanish conquests in the New World are not +absolutely correct in all their descriptions of the Aztecs and Incas before +the arrival of the Spaniards. This is due to no carelessness on Prescott's +part, but to the highly colored accounts upon which he had to depend for +his facts, and to the lack of the archaeological surveys which have since +been carried on in Mexico and Peru. These two histories of the daring +exploits of a handful of adventurers in hostile lands are as thrilling and +interesting as novels. We seem to be reading a tale from the _Arabian +Nights_, as we follow Pizarro and see his capture of the Peruvian monarch +in the very sight of his own army, and view the rich spoils in gold and +silver and precious stones which were carried back to Spain. In relating +the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, Prescott writes the history of still more +daring adventures. His narrative is full of color, and he presents facts +picturesquely. + +JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY (1814-1877).--As naturally as the love of adventure +sent Prescott to the daring exploits of the Spanish feats of arms, so the +inborn zeal for civil and religious liberty and hatred of oppression led +Motley to turn to the sturdy, patriotic Dutch in their successful struggle +against the enslaving power of Spain. His histories are _The Rise of the +Dutch Republic_ (1856), _The History of the United Netherlands_ +(1860-1868), _The Life and Death of John of Barneveld_, _Advocate of +Holland_ (1874). + +[Illustration: JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY] + +The difference in temperament between Prescott and Motley is seen in the +manner of presenting the character of Philip II. In so far as Prescott drew +the picture of Philip II., it is traced with a mild, cool hand. Philip is +shown as a tyrant, but he is impelled to his tyranny by motives of +conscience. In Motley's _The Rise of the Dutch Republic_, this oppressor is +an accursed scourge of a loyal people, the enemy of progress, of liberty, +and of justice. Motley's feelings make his pages burn and flash with fiery +denunciation, as well as with exalted praise. + +_The Rise of the Dutch Republic_ is the recital of as heroic a struggle as +a small but determined nation ever made against tremendous odds. Amid the +swarm of men that crowd the pages of this work, William the Silent, of +Orange, the central figure, stands every inch a hero, a leader worthy of +his cause and of his people. Motley with an artist's skill shows how this +great leader launched Holland on her victorious career. This history is a +living story, faithful to facts, but it is written to convince the reader +that "freedom of thought, of speech, and of life" are "blessings without +which everything that this earth can afford is worthless." + +In choosing to write of the struggle of Holland for her freedom, Motley was +actuated by the same reason that prompted his forefathers to fight on +Bunker Hill. He wanted to play at least a historian's part in presenting +"the great spectacle which was to prove to Europe that principles and +peoples still existed, and that a phlegmatic nation of merchants and +manufacturers could defy the powers of the universe, and risk all their +blood and treasure, generation after generation, in a sacred cause." + +_The History of the United Netherlands_ continues this story after Holland, +free and united, proved herself a power that could no longer remain +unheeded in Europe. _The Life and Death of John of Barneveld_, which brings +the history of Holland down to about 1623, was planned as an introduction +to a final history of that great religious and political conflict, called +the Thirty Years' War,--a history which Motley did not live to finish. + +Although no historian has spent more time than Motley in searching the +musty records and state archives of foreign lands for matter relating to +Holland, it was impossible for a man of his temperament, convictions, and +purpose to write a calm, dispassionate history. He is not the cool judge, +but the earnest advocate, and yet he does not distort facts. He is just and +can be coldly critical, even of his heroes, but he is always on one side, +the side of liberty and justice, pleading their cause. His temperament +gives warmth, eloquence, and dramatic passion to his style. Individual +incidents and characters stand forth sharply defined. His subject seems +remarkably well suited to him because his love of liberty was a sacred +passion. With this feeling to fire his blood, the unflinching Hollander to +furnish the story, and his eloquent style to present it worthily, Motley's +_Rise of the Dutch Republic_ is a prose epic of Dutch liberty. + +Francis Parkman (1823-1893)--The youngest and greatest of this group of +historians was born of Puritan blood in Boston in 1823. Parkman's life from +early childhood was a preparation for his future work, and when a mere lad +at college, he had decided to write a history of the French and Indian War. +He was a delicate child, and at the age of eight was sent to live with his +grandfather, who owned at Medway, near Boston, a vast tract of woodland. +The boy roamed at will through these forests, and began to amass that wood +lore of which his histories hold such rich stores. At Harvard he overworked +in the gymnasium with the mistaken purpose of strengthening himself for a +life on the frontier. + +In 1846, two years after graduation, he took his famous trip out west over +the Oregon Trail, where he hunted buffalo on the plains, dragged his horse +through the canyons to escape hostile Indians, lived in the camp of the +warlike Dacota tribe, and learned by bitter experience the privations of +primitive life. + +His health was permanently impaired by the trip. He was threatened with +absolute blindness, and was compelled to have all his notes read to him and +to dictate his histories. For years he was forbidden literary work on +account of insomnia and intense cerebral pain which threatened insanity, +and on account of lameness he was long confined to a wheel chair. He rose +above every obstacle, however, and with silent fortitude bore his +sufferings, working whenever he could, if for only a bare half hour at a +time. + +His amazing activity during his trips, both in America and abroad, is shown +in the Massachusetts Historical Society Library, which contains almost two +hundred folio volumes, which he had experts copy from original sources. +With few exceptions, he visited every spot which he described, and saw the +life of nearly every tribe of Indians. His battle with ill health, his +strength of character, and his energetic first-hand study of Indian and +pioneer life are remarkable in the history of American men of letters. He +died near Boston in 1893. + +[Illustration: FRANCIS PARKMAN] + +Because of their subject matter, Parkman's works are of unusual interest to +Americans. When he returned from his pioneer western trip, he wrote a +simple, straightforward account, which was in 1849 published in book form, +under the title of _The California and Oregon Trail._ This book remains the +most trustworthy, as well as the most entertaining, account of travel in +the unsettled Northwest of that time. Indians, big game, and adventures +enough to satisfy any reasonable boy may be found in this book. + +His histories cover the period from the early French settlements in the New +World to the victory of the English over the French and Indian allies. The +titles of his separate works, given in their chronological order, are as +follows :-- + +_The Pioneers of France in the New World_ (1865) describes the experiences +of the early French sailors and explorers off the Newfoundland coast and +along the St. Lawrence River. + +_The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century_ (1867) tells of +the work of the self-forgetting Jesuit Fathers in their mission of mercy +and conversion among the Indians. Fifty pages of the _Introduction_ give an +account of the religion, festivities, superstitions, burials, sacrifices, +and military organization of the Indians. + +_La Salle, or the Discovery of the Great West_ (1869), is the story of La +Salle's heroic endeavors and sufferings while exploring the West and the +Mississippi River. + +_The Old Regime in Canada_ (1874) presents the internal conflicts and the +social development of Canada in the seventeenth century. + +_Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV_. (1877) continues the +history of Canada as a French dependency, and paints in a lively manner +Count Frontenac's character, his popularity with the Indians, and his +methods of winning laurels for France. + +_A Half Century of Conflict_ (1892) depicts the sharp encounter between the +French and English for the possession of the country, and the terrible +deeds of the Indians against their hated foes, the English. + +_Montcalm and Wolfe_ (1884) paints the final scenes of the struggle between +France and England, closing practically with the fall of Quebec. + +_The History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac_ (1851) shows one more desperate +attempt of a great Indian chief to combine the tribes of his people and +drive out the English. The volume closes with the general smoking of the +pipe of peace and the swearing of allegiance to England. The first +forty-five pages describe the manners and customs of the Indian tribes east +of the Mississippi. + +The general title, _France and England in North America_, indicates the +subject matter of all this historical work. The central theme of the whole +series is the struggle between the French and English for this great +American continent. The trackless forests, the Great Lakes, the untenanted +shores of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi form an impressive +background for the actors in this drama,--the Indians, traders, +self-sacrificing priests, and the French and English contending for one of +the greatest prizes of the world. + +In his manner of presenting the different ideals and civilizations of +England and France in this struggle, he shows keen analytical power and +strong philosophical grasp. He is accurate in his details, and he +summarizes the results of economic and religious forces in the strictly +modern spirit. At the same time, these histories read like novels of +adventure, so vivid and lively is the action. While scholars commend his +reliability in dealing with facts, boys enjoy his vivid stories of heroism, +sacrifice, religious enthusiasm, Indian craft, and military maneuvering. +The one who begins with _The Conspiracy of Pontiac_, for instance, will be +inclined to read more of Parkman. + +In the first volumes the style is clear, nervous, and a trifle ornate. His +facility in expression increased with his years, so that in _Montcalm and +Wolfe_ he has a mellowness and dignity that place him beside the best +American prose writers. Although Prescott's work is more full of color, he +does not surpass Parkman in the presentation of graphic pictures, Parkman +has neither the solemn grandeur of Prescott nor the rapid eloquence of +Motley, but Parkman has unique merits of his own,--the freshness of the +pine woods, the reality and vividness of an eyewitness, an elemental +strength inherent in the primitive nature of his novel subject. He secured +his material at first hand in a way that cannot be repeated. Parkman's +prose presents in a simple, lucid, but vigorous manner the story of the +overthrow of the French by the English in the struggle for a mighty +continent. As a result of this contest, Puritan England left its lasting +impress upon this new land. + + +ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE PERIOD + +Most of the work of the great New England group of writers was done during +the Victorian age--a time prolific of famous English authors. The greatest +of the English writers were THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881), whose _Sartor +Resartus_ and _Heroes and Hero Worship_ proved a stimulus to Emerson and to +many other Americans; LORD MACAULAY (1800-1859), whose _Essays_ and +_History of England_, remarkable for their clearness and interest, affected +either directly or indirectly the prose style of numberless writers in the +second half of the nineteenth century; JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900), the apostle +of the beautiful and of more ideal social relations; MATTHEW ARNOLD +(1822-1888), the great analytical critic; CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870), +whose novels of the lower class of English life are remarkable for vigor, +optimism, humor, the power to caricature, and to charm the masses; WILLIAM +MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (1811-1863), whose novels, like _Vanity Fair_, remain +unsurpassed for keen satiric analysis of the upper classes; and GEORGE +ELIOT (1819-1880), whose realistic stories of middle class life show a new +art in tracing the growth and development of character instead of merely +presenting it with the fixity of a portrait. To this list should be added +CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882), whose _Origin of Species_ (1859) affected so +much of the thought of the second half of the nineteenth century. + +The two greatest poets of this time were ALFRED TENNYSON (1809-1892) and +ROBERT BROWNING (1812-1889). Browning's greatest poetry aims to show the +complex development of human souls, to make us understand that:-- + + "He fixed thee 'mid this dance + Of plastic circumstance." + +[Footnote: _Rabbi Ben Ezra_.] + +His influence on the American poets of this group was very slight. +Whittier's comment on Browning's _Men and Women_ is amusing:-- + + "I have only dipped into it, here and there, but it is not exactly + comfortable reading. It seemed to me like a galvanic battery in full + play--its spasmodic utterances and intense passion make me feel as if I + had been taking a bath among electric eels." + +Tennyson through his artistic workmanship and poetry of nature exerted more +influence. His Arthurian legends, especially _Sir Galahad_ (1842), seem to +have suggested Lowell's _Vision of Sir Launfal_ (1848). The New England +poets in general looked back to Burns, Wordsworth, Keats, and other members +of the romantic school of poets. Lowell was a great admirer of Keats, and +in early life, like Whittier, was an imitator of Burns. + + +LEADING HISTORICAL FACTS + +As might be inferred from the literature of this period--from Whittier's +early poems, Mrs. Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, Lowell's _The Biglow +Papers_, and from emphatic statements in Emerson and Thoreau--the question +of slavery was the most vital one of the time. From 1849, when California, +recently settled by gold seekers, applied for admission as a state, with a +constitution forbidding slavery, until the end of the Civil War in 1865, +slavery was the irrepressible issue of the republic. The Fugitive Slave +Law, which was passed in 1850 to secure the return of slaves from any part +of the United States, was very unpopular at the North and did much to +hasten the war, as did also the decision of the United States Supreme Court +in the Dred Scott case (1857), affirming that slaves were property, not +persons, and could be moved the same as cattle from one state to another. +Various compromise measures between the North and the South were vainly +tried. When Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860, South Carolina +led the South in seceding from the Union. In 1861 began the Civil War, +which lasted four years and resulted in the restoration of the Union and +the freeing of the slaves. + +Before Holmes, the last member of this New England group, died in 1894, +both North and South had more than regained the material prosperity which +they had enjoyed before the war. The natural resources of the country were +so great and the energy of her sons so remarkable that not only was the +waste of property soon repaired, but a degree of prosperity was reached +which would probably never have been possible without the war. More than +one million human beings perished in the strife. Many of these were from +the more cultured and intellectual classes on both sides. Centuries will +not repair that waste of creative ability in either section. France, after +the lapse of more than two hundred years, is still suffering from the loss +of her Huguenots. It is impossible to compute what American literature has +lost as a result of this war, not only from the double waste involved in +turning the energies of men to destruction and subsequently to the +necessary repairs, but also from the sacrifice of life of those who might +have displayed genius with the pen or furnished an encouraging audience to +the gifted ones who did not speak because there were none to hear. + +The development of inventions during this period revolutionized the world's +progress. Cities in various parts of the country had begun to communicate +with each other by electricity, when Thoreau was living at Walden; when +Emerson was writing the second series of his _Essays_; Longfellow, his +lines about cares "folding their tents like the Arabs and as silently +stealing away"; Lowell, his verses _To the Dandelion_; and Holmes, his +complaint that his humor was diminishing his practice. By the time that +Longfellow had finished _The Courtship of Miles Standish_, and Holmes _The +Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_, messages had been cabled across the +Atlantic. A comparison with an event of the preceding period will show the +importance of this method of communication. The treaty of peace to end the +last war with England was signed in Belgium, December 24, 1814. On January +8, 1815, the bloody battle of New Orleans was fought. News of this fight +did not reach Washington until February 4. A week later information of the +treaty of peace was received at New York. A new process of welding the +world together had begun, and this welding was further strengthened by the +invention of that modern miracle, the telephone, in 1876. + +The result of the battle between the ironclads, the _Monitor_ and the +_Merrimac_ (1862), led to a change in the navies of the entire world. +Alaska was bought in 1867, and added an area more than two thirds as large +as the United States comprised in 1783. The improvement and extension of +education, the interest in social reform, the beginning of the decline of +the "let alone doctrine," the shortening of the hours of labor, and the +consequent increase in time for self-improvement,--are all especially +important steps of progress in this period. + +Authors could no longer complain of small audiences. At the outbreak of the +Civil War the United States had a population of thirty-one millions, while +the combined population of Great Britain and Ireland was then only +twenty-nine millions. Before Holmes passed away in 1894 the population of +1860 had doubled. The passage of an international copyright law in 1891 at +last freed American authors from the necessity of competing with pirated +editions of foreign works. + + +SUMMARY + +The great mid-nineteenth century group of New England writers included +Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, who were often called the Concord group, and +Harriet Beecher Stowe, Daniel Webster, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, +Holmes, and the historians, Prescott, Motley, and Parkman. + +The causes of this great literary awakening were in some measure akin to +those which produced the Elizabethan age,--a "re-formation" of religious +opinion and a renaissance, seen in a broader culture which did not neglect +poetry, music, art, and the observation of beautiful things. + +The philosophy known as transcendentalism left its impress on much of +the work of this age. The transcendentalists believed that human mind +could "transcend" or pass beyond experience and form a conclusion which +was not based on the world of sense. They were intense idealists and +individualists, who despised imitation and repetition, who were full of +the ecstasy of discoveries in a glorious new world, who entered into a +new companionship with nature, and who voiced in ways as different as +_The Dial_ and Brook Farm their desire for an opportunity to live in all +the faculties of the soul. + +The fact that the thought of the age was specially modified by the question +of slavery is shown in Webster's orations, Harriet Beecher Stowe's _Uncle +Tom's Cabin_, the poetry of Whittier and Lowell, and to a less degree in +the work of Emerson, Thoreau, and Longfellow. + +We have found that Emerson's aim, shown in his _Essays_ and all his prose +work, is the moral development of the individual, the acquisition of +self-reliance, character, spirituality. Some of his nature poetry ranks +with the best produced in America. Thoreau, the poet-naturalist, shows how +to find enchantment in the world of nature. Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the +great romance writers of the world, has given the Puritan almost as great a +place in literature as in history. In his short stories and romances, this +great artist paints little except the trial and moral development of human +souls in a world where the Ten Commandments are supreme. + +Longfellow taught the English-speaking world to love simple poetry. He +mastered the difficult art of making the commonplace seem attractive and of +speaking to the great common heart. His ability to tell in verse stories +like _Evangeline_ and _Hiawatha_ remains unsurpassed among our singers. +Whittier was the great antislavery poet of the North. Like Longfellow, he +spoke simply but more intensely to that overwhelming majority whose lives +stand most in need of poetry. His _Snow-Bound_ makes us feel the moral +greatness of simple New England life. The versatile Lowell has written +exquisite nature poetry in his lyrics and _Vision of Sir Launfal_ and _The +Biglow Papers_. He has produced America's best humorous verse in _The +Biglow Papers_ and _A Fable for Critics_. He is a great critic, and his +prose criticism in _Among My Books_ and the related volumes is stimulating +and interesting. His political prose, of which the best specimen is +_Democracy_, is remarkable for its high ideals. Holmes is especially +distinguished for his humor in such poems as _The Deacon's Masterpiece, or +the Wonderful One-Hoss Shay_ and for the pleasant philosophy and humor in +such artistic prose as _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_. He is the +only member of this group who often wrote merely to entertain, but his +_Chambered Nautilus_ shows that he also had a more serious aim. + +When we come to the historians, we find that Prescott wrote of the romantic +achievements of Spain in the days of her glory; Motley, of the struggles of +the Dutch Republic to keep religious and civil liberty from disappearing +from this earth; Parkman, of the contest of the English against the French +and Indians to decide whether the institutions and literature of North +America should be French or English. + +This New England literature is most remarkable for its moral quality, its +gospel of self-reliance, its high ideals, its call to the soul to build +itself more stately mansions. + + +REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY + +HISTORICAL + +For contemporary English history consult the histories mentioned on p. 60. +The chapter on Victorian literature in the author's _History of English +Literature_ gives the trend of literary movements on the other side of the +Atlantic during this period. + +Contemporary American history may be traced in the general works listed on +p. 61, or in Woodrow Wilson's _Division and Reunion_. + +LITERARY + +GENERAL WORKS + +In addition to the works of Richardson, Wendell, and Trent (p. 61), the +following may be consulted:-- + +Nichol's _American Literature_. + +Churton Collins's _The Poets and Poetry of America_. + +Vincent's _American Literary Masters_. + +Stedman's _Poets of America_. + +Onderdonk's _History of American Verse_. + +Lawton's _The New England Poets_. + +Erskine's _Leading American Novelists_. (Mrs. Stowe, Hawthorne.) + +Brownell's _American Prose Masters_. (Especially Emerson and Lowell.) + +Howells's _Literary Friends and Acquaintance_. (Longfellow, Lowell, +Holmes.) + +SPECIAL WORKS + +Frothingham's _Transcendentalism in New England_. + +Dowden's _Studies in Literature_. (Transcendentalism.) + +Swift's _Brook Farm_. + +Fields's _The Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe_. + +Lodge's _Daniel Webster_. + +Woodberry's _Ralph Waldo Emerson_. + +Holmes's _Ralph Waldo Emerson_. + +Garnett's _Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson_. + +Sanborn's _Ralph Waldo Emerson_. + +Cabot's _A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson_, 2 vols. + +E. W. Emerson's _Emerson in Concord_. + +Lowell's _Emerson the Lecturer_, in _Works_, Vol. I. + +Woodbury's _Talks with Ralph Waldo Emerson_. + +Sanborn's _Henry David Thoreau_. + +Salt's _Life of Henry David Thoreau_. + +Channing's _Thoreau, The Poet Naturalist_. + +Marble's _Thoreau_, _His Home_, _Friends_, and _Books_. + +James Russell Lowell's _Thoreau_, in _Works_, Vol. I. + +Burroughs's _Indoor Studies_, Chap. 1., _Henry D. Thoreau_. + +Woodberry's _Nathaniel Hawthorne_. + +Henry James's _Hawthorne_. + +Conway's _Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne_. + +Fields's _Nathaniel Hawthorne_. + +Julian Hawthorne's _Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife_. + +George Parsons Lathrop's _A Study of Hawthorne_. + +Bridge's _Personal Recollections of Nathaniel Hawthorne_. + +Rose Hawthorne Lathrop's _Memories of Hawthorne_. + +Julian Hawthorne's _Hawthorne and his Circle_. + +Gates's _Studies and Appreciations_. (Hawthorne.) + +Canby's _The Short Story in English_, Chap. XII. (Hawthorne.) + +Samuel Longfellow's _Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with Extracts from +his Journals and Correspondence_, 3 vols. + +Higginson's _Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_. + +Carpenter's _Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_. + +Robertson's _Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_. + +Carpenter's _John Greenleaf Whittier_. + +Higginson's _John Greenleaf Whittier_. + +Perry's _John Greenleaf Whittier_. + +Pickard's _Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier_, 2 vols. + +Pickard's _Whittier-Land_. + +Greenslet's _James Russell Lowell, his Life and Work_. + +Hale's _James Russell Lowell_. (_Beacon Biographies_.) + +Scudder's _James Russell Lowell, A Biography_, 2 vols. + +Hale's _James Russell Lowell and his Friends_. + +James Russell Lowell's _Letters_, edited by Charles Eliot Norton. + +Morse's _Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes_, 2 vols. + +Haweis's _American Humorists_. + +Ticknor's _Life of William Hickling Prescott_. + +Ogden's _William Hickling Prescott_. + +Peck's _William Hickling Prescott_. + +Holmes's _John Lothrop Motley, A Memoir_. + +Curtis's _The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley_. + +Sedgwick's _Francis Parkman_. + +Farnham's _A Life of Francis Parkman_. + + +SUGGESTED READINGS + +Since the works of the authors of the New England group are nearly always +accessible, it is not usually necessary to specify editions or the exact +place where the readings may be found. Those who prefer to use books of +selections will find that Page's _The Chief American Poets_, 713 pp., +contains nearly all of the poems recommended for reading. Prose selections +may be found in Carpenter's _American Prose_, and still more extended +selections in Stedman and Hutchinson's _Library of American Literature_. + +TRANSCENDENTALISM AND THE DIAL.--Read Emerson's lecture on _The +Transcendentalist_, published in the volume called _Nature, Addresses, +and Lectures_. _The Dial_ is very rare and difficult to obtain outside +of a large library. George Willis Cooke has collected in one volume +under the title, _The Poets of Transcendentalism, An Anthology_ (1903), +341 pp., some of the best of the poems published in _The Dial_, as well +as much transcendental verse that appeared elsewhere. + +SLAVERY AND ORATORY.--Selections from _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ may be found in +Carpenter, 312-322; S. & H., VII., 132-144. Webster's _Reply to Hayne_ is +given in Johnston's _American Orations_, Vol. I., 248-302. There are +excellent selections from Webster in Carpenter, 105-118, and S. & H., IV., +462-469. Selections from the other orators mentioned may be found in +Johnston and S. & H. + +EMERSON.--Read from the volume, _Nature, Addresses, and Lectures_, the +chapters called _Nature_, _Beauty_, _Idealism_, and the "literary +declaration of independence" in his lecture, _The American Scholar_. From +the various other volumes of his _Essays_, read _Self-Reliance_, +_Friendship_, _Character_, _Civilization_. + +From his nature poetry, read _To Ellen at the South_, _The Rhodora_, _Each +and All_, _The Humble-Bee_, _Woodnotes_, _The Snow-Storm_. For a poetical +exposition of his philosophy, read _The Problem_, _The Sphinx_, and +_Brahma_. + +THOREAU.--If possible, read all of _Walden_; if not, Chaps. I., _Economy_, +IV., _Sounds_, and XV., _Winter Animals_ (Riverside Literature Series). +From the volume called _Excursions_, read the essay _Wild Apples_. Many +will be interested to read here and there from his _Notes on New England +Birds_ and from the four volumes, compiled from his _Journal_, describing +the seasons. + +HAWTHORNE.--At least one of each of the different types of his short +stories should be read. His power in impressing allegorical or symbolic +truth may be seen in _The Snow Image_ or _The Great Stone Face_. As a +specimen of his New England historical tales, read one or more of the +following: _The Gentle Boy_, _The Maypole of Merry Mount_, _Lady Eleanore's +Mantle_, or even the fantastic _Young Goodman Brown_, which presents the +Puritan idea of witchcraft. For an example of his sketches or narrative +essays, read _The Old Manse_ (the first paper in _Mosses from an Old +Manse_) or the _Introduction_ to _The Scarlet Letter_. + +_The Scarlet Letter_ may be left for mature age, but _The House of the +Seven Gables_ should be read by all. + +From his books for children, _The Golden Touch (Wonder Book)_ at least +should be read, no matter how old the reader. + +LONGFELLOW.--His best narrative poem is _Hiawatha_, and its strongest part +is _The Famine_, beginning:-- + + "Oh, the long and dreary Winter!" + +The opening lines of _Evangeline_ should be read for both the beauty of the +poetry and the novelty of the meter. The first four sections of _The +Courtship of Miles Standish_ should be read for its pictures of the early +days of the first Pilgrim settlement. His best ballads are _The Wreck of +the Hesperus, The Skeleton in Armor, Paul Revere's Ride,_ and _The Birds of +Killingworth._ For specimens of his simple lyrics, which have had such a +wide appeal, read _A Psalm of Life, The Ladder of St. Augustine, The Rainy +Day, The Day is Done, Daybreak, Resignation, Maidenhood, My Lost Youth._ + +WHITTIER.--Read the whole of _Snow-Bound,_ and for specimens of his shorter +lyrics, _Ichabod_, _The Lost Occasion_, _My Playmate_, _Telling the Bees_, +_The Barefoot Boy_, _In School Days_, _My Triumph_, _An Autograph,_ and +_The Eternal Goodness._ His best ballads are _Maud Muller, Skipper Ireson's +Ride,_ and _Cassandra Southwick._ + +LOWELL.--From among his shorter lyrical poems, read _Our Love is not a +Fading Earthly Flower, To the Dandelion, The Present Crisis, The First +Snow-Fall, After the Burial, For an Autograph, Prelude to Part I. of The +Vision of Sir Launfal._ From _The Biglow Papers,_ read _What Mr. Robinson +Thinks_ (No. III., _First Series_), _The Courtin'_ (_Introduction_ to +_Second Series_), _Sunthin' in the Pastoral Line_ (No. VI., _Second +Series_). From _A Fable for Critics,_ read the lines on Cooper, Poe, and +Irving. + +The five of Lowell's greater literary essays mentioned on page 254 show his +critical powers at their best. The student who wishes shorter selections +may choose those paragraphs which please him and any thoughts from the +political essay _Democracy_ which he thinks his neighbor should know. + +HOLMES.--Read The _Deacon's Masterpiece, or the Wonderful One-Hoss Shay_, +_The Ballad of the Oysterman_, _The Boys_, _The Last Leaf,_ and _The +Chambered Nautilus._ From _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,_ the +student may select any pages that he thinks his friends would enjoy +hearing. + +THE HISTORIANS.--Selections from Prescott, Motley, and Parkman may be found +in Carpenters _American Prose_. + +QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS + +POETRY.--Compare Emerson's _Woodnotes_ with Bryant's _Thanatopsis_ and _A +Forest Hymn_. Make a comparison of these three poems of motion: _The +Evening Wind_ (Bryant), _The Humble-Bee_ (Emerson), and _Daybreak_ +(Longfellow), and give reasons for your preference. Compare in like manner +_The Snow-Storm_ (Emerson), the first sixty-five lines of _Snow-Bound_ +(Whittier), and _The First Snow-Fall_ (Lowell). To which of these three +simple lyrics of nature would you award the palm: _To the Fringed Gentian_ +(Bryant), _The Rhodora_ (Emerson), _To the Dandelion_ (Lowell)? After +making your choice of these three poems, compare it with these two English +lyrics of the same class: _To a Mountain Daisy_ (Burns), _Daffodils_ +(Wordsworth, the poem beginning "I wandered lonely as a cloud"), and again +decide which poem pleases you most. + +Compare the humor of these two short poems describing a wooing: _The +Courtin'_ (Lowell), _The Ballad of the Oysterman_ (Holmes). Discuss the +ideals of these four poems: _A Psalm of Life_ (Longfellow), _For an +Autograph_ (Lowell), _An Autograph_ (Whittier), _The Chambered Nautilus_ +(Holmes). + +What difference in the mental characteristics of the authors do these two +retrospective poems show: _My Lost Youth_ (Longfellow), _Memories_ +(Whittier)? For a more complete answer to this question, compare the girls +in these two poems: _Maidenhood_ (Longfellow):-- + + "Maiden, with the meek, brown eyes, + In whose orbs a shadow lies," + +and _In School Days_ (Whittier), beginning with the lines where he says of +the winter sun long ago:-- + + "It touched the tangled golden curls, + And brown eyes full of grieving." + +Matthew Arnold, that severe English critic, called one of these poems +perfect of its kind, and Oliver Wendell Holmes cried over one of them. The +student who reads these carefully is entitled to rely on his own judgment, +without verifying which poem Arnold and Holmes had in mind. + +Compare Longfellow's ballads: _The Skeleton in Armor_, _The Birds of +Killingworth_, and _The Wreck of the Hesperus_, with Whittier's _Skipper +Ireson's Ride_, _Cassandra Southwick_, and _Maud Muller_. + +Compare Whittier's _Snow-Bound_ with Burns's _Cotter's Saturday Night_. In +Whittier's poem, what group of lines descriptive of (_a_) nature, and (_b_) +of inmates of the household pleases you most? + +What parts of _Hiawatha_ do you consider the best? What might be omitted +without great damage to the poem? + +In _The Courtship of Miles Standish_, which incidents or pictures of the +life of the Pilgrims appeal most strongly to you? + +What was the underlying purpose in writing _The Biglow Papers_ and +_One-Hoss Shay_? Do we to-day read them chiefly for this purpose or for +other reasons? In what does the humor of each consist? + +PROSE.--Why is it said that Mrs. Stowe showed a knowledge of psychological +values? What were the chief causes of the influence of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_? + +What are Webster's chief characteristics? Why does he retain his +preeminence among American orators? + +What transcendental qualities does Emerson's prose show? From any of his +_Essays_ select thoughts which justify Tyndall's (p. 192) statement about +Emerson's stimulating power. What passages show him to be a great moral +teacher? + +What was Thoreau's object in going to Walden? Of what is he the +interpreter? What was his mission? What passages in _Walden_ please you +most? What is the reason for such a steady increase in Thoreau's +popularity? + +Point out the allegory or symbolism in any of Hawthorne's tales. Which of +his short stories do you like best? What is Hawthorne's special aim in _The +Snow Image_ and _The Gentle Boy_? What qualities give special charm to +sketches like _The Old Manse_ and the _Introduction_ to _The Scarlet +Letter_? What is the underlying motive to be worked out in _The House of +the Seven Gables_? Why is it said that the Ten Commandments reign supreme +in Hawthorne's world of fiction? Was he a classicist or a romanticist (p. +219)? What qualities do you notice in his style? + +In Lowell's critical essays, what unusual turns of thought do you find to +challenge your attention? Does he employ humor in his serious criticism? + +What most impresses you in reading selections from _The Autocrat of the +Breakfast Table_, the humor, sprightliness, and variety of the thought, or +the style? What especially satisfactory pages have you found? + +Make a comparison (_a_) of the picturesqueness and color, (_b_) of the +energy of presentation, (_c_) of the power to develop interest, and (_d_) +of the style, shown in the selections which you have chosen from Prescott, +Motley, and Parkman. Compare their style with that of Macaulay in his +_History of England_. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SOUTHERN LITERATURE + + +PLANTATION LIFE AND ITS EFFECT UPON LITERATURE.--Before the war the South +was agricultural. The wealth was in the hands of scattered plantation +owners, and less centered in cities than at the North. The result was a +rural aristocracy of rich planters, many of them of the highest breeding +and culture. A retinue of slaves attended to their work and relieved them +from all manual labor. The masters took an active part in public life, +traveled and entertained on a lavish scale. Their guests were usually +wealthy men of the same rank, who had similar ideals and ambitions. +Gracious and attractive as this life made the people, it did not bring in +new thought, outside influences, or variety. Men continued to think like +their fathers. The transcendental movement which aroused New England was +scarcely felt as far south as Virginia. The tide of commercial activity +which swept over the East and sent men to explore the West did not affect +the character of life at the South. It was separated from every other +section of the country by a conservative spirit, an objection to change, +and a tendency toward aristocracy. + +Such conditions retarded the growth of literature. There were no novel +ideas that men felt compelled to utter, as in New England. There was little +town life to bring together all classes of men. Such life has always been +found essential to literary production. Finally, there was inevitably +connected with plantation life a serious question, which occupied men's +thoughts. + +SLAVERY.--The question that absorbed the attention of the best southern +intellect was slavery. In order to maintain the vast estates of the South, +it was necessary to continue the institution of slavery. Many southern men +had been anxious to abolish it, but, as time proceeded, they were less able +to see how the step could be taken. As a Virginian statesman expressed it, +they were holding a wolf by the ears, and it was as dangerous to let him go +as to hold on. At the North, slavery was an abstract question of moral +right or wrong, which inspired poets and novelists; at the South, slavery +was a matter of expediency, even of livelihood. Instead of serving as an +incentive to literary activity, the discussion of slavery led men farther +away from the channels of literature into the stream of practical politics. + +POLITICAL VERSUS LITERARY AMBITIONS.--The natural ambition of the southern +gentleman was political. The South was proud of its famous orators and +generals in Revolutionary times and of its long line of statesmen and +Presidents, who took such a prominent part in establishing and maintaining +the republic. We have seen (p. 68) that Thomas Jefferson of Virginia wrote +one of the most memorable political documents in the world, that James +Madison, a Virginian President of the United States, aided in producing the +_Federalist_ papers (p. 71), that George Washington's _Farewell Address_ +(p. 100) deals with such vital matters as morality almost entirely from a +political point of view. Although the South produced before the Civil War a +world-famous author in Edgar Allan Poe, her glorious achievements were +nevertheless mainly political, and she especially desired to maintain her +former reputation in the political world. The law and not literature was +therefore the avenue to the southerner's ambition. + +Long before the Civil War, slavery became an unusually live subject. There +was always some political move to discuss in connection with slavery; such, +for instance, as the constitutional interpretation of the whole question, +the necessity of balancing the admission of free and slave states to the +Union, the war with Mexico, the division of the new territory secured in +that conflict, the right of a state to secede from the Union. Consequently, +in ante bellum days, the brilliant young men of the South had, like their +famous ancestors of Revolutionary times, abundance of material for +political and legal exposition, and continued to devote their attention to +public questions, to law, and to oratory, instead of to pure literature. +They talked while the North wrote. + +In the days before the war, literature suffered also because the wealthy +classes at the South did not regard it as a dignified profession. Those who +could write often published their work anonymously. Richard Henry Wilde +(1789-1847), a young lawyer, wrote verses that won Byron's praise, and yet +did not acknowledge them until some twenty years later. Sometimes authors +tried to suppress the very work by which their names are to-day +perpetuated. When a Virginian found that the writer of + + "Thou wast lovelier than the roses + In their prime; + Thy voice excelled the closes + Of sweetest rhyme;" + +was his neighbor, Philip Pendleton Cooke (1816-1850), he said to the young +poet, "I wouldn't waste time on a thing like poetry; you might make +yourself, with all your sense and judgment, a useful man in settling +neighborhood disputes." A newspaper in Richmond, Virginia, kept a standing +offer to publish poetry for one dollar a line. + +EDUCATIONAL HANDICAPS.--Before the war there was no universal free common +school system, as at present, to prepare for higher institutions. The +children of rich families had private tutors, but the poor frequently went +without any schooling. William Gilmore Simms (p. 306) says that he "learned +little or nothing" at a public school, and that not one of his instructors +could teach him arithmetic. Lack of common educational facilities decreased +readers as well as writers. + +Until after the war, whatever literature was read by the cultured classes +was usually English. The classical school of Dryden and Pope and the +eighteenth century English essayists were especially popular. American +literature was generally considered trashy or unimportant. So conservative +was the South in its opinions, that individuality in literature was often +considered an offense against good taste. This was precisely the attitude +of the classical school in England during a large part of the eighteenth +century. Until after the Civil War, therefore, the South offered few +inducements to follow literature as a profession. + +THE NEW SOUTH.--After the South had passed through the terrible struggle of +the Civil War, in which much of her best blood perished, there followed the +tragic days of the reconstruction. These were times of readjustment, when a +wholly new method of life had to be undertaken by a conservative people; +when the uncertain position of the negro led to frequent trouble; when the +unscrupulous politician, guided only by desire for personal gain, played on +the ignorance of the poor whites and the enfranchised negroes, and almost +wrecked the commonwealth. Had Lincoln lived to direct affairs after the +war, much suffering might have been avoided, and the wounds of the South +might have been more speedily healed. + +These days, however, finally passed, and the South began to adapt herself +to the changed conditions of modern life. In these years of transition +since the Civil War, a new South has been evolved. Cities are growing +rapidly. Some parts of the South are developing even faster than any other +sections of the country. Men are running mills as well as driving the plow. +Small farms have often taken the place of the large plantation. A system of +free public schools has been developed, and compulsory education for all +has been demanded. Excellent higher institutions of learning have +multiplied. Writers and a reading public, both with progressive ideals, +have rapidly increased. In short, the South, like the East and the West, +has become more democratic and industrial, less completely agricultural, +and has paid more attention to the education of the masses. + +It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that the southern conservatism, +which had been fostered for generations, could at once be effaced. The +South still retains much of her innate love of aristocracy, loyalty to +tradition, disinclination to be guided by merely practical aims, and +aversion to rapid change. This condition is due partly to the fact that the +original conservative English stock, which is still dominant, has been more +persistent there and less modified by foreign immigration. + +CHARACTERISTICS OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE.--The one who studies the greatest +authors of the South soon finds them worthy of note for certain qualities. +Poe was cosmopolitan enough to appeal to foreign lands even more forcibly +than to America, and yet we shall find that he has won the admiration of a +great part of the world for characteristics, many of which are too +essentially southern to be possessed in the same degree by authors in other +sections of the country. The poets of the South have placed special +emphasis on (1) melody, (2) beauty, (3) artistic workmanship. In creations +embodying a combination of such qualities, Poe shows wonderful mastery. +More than any other American poet, he has cast on the reader + + "... the spell which no slumber + Of witchery may test, + The rhythmical number + Which lull'd him to rest." + +After reading Poe and Lanier, we feel that we can say to the South what Poe +whispered to the fair Ligeia:-- + + "No magic shall sever + Thy music from thee." + +The wealth of sunshine flooding the southern plains, the luxuriance of the +foliage and the flowers, and the strong contrasts of light and shade and +color are often reflected in the work of southern writers. Such verse as +this is characteristic:-- + + "Beyond the light that would not die + Out of the scarlet-haunted sky, + Beyond the evening star's white eye + Of glittering chalcedony, + Drained out of dusk the plaintive cry + Of 'whippoorwill!' of 'whippoorwill!'" + +[Footnote: Cawein, _Red Leaves and Roses_.] + +In the work of her later writers of fiction, the South has presented, often +in a realistic setting of natural scenes, a romantic picture of the life +distinctive of the various sections,--of the Creoles of Louisiana, of the +mountaineers of Tennessee, of the blue grass region of Kentucky, of +Virginia in the golden days, and of the Georgia negro, whose folk lore and +philosophy are voiced by Uncle Remus. + + +EDGAR ALLAN POE, 1809-1849 + +[Illustration: EDGAR ALLAN POE] + +EARLY LIFE.--The most famous of all southern writers and one of the world's +greatest literary artists happened to be born in Boston because his +parents, who were strolling actors, had come there to fill an engagement. +His grandfather, Daniel Poe, a citizen of Baltimore, was a general in the +Revolution. His service to his country was sufficiently noteworthy to cause +Lafayette to kneel at the old general's grave and say, "Here reposes a +noble heart." + +An orphan before he was three years old, Poe was reared by Mr. and Mrs. +John Allan of Richmond, Virginia. In 1815, at the close of the War of 1812, +his foster parents went to England and took him with them. He was given a +school reader and two spelling books with which to amuse himself during the +long sailing voyage across the ocean. He was placed for five years in the +Manor School House, a boarding school, at Stoke Newington, a suburb of +London. Here, he could walk by the very house in which Defoe wrote +_Robinson Crusoe_. But nothing could make up to Poe the loss of a mother +and home training during those five critical years. The head master said +that Poe was clever, but spoiled by "an extravagant amount of pocket +money." The contrast between his school days and adult life should be +noted. We shall never hear of his having too much money after he became an +author. + +In 1820 the boy returned with the Allans to Richmond, where he prepared for +college, and at the age of seventeen entered the University of Virginia. +"Here," his biographer says, "he divided his time, after the custom of +undergraduates, between the recitation room, the punch bowl, the +card-table, athletic sports, and pedestrianism." Although Poe does not seem +to have been censured by the faculty, Mr. Allan was displeased with his +record, removed him from college, and placed him in his counting house. +This act and other causes, which have never been fully ascertained, led Poe +to leave Mr. Allan's home. + +Poe then went to Boston, where, at the age of eighteen, he published a thin +volume entitled _Tamerlane and Other Poems_. Disappointed at not being able +to live by his pen, he served two years in the army as a common soldier, +giving both an assumed name and age. He finally secured an appointment to +West Point after he was slightly beyond the legal age of entrance. The +cadets said in a joking way that Poe had secured the appointment for his +son, but that the father substituted himself after the boy died. Feeling an +insatiable ambition to become an author, Poe neglected his duties at West +Point, and he was, fortunately for literature, discharged at the age of +twenty-two. + +HIS GREAT STRUGGLE.--Soon after leaving West Point, Poe went to his kindred +in Baltimore. In a garret in that southern city, he first discovered his +power in writing prose tales. In 1833 his story, _MS. Found in a Bottle_, +won a prize of one hundred dollars offered by a Baltimore paper. In 1834 +Mr. Allan died without mentioning Poe in his will; and in spite of his +utmost literary efforts, Poe had to borrow money to keep from starving. + +After struggling for four years in Baltimore, he went to Richmond and +became editor of the _Southern Literary Messenger_. He worked very hard in +this position, sometimes contributing to a single number as much as forty +pages of matter, mostly editorials and criticisms of books. In Baltimore he +had tested his power of writing short stories, but in Richmond his work +laid the foundation of his reputation as a literary critic. While here, he +married his cousin, Virginia Clemm. Perhaps it was irregular habits that +caused him to lose the profitable editorship of the _Messenger_ soon after +he married. Let us remember, however, that his mother-in-law was charitable +enough not to unveil his weakness. "At home," she said, "he was as simple +and affectionate as a child." + +[Illustration: POE'S COTTAGE, FORDHAM, NEW YORK] + +The principal part of the rest of his life was passed in Philadelphia and +New York, where he served as editor of various periodicals and wrote +stories and poems. In the former city, he wrote most of the tales for which +he is to-day famous. With the publication of his poem, _The Raven_, in New +York in 1845, he reached the summit of his fame. In that year he wrote to a +friend, "_The Raven_ has had a great 'run'--but I wrote it for the express +purpose of running--just as I did _The Gold Bug_, you know. The bird beat +the bug, though, all hollow." And yet, in spite of his fame, he said in the +same year, "I have made no money. I am as poor now as ever I was in my +life." + +The truth was that it would then have been difficult for the most +successful author to live even in the North without a salaried position, +and conditions were worse in the South. Like Hawthorne, Poe tried to get a +position in a customhouse, but failed. + +[Illustration: VIRGINIA CLEMM] + +He moved to an inexpensive cottage in Fordham, a short distance from New +York City, where he, his wife, and mother-in-law found themselves in 1846 +in absolute want of food and warmth. The saddest scene in which any great +American author figured was witnessed in that cottage in "the bleak +December," when his wife, Virginia, lay dying in the bitter cold. Because +there was insufficient bed clothing to keep her warm, Poe gave her his coat +and placed the family cat upon her to add its warmth. + +Her death made him almost completely irresponsible. The stunning effect of +the blow may be seen in the wandering lines of _Ulalume_ (1847). The end +came to him in Baltimore in 1849, the same year in which he wrote the +beautiful dirge of _Annabel Lee_ for his dead wife. He was only forty when +he died. This greatest literary genius of the South was buried in Baltimore +in a grave that remained unmarked for twenty-six years. + +In anticipation of his end, he had written the lines:-- + + "And oh! of all tortures,-- + _That_ torture the worst + Has abated--the terrible + Torture of thirst + For the napthaline river + Of Passion accurst:-- + I have drank of a water + That quenches all thirst." + +HIS TALES.--He wrote more than sixty tales, some of which rank among the +world's greatest short stories. The most important of these productions may +be classified as tales (1) of the supernatural, like _The Fall of the House +of Usher_ and _Ligeia_, (2) of conscience, like _William Wilson_, that +remarkable forerunner of _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_, (3) of pseudo-science, +like _A Descent into the Maelstrom_, (4) of analysis or ratiocination, like +_The Gold Bug_ and that wonderful analytical detective story, the first of +its kind, _The Murders in the Rue Morgue_, the predecessor of later +detective stories, like _The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_, and (5) of +natural beauty, like _The Domain of Arnheim_. + +This classification does not include all of his types, for his powerful +story, _The Pit and the Pendulum_, does not belong to any of these classes. +He shows remarkable versatility in passing from one type of story to +another. He could turn from a tale of the supernatural to write a model for +future authors of realistic detective stories. He could solve difficult +riddles with masterly analysis, and in his next story place a +conscience-stricken wretch on the rack and then turn away calmly to write a +tale of natural beauty. He specially liked to invest an impossible story +with scientific reality, and he employed Defoe's specific concrete method +of mingling fact with fiction. With all the seriousness of a teacher of +physics, Poe describes the lunar trip of one Hans Pfaall with his balloon, +air-condenser, and cat. He tells how the old cat had difficulty in +breathing at a vast altitude, while the kittens, born on the upward +journey, and never used to a dense atmosphere, suffered little +inconvenience from the rarefaction. He relates in detail the accident which +led to the detachment from the balloon of the basket containing the cat and +kittens, and we find it impossible not to be interested in their fate. He +had the skill of a wizard in presenting in remarkably brief compass +suggestion after suggestion to invest his tales with the proper atmosphere +and to hypnotize the reader into an unresisting acceptance of the march of +events. Even a hostile critic calls him "a conjuror who does not need to +have the lights turned down." + +In one respect his tales are alike, for they are all romantic (p. 88) and +deal with the unusual, the terrible, or the supernatural. Some of these +materials suggest Charles Brockden Brown (p. 89), but Poe, working with the +genius of a master artist, easily surpassed him. + +HIS DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN SHORT STORY.--Poe has an almost world-wide +reputation for the part which he played in developing the modern short +story. The ancient Greeks had short stories, and Irving had written +delightful ones while Poe was still a child; but Poe gave this type of +literature its modern form. He banished the little essays, the moralizing, +and the philosophizing, which his predecessors, and even his great +contemporary, Hawthorne, had scattered through their short stories. Poe's +aim in writing a short story was to secure by the shortest air-line passage +the precise effect which he desired. He was a great literary critic, and +his essays, _The Philosophy of Composition_ and _The Poetic Principle_, +with all their aberrations, have become classic; but his most famous piece +of criticism--almost epoch-making, so far as the short story is +concerned--is the following:-- + + "A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not + fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having + conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single _effect_ to + be wrought out, he then invents such incidents,--he then combines such + events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. If + his very initial sentence tend not to the outbringing of this effect, + then he has failed in his first step. In the whole composition there + should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is + not to the one pre-established design." + +Poe's greatest supernatural tale, _The Fall of the House of Usher_, should +be read in connection with this criticism. His initial sentence thus +indicates the atmosphere of the story:-- + + "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the + year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been + passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of + country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew + on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher." + +Each following stroke of the master's brush adds to the desired effect. The +black and lurid tarn, Roderick Usher with his mental disorder, his sister +Madeline, subject to trances, buried prematurely in a vault directly +underneath the guest's room, the midnight winds blowing from every +direction toward the House of Usher, the chance reading of a sentence from +an old and musty volume, telling of a mysterious noise, the hearing of a +muffled sound and the terrible suggestion of its cause,--all tend to +indicate and heighten the gloom of the final catastrophe. + +In one of his great stories, which is not supernatural, _The Pit and the +Pendulum_, he desires to impress the reader with the horrors of medieval +punishment. We may wonder why the underground dungeon is so large, why the +ceiling is thirty feet high, why a pendulum appears from an opening in that +ceiling. But we know when the dim light, purposely admitted from above, +discloses the prisoner strapped immovably on his back, and reveals the +giant pendulum, edged with the sharpest steel, slowly descending, its arc +of vibration increasing as the terrible edge almost imperceptibly +approaches the prisoner. We find ourselves bound with him, suffering from +the slow torture. We would escape into the upper air if we could, but Poe's +hypnotic power holds us as helpless as a child while that terrible edge +descends. + +A comparison of these stories and the most successful ones published since +Poe's time, on the one hand, with those written by Irving or Hawthorne, on +the other, will show the influence of Poe's technique in making almost a +new creation of the modern short story. + +[Illustration: HOUSE WHERE POE WROTE "THE RAVEN" +(Near Eighty-fourth Street, New York)] + +POETRY.--Poe wrote a comparatively small amount of verse. Of the +forty-eight poems which he is known to have written, not more than nine are +masterpieces, and all of these are short. It was a favorite article of his +poetic creed that there could be no such creation as a long poem, that such +a poem would in reality be a series of poems. He thought that each poem +should cause only one definite emotional impression, and that a long poem +would lack the necessary unity. He says that he determined in advance that +_The Raven_ should contain about one hundred lines. + +His poetic aim was solely "the creation of beauty." He says:-- + + "Regarding, then, Beauty as my province, my next question referred to the + _tone_ of its highest manifestation; and all experience has shown that + this tone is one of _sadness_. Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme + development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. Melancholy + is thus the most legitimate of all the poetical tones." + +[Footnote: _The Philosophy of Composition_.] + +He then concludes that death is the most melancholy subject available for a +poet, and that the death of a beautiful woman "is unquestionably the most +poetical topic in the world." From the popularity of _The Raven_ at home +and abroad, in comparison with other American poems, it would seem as if +the many agreed with Poe and felt the fascination of the burden of his +song:-- + + "Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, + It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore-- + Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore." + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF FIRST STANZA OF ANNABEL LEE] + +His most beautiful poem, _Annabel Lee_, is the dirge written for his wife, +and it is the one great poem in which he sounds this note of lasting +triumph:-- + + "And neither the angels in heaven above, + Nor the demons down under the sea, + Can ever dissever my soul from the soul + Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE." + +A few of his great poems, like _Israfel_ and _The Bells_, do not sing of +death, but most of them make us feel the presence of the great Shadow. The +following lines show that it would be wrong to say, as some do, that his +thoughts never pass beyond it:-- + + "And all my days are trances, + And all my nightly dreams + Are where thy dark eye glances, + And where thy footstep gleams-- + In what ethereal dances, + By what eternal streams." + +[Footnote: _To One in Paradise_.] + +It would be difficult to name a poet of any race or age who has surpassed +Poe in exquisite melody. His liquid notes soften the harshness of death. No +matter what his theme, his verse has something of the quality which he +ascribes to the fair Ligeia:-- + + "Ligeia! Ligeia! + My beautiful one! + Whose harshest idea + Will to melody run." + +The fascination of his verse is not due to the depth of thought, to the +spiritual penetration of his imagination, or to the poetic setting of noble +ideals, for he lacked these qualities; but he was a master in securing +emotional effects with his sad music. He wedded his songs of the death of +beautiful women to the most wonderful melodies, which at times almost +transcend the limits of language and pass into the realm of pure music. His +verses are not all-sufficient for the hunger of the soul; but they supply +an element in which Puritan literature was too often lacking, and they +justify the transcendental doctrine that beauty is its own excuse for +being. + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--Poe was a great literary artist, who thought that +the creation of beauty was the object of every form of the highest art. His +aim in both prose and poetry was to produce a pronounced effect by artistic +means. His continued wide circulation shows that he was successful in his +aim. An English publisher recently said that he sold in one year 29,000 of +Poe's tales, or about three times as many of them as of any other +American's work. + +The success with which Poe met in producing an effect upon the minds of his +readers makes him worthy of careful study by all writers and speakers, who +desire to make a vivid impression. Poe selected with great care the point +which he wished to emphasize. He then discarded everything which did not +serve to draw attention to that point. On his stage the colored lights may +come from many different directions, but they all focus on one object. + +Hawthorne and Poe, two of the world's great short-story writers, were +remarkably unlike in their aims. Hawthorne saw everything in the light of +moral consequences. Poe cared nothing for moral issues, except in so far as +the immoral was ugly. Hawthorne appreciated beauty only as a true +revelation of the inner life. Poe loved beauty and the melody of sound for +their own attractiveness. His effects, unlike Hawthorne's, were more +physical than moral. Poe exalted the merely technical and formal side of +literary excellence more than Hawthorne. + +Poe's prose style is direct, energetic, clear, and adequate to the +occasion. His mind was too analytic to overload his sentences with +ornament, and too definite to be obscure. He had the same aim in his style +as in his subject matter,--to secure an effect with the least obstruction. + +[Illustration: BUST OF POE IN UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA] + +His poetry is of narrower range than his prose, but his greatest poems hold +a unique position for an unusual combination of beauty, melody, and +sadness. He retouched and polished them from year to year, until they stand +unsurpassed in their restricted field. He received only ten dollars for +_The Raven_ while he was alive, but the appreciation of his verse has +increased to such an extent that the sum of two thousand dollars was +recently paid for a copy of the thin little 1827 edition of his poems. + +It has been humorously said that the French pray to Poe as a literary +saint. They have never ceased to wonder at the unusual combination of his +analytic reasoning power with his genius for imaginative presentation of +romantic materials,--at the realism of his touch and the romanticism of his +thought. It is true that many foreign critics consider Poe America's +greatest author. An eminent English critic says that Poe has surpassed all +the rest of our writers in playing the part of the Pied Piper of Hamelin to +other authors. At home, however, there have been repeated attempts to +disbar Poe from the court of great writers. Not until 1910 did the board of +electors vote him a tablet in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. + +It may be admitted that Poe was a technical artist, that his main object +was effectiveness of impression and beauty of form, that he was not +overanxious about the worth of his subject matter to an aspiring soul, and +that he would have been vastly greater if he had joined high moral aim to +his quest of beauty. He overemphasized the romantic elements of +strangeness, sadness, and horror. He was deficient in humor and sentiment, +and his guiding standards of criticism often seem too coldly intellectual. +Those critics who test him exclusively by the old Puritan standards +invariably find him wanting, for the Puritans had no room in their world +for the merely beautiful. + +Poe's genius, however, was sufficiently remarkable to triumph over these +defects, which would have consigned to oblivion other writers of less +power. In spite of the most determined hostile criticism that an American +author has ever known, the editions of Poe's works continue to increase. +The circle of those who fall under his hypnotic charm, in which there is +nothing base or unclean, is enlarged with the passing of the years. As a +great literary craftsman, he continues to teach others. He is now not +likely to be dislodged from that peculiar, narrow field where he holds a +unique and original position among the great writers of the world. + + +WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS, 1806-1870 + +William Gilmore Simms, often styled the "Cooper of the South," was born of +poor parents in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1806. His mother died when +he was very young, and his father moved west into the wilds of Mississippi. +The boy was left behind to be reared by his grandmother, a poor but clever +woman, who related to him tales of the Revolutionary War, through which she +had lived. During a visit to his father, these tales were supplemented by +stories of contemporary life on the borders of civilization. In this way +Simms acquired a large part of the material for his romances. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS] + +He prospered financially, married well, became the owner of a fine estate, +and bent every effort to further southern literature and assist southern +writers. He became the center of a group of literary men in Charleston, of +whom Hayne and Timrod were the most famous. The war, however, ruined Simms. +His property and library were destroyed, and, though he continued to write, +he never found his place in the new order of life. He failed to catch the +public ear of a people satiated with fighting and hair-raising adventures. +He survived but six years, and died in Charleston in 1870. + +Being of humble birth, Simms lacked the advantage of proper schooling. +Although he was surrounded by aristocratic and exclusive society, he did +not have the association of a literary center, such as the Concord and +Cambridge writers enjoyed. He found no publishers nearer than New York, to +which city he personally had to carry his manuscripts for publication. Yet +with all these handicaps, he achieved fame for himself and his loved +Southland. This victory over adverse conditions was won by sheer force of +indomitable will, by tremendous activity, and by a great, honest, generous +nature. + +His writings show an abounding energy and versatility. He wrote poetry, +prose fiction, historical essays, and political pamphlets, and amazed his +publishers by his speed in composition. His best work is _The Yemassee_ +(1835), a story of the uprising of the Indians in Carolina. The midnight +massacre, the fight at the blockhouse, and the blood-curdling description +of the dishonoring of the Indian chief's son are told with infectious vigor +and rapidity. _The Partisan_ (1835), _Katherine Walton_ (1851), and _The +Sword and Distaff_ (1852), afterwards called _Woodcraft_, also show his +ability to tell exciting tales, to understand Indian character, and to +commemorate historical events in thrilling narratives. + +Simms wrote rapidly and carelessly. He makes mistakes in grammar and +construction, and is often stilted and grandiloquent. All of his romances +are stories of adventure which are enjoyed by boys, but not much read by +others. Nevertheless, his best works fill a large place in southern +literature and history. They tell in an interesting way the life of the +border states, of southern crossroads towns, of colonial wars, and of +Indian customs. What Cooper did for the North, Simms accomplished for the +South. He lacked Cooper's skill and variety of invention, and he created no +character to compare with Cooper's Leatherstocking; but he excelled Cooper +in the more realistic portrayal of Indian character. + + +HENRY TIMROD, 1829-1867 + +[Illustration: HENRY TIMROD] + +Henry Timrod was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1829. He attended +the University of Georgia; but was prevented by delicate health and poverty +from taking his degree. He was early thrown upon his own resources to earn +a livelihood, and having tried law and found it distasteful, he depended +upon teaching and writing. His verses were well received, but the times +preceding the Civil War were not propitious for a poor poet. As he was not +strong enough to bear arms at the outbreak of hostilities, he went to the +field as a war correspondent for a newspaper in Charleston and he became +later an associate editor in Columbia. His printing office was demolished +in Sherman's march to the sea, and at the close of the war Timrod was left +in a desperate condition. He was hopelessly ill from consumption; he was in +the direst poverty; and he was saddened by the death of his son. There was +no relief for Timrod until death released him from his misery in 1867. Yet +in spite of all his trials, he desired earnestly to live, and when his +sister told him that death would, at least, bring him rest, he replied, +"Yes, my sister, but love is sweeter than rest." + +Timrod's one small volume of poetry contains some of the most spontaneous +nature and love lyrics in the South. In this stanza to _Spring_, the +directness and simplicity of his manner may be seen:-- + + "In the deep heart of every forest tree + The blood is all aglee, + And there's a look about the leafless bowers + As if they dreamed of flowers." + +He says in _A Vision of Poesy_ that the poet's mission is to + + "... turn life's tasteless waters into wine, + And flush them through and through with purple tints." + +His best known and most original poem is _The Cotton Boll_. This +description of the wide stretches of a white cotton field is one of the +best in the poem. He shows the field + + "... lost afar + Behind the crimson hills and purple lawns + Of sunset, among plains which roll their streams + Against the Evening Star! + And lo! + To the remotest point of sight, + Although I gaze upon no waste of snow, + The endless field is white; + And the whole landscape glows, + For many a shining league away, + With such accumulated light + As Polar lands would flash beneath a tropic day!" + +Simplicity and sincerity in language, theme, and feeling are special +characteristics of Timrod's verse. His lyrics are short and their volume +slight, but a few of them, like _Spring_ and _The Lily Confidante_, seem +almost to have sung themselves. So vivid is his reproduction of the spirit +of the awakening year in his poem _Spring_, that, to quote his own lines:-- + + "... you scarce would start, + If from a beech's heart, + A blue-eyed Dryad, stepping forth, should say, + 'Behold me! I am May.'" + +Timrod shows the same qualities of simplicity, directness, and genuine +feeling in his war poetry. No more ringing lines were written for the +southern cause during the Civil War than are to be found in his poems, +_Carolina_ and _Ethnogenesis_. + + +PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE, 1830-1886 + +[Illustration: PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE] + +Paul Hamilton Hayne was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1830. His +family was rich and influential, and he inherited a fortune in his own +right. After graduating at Charleston College, he studied law, but devoted +his independent leisure entirely to literature. He became associated with +_The Southern Literary Gazette_, and was the first editor of _Russell's +Magazine_, an ambitious venture launched by the literary circle at the +house of Simms. Hayne married happily, and had every prospect of a +prosperous and brilliant career when the war broke out. He enlisted, but +his health soon failed, and at the close of the war he found himself an +invalid with his fortune destroyed. He went to the Pine Barrens of Georgia, +where he built, on land which he named Copse Hill, a hut nearly as rude as +Thoreau's at Walden. Handicapped by poverty and disease, Hayne lived here +during the remainder of his life, writing his best poems on a desk +fashioned out of a workbench. He died in 1886. + +Hayne wrote a large amount of poetry, and tried many forms of verse, in +almost all of which he maintained a smoothness of meter, a correctness of +rhyme, and, in general, a high level of artistic finish. He is a skilled +craftsman, his ear is finely attuned to harmonious arrangements of sounds, +and he shows an acquaintance with the best melodists in English poetry. The +limpid ease and grace in his lines may be judged by this dainty poem:-- + + "A tiny rift within the lute + May sometimes make the music mute! + By slow degrees, the rift grows wide, + By slow degrees, the tender tide-- + Harmonious once--of loving thought + Becomes with harsher measures fraught, + Until the heart's Arcadian breath + Lapses thro' discord into death!" + +His best poems are nature lyrics. In _The Woodland Phases_, one of the +finest of these, he tells how nature is to him a revelation of the +divine:-- + + "And midway, betwixt heaven and us, + Stands Nature in her fadeless grace, + Still pointing to our Father's house, + His glory on her mystic face." + +Hayne found the inspiration for his verse in the scenes about his forest +home: in the "fairy South Wind" that "floateth on the subtle wings of +balm," in + + "... the one small glimmering rill + That twinkles like a wood-fay's mirthful eye," + +in the solitary lake + + "Shrined in the woodland's secret heart," + +in + + "His blasted pines, smit by the fiery West, + Uptowering rank on rank, like Titan spears," + +in the storm among the Georgian hills, in the twilight, that + + "... on her virginal throat + Wears for a gem the tremulous vesper star," + +and in the mocking-birds, whose + + "... love notes fill the enchanted land; + Through leaf-wrought bars they storm the stars, + These love songs of the mocking-birds!" + +The chief characteristics of his finest poetry are a tender love of nature, +a profusion of figurative language, and a gentle air of meditation. + + +SIDNEY LANIER, 1842-1881 + +[Illustration: SIDNEY LANIER] + +LIFE.--Sidney Lanier was the product of a long line of cultured ancestors, +among whom appeared, both in England and America, men of striking musical +and artistic ability. He was born in Macon, Georgia, in 1842. He served in +the Confederate army during the four years of the war, and was taken +prisoner and exposed to the hardest conditions, both during his confinement +and after his release. The remainder of his life was a losing fight against +the ravages of consumption. + +He was fairly successful for a short time in his father's law office; but +if ever a man believed that it was his duty to devote his every breath to +the gift of music and poetry bestowed upon him, that man was Lanier. His +wife agreed with him in his ideals and faith, so in 1873 he left his family +in Georgia and went to Baltimore, the land of libraries and orchestras. He +secured the position of first flute in the Peabody orchestra, and, by sheer +force of genius, took up the most difficult scores and faultlessly led all +the flutes. He read and studied, wrote and lectured like one who had +suffered from mental starvation. In 1879 he received the appointment of +lecturer on English literature at the Johns Hopkins University, a position +which his friends had long wished to see him fill. He held it only two +years, however, before his death. His health had fast been failing. He +wrote part of the time while lying on his back, and, because of physical +weakness, he delivered some of his lectures in whispers. In search of +relief, he was taken to Florida, Texas, and North Carolina, but no +permanent benefit came, and he died in his temporary quarters in North +Carolina in 1881. + +Works.--Lanier wrote both prose and poetry. His prose comprises books for +children and critical studies. _The Science of English Verse_ (1880) and +_The English Novel_ (1883) are of interest because of their clear setting +forth of his theory of versification and art. In his poetry he strives to +embody the ideals proclaimed in his prose work, which are, first, to write +nothing that is not moral and elevating in tone, and, second, to express +himself in versification which is obedient to the laws of regular musical +composition, in rhyme, rhythm, vowel assonance, alliteration, and +phrasings. + +Lanier's creed, that the poet should be an inspiration for good to his +readers, is found in his lines:-- + + "The artist's market is the heart of man, + The artist's price some little good of man." + +The great inspiration of his life was love, and he has some fine love +poems, such as _My Springs_, _In Absence_, _Evening Song_, and _Laus +Mariae_. In _The Symphony_, which voices the social sorrow for the +overworked and downtrodden, he says the problem is not one for the head but +the heart:-- + + "Vainly might Plato's brain revolve it, + Plainly the heart of a child could solve it." + +In ending the poem, he says that even + + "Music is Love in search of a word." + +Strong personal love, tender pitying love for humanity, impassioned love of +nature, and a reverent love of God are found in Lanier. + +The striking musical quality of Lanier's best verse is seen in these +stanzas from _Tampa Robins_:-- + + "The robin laughed in the orange-tree: + 'Ho, windy North, a fig for thee: + While breasts are red and wings are bold + And green trees wave us globes of gold, + Time's scythe shall reap but bliss for me + --Sunlight, song, and the orange-tree. + + * * * * * + + "'I'll south with the sun and keep my clime; + My wing is king of the summer-time; + My breast to the sun his torch shall hold; + And I'll call down through the green and gold, + _Time, take thy scythe, reap bliss for me, + Bestir thee under the orange-tree_.'" + +The music of the bird, the sparkle of the sunlight, and the pure joy of +living are in this poem, which is one of Lanier's finest lyrical outbursts. +_The Song of the Chattahoochee_ is another of his great successes in pure +melody. The rhymes, the rhythm, the alliteration beautifully express the +flowing of the river. + +His noblest and most characteristic poem, however, is _The Marshes of +Glynn_. It seems to breathe the very spirit of the broad open marshes and +to interpret their meaning to the heart of man, while the long, sweeping, +melodious lines of the verse convey a rich volume of music, of which he was +at times a wonderful master. + + "Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and the terminal sea? + Somehow my soul seems suddenly free + From the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin, + By the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn." + +This poem, original and beautiful, both in subject and form, expresses +Lanier's strong faith in God. He says:-- + + "As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod, + Behold, I will build me a nest on the greatness of God: + I will fly in the greatness of God as the marsh-hen flies + In the freedom that fills all the space 'twixt the marsh and the skies: + By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod + I will heartily lay me a-hold of the greatness of God." + +No Puritan could show a truer faith than Lanier's, nor a faith more +poetically and devoutly expressed. In his _Sunrise_ he attains at times the +beauty of _The Marshes of Glynn_, and voices in some of the lines a +veritable rhapsody of faith. Yet for sustained elevation of feeling and for +unbroken musical harmonies, _Sunrise_ cannot equal _The Marshes of Glynn_, +which alone would suffice to keep Lanier's name on the scroll of the +greater American poets. + +General Characteristics.--Lanier is an ambitious poet. He attempts to voice +the unutterable, to feel the intangible, to describe the indescribable, and +to clothe this ecstasy in language that will be a harmonious accompaniment +to the thought. This striving after practically impossible effects +sometimes gives the feeling of artificiality and strain to his verse. It is +not always simple, and sometimes one overcharged stanza will mar an +otherwise exquisite poem. + +On the other hand, Lanier never gives voice to anything that is merely +trivial or pretty. He is always in earnest, and the feeling most often +aroused by him is a passionate exaltation. He is a nature poet. The color, +the sunshine, the cornfields, the hills, and the marshes of the South are +found in his work. But more than their outer aspect, he likes to interpret +their spirit,--the peace of the marsh, the joy of the bird, the mystery of +the forest, and the evidences of love everywhere. + +The music of his lines varies with his subjects. It is light and +delicate in _Tampa Robins_, rippling and gurgling in _The Song of the +Chattahoochee_, and deeply sonorous in _The Marshes of Glynn_. Few +surpass him in the long, swinging, grave harmonies of his most highly +inspired verse. In individual lines, in selected stanzas, Lanier has few +rivals in America. His poetical endowment was rich, his passion for +music was a rare gift, his love of beauty was intense, and his soul was +on fire with ideals. + + +FATHER RYAN, 1839-1886 + +[Illustration: FATHER RYAN] + +Another poet who will long be remembered for at least one poem is Abram +Joseph Ryan (1839-1886), better known as "Father Ryan." He was a Roman +Catholic priest who served as chaplain in the Confederate army, and though +longing and waiting only for death in order to go to the land that held joy +for him, he wrote and worked for his fellow-man with a gentleness and +sympathy that left regret in many hearts when he died in Louisville, +Kentucky, in 1886. + +He loved the South and pitied her plight, and in his pathetic poem, _The +Conquered Banner_, voiced the woe of a heart-broken people:-- + + "Furl that Banner, softly, slowly! + Treat it gently--it is holy-- + For it droops above the dead. + Touch it not--unfold it never-- + Let it droop there, furled forever, + For its people's hopes are dead." + + +JOHN BANNISTER TABB, 1845-1909 + +[Illustration: JOHN BANNISTER TABB] + +John Bannister Tabb was born in 1845 on the family estate in Amelia County, +Virginia. He was a strong adherent of the southern cause, and during the +war he served as clerk on one of the boats carrying military stores. He was +taken prisoner, and placed in Point Lookout Prison, where Lanier also was +confined. After the war, Tabb devoted some time to music and taught school. +His studies led him toward the church, and at the age of thirty-nine he +received the priest's orders in the Roman Catholic church. When he died in +1909, he was a teacher in St. Charles College, Ellicott City, Maryland. He +had been blind for two years. + +Tabb's poems are preeminently "short swallow-flights of song," for most of +them are only from four to eight lines long. Some of these verses are +comic, while others are grave and full of religious ardor. The most +beautiful of all his poems are those of nature. The one called _The Brook_ +is among the brightest and most fanciful:-- + + "It is the mountain to the sea + That makes a messenger of me: + And, lest I loiter on the way + And lose what I am sent to say, + He sets his reverie to song + And bids me sing it all day long. + Farewell! for here the stream is slow, + And I have many a mile to go." + +[Footnote: _Poems_, 1894.] + +_The Water Lily_ is another dainty product, full of poetic feeling for +nature:-- + + "Whence, O fragrant form of light, + Hast thou drifted through the night, + Swanlike, to a leafy nest, + On the restless waves, at rest? + + "Art thou from the snowy zone + Of a mountain-summit blown, + Or the blossom of a dream, + Fashioned in the foamy stream?" + +[Footnote: _The Water Lily_, from _Poems_, 1894.] + +In _Quips and Quiddits_ he loves to show that type of humor dependent on +unexpected changes in the meaning of words. The following lines illustrate +this characteristic:-- + + "To jewels her taste did incline; + But she had not a trinket to wear + Till she slept after taking quinine, + And awoke with a ring in each ear." + +Tabb's power lay in condensing into a small compass a single thought or +feeling and giving it complete artistic expression. The more serious poems, +especially the sacred ones, sometimes seem to have too slight a body to +carry their full weight of thought, but the idea is always fully expressed, +no matter how narrow the compass of the verse. His poetry usually has the +qualities of lightness, airiness, and fancifulness. + + +JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS, 1848-1908 + +[Illustration: JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS] + +Joel Chandler Harris was born at Eatonton, in the center of Georgia in +1848. He alludes to himself laughingly as "an uncultured Georgia cracker." +At the age of twelve, he was setting type for a country newspaper and +living upon the plantation of the wealthy owner of this paper, enjoying the +freedom of his well-selected library, hunting coons, possums, and rabbits +with his dogs, and listening to the stories told by his slaves. The boy +thus became well acquainted with many of the animal fables known to the +negroes of Georgia. Later in life, he heard a great many more of these +tales, while traveling through the cotton states, swapping yarns with the +negroes after he had gained their confidence. His knowledge of their +hesitancy about telling a story and his sympathy with them made it possible +for him to hear rare tales when another would probably have found only +silence. Sometimes, while waiting for a train, he would saunter up to a +group of negroes and start to tell a story himself and soon have them on +tiptoe to tell him one that he did not already know. In many ways he became +the possessor of a large part of the negro folklore. He loved a story and +he early commenced to write down these fables, making of them such +delightful works of art that all America is his debtor, not only for thus +preserving the folklore of a primitive people in their American +environment, but also for the genuine pleasure derived from the stories +themselves. They are related with such humor, skill, and poetic spirit that +they almost challenge comparison with Kipling's tales of the jungle. The +hero is the poor, meek, timid rabbit, but in the tales he becomes the +witty, sly, resourceful, bold adventurer, who acts "sassy" and talks big. +Harris says that "it needs no scientific investigation to show why he [the +negro] selects as his hero the weakest and most harmless of all animals, +and brings him out victorious in contests with the bear, the wolf, and the +fox. It is not virtue that triumphs, but helplessness; it is not malice, +but mischievousness." Sometimes, as is shown in _The Wonderful Tar Baby +Story_, a trick of the fox causes serious trouble to the rabbit; but the +rabbit usually invents most of the pranks himself. The absurdly incongruous +attitude of the rabbit toward the other animals is shown in the following +conversation, which occurs in the story of _Brother Rabbit and Brother +Tiger_, published in _Uncle Remus and His Friends_:-- + + "Brer Tiger 'low, 'How come you ain't skeer'd er me, Brer Rabbit? All de + yuther creeturs run when dey hear me comin'.' + + "Brer Rabbit say, 'How come de fleas on you ain't skeer'd un you? Dey er + lots littler dan what I is.' + + "Brer Tiger 'low, 'Hit's mighty good fer you dat I done had my dinner, + kaze ef I'd a-been hongry I'd a-snapped you up back dar at de creek.' + + "Brer Rabbit say, 'Ef you'd done dat, you'd er had mo' sense in yo' hide + dan what you got now.' + + "Brer Tiger 'low, 'I gwine ter let you off dis time, but nex' time I see + you, watch out!' + + "Brer Rabbit say, 'Bein's you so monst'us perlite, I'll let you off too, + but keep yo' eye open nex' time you see me, kaze I'll git you sho.'" + +[Illustration: BRER RABBIT AND THE TAR BABY +(Courtesy of D. Appleton & Co.)] + +The glee of the negro in the rabbit's nonchalant bearing is humorously +given in this paragraph:-- + + "Well, I wish ter goodness you could er seed 'im 'bout dat time. He went + 'long thoo de woods ez gay ez a colt in a barley-patch. He wunk at de + trees, he shuck his fisties at de stumps, he make like he wuz quoilin' + wid 'is shadder kaze it foller 'long atter 'im so close; en he went on + scan'lous, mon!" + +The three books that contain the most remarkable of these tales are: _Uncle +Remus, His Songs and His Sayings_ (1880), _Nights with Uncle Remus_ (1881), +_Uncle Remus and His Friends_ (1892). In the volume, _Told by Uncle Remus_ +(1905), the same negro relates more stories to the son of the "little boy," +who had many years before listened to the earlier tales. The one thing in +these books that is absolutely the creation of Harris is the character of +Uncle Remus. He is a patriarchal ex-slave, who seems to be a storehouse of +knowledge concerning Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer B'ar, and indeed all the +animals of those bygone days when animals talked and lived in houses. He +understands child nature as well as he knows the animals, and from the +corner of his eye he keeps a sharp watch upon his tiny auditor to see how +the story affects him. No figure more living, original, and lovable than +Uncle Remus appears in southern fiction. In him Harris has created, not a +burlesque or a sentimental impossibility, but an imperishable type, the +type of the true plantation negro. + +Harris also writes entertainingly of the slaves and their masters on the +plantation and of the poor free negroes, in such stories as _Mingo and +Other Sketches_ (1884) and _Free Joe_ (1887). He further presents a vivid +picture of the Georgia "crackers" and "moonshiners"; but his inimitable +animal stories, and Uncle Remus who tells them, have overshadowed all his +other work, and remain his most distinctive and original contribution to +American literature. These tales bid fair to have something of the +immortality of those myths which succeeding generations have for thousands +of years enjoyed. + + +THOMAS NELSON PAGE, 1853- + +Thomas Nelson Page was born on Oakland Plantation in Hanover County, +Virginia, in 1853. He graduated at Washington and Lee University in 1872, +and took a degree in law at the University of Virginia in 1874. He +practiced law in Richmond, wrote stories and essays upon the old South, and +later moved to Washington to live. + +[Illustration: THOMAS NELSON PAGE] + +His best stories are the short ones, like _Marse Chan_ and _Meh Lady_, in +which life on the Virginia plantations during the war is presented. Page is +a natural story-teller. He wastes no time in analyzing, describing, and +explaining, but sets his simple plots into immediate motion and makes us +acquainted with his characters through their actions and speech. The regal +mistresses of the plantations, the lordly but kind-hearted masters, the +loving, simple-minded slaves, and handsome young men and maidens are far +from complex personalities. They have a primitive simplicity and +ingenuousness which belong to a bygone civilization. The strongest appeal +in the stories is made by the negroes, whose faith in their masters is +unquestioning, and sometimes pathetic. + +Some old negro who had been a former slave usually tells the story, and +paints his "marster," his "missus," and his "white folks," as the finest in +the region. He looks back upon the bygone days as a time when "nuthin' warn +too good for niggers," and is sure that if his young "marster" did not get +the brush "twuz cause twuz a bob-tailed fox." In _Meh Lady_ the negro +relating the tale is the true but unconscious hero. This kindly +presentation of the finest traits of slave days, the idealizing of the +characters, and the sympathetic portrayal of the warm affection existing +between master and slave give to Page's books a strong note of romanticism. +The humor is mild, quaint, and subtle, and it often lies next to tears. +Page is preeminently a short-story writer. He possesses the restraint, the +compression, the art, the unity of idea necessary to the production of a +good short story. + + +GEORGE W. CABLE, 1844- + +[Illustration: GEORGE W. CABLE] + +George Washington Cable is of Virginia and New England stock, but he was +born in New Orleans in 1844, and called this beautiful city his home until +1884, when he moved to Connecticut. The following year he selected +Northampton, Massachusetts, as a permanent residence. He was but fourteen +when his father died, leaving the family in straitened circumstances. The +boy thereupon left school and went to work. Four years later he entered the +Confederate army. So youthful was his appearance, that a planter, catching +sight of him, exclaimed, "Great heavens! Abe Lincoln told the truth. We +_are_ robbing the cradle and the grave!" He served two years in the +southern army, and after the war returned penniless to his native city. His +efforts to find employment are described in his most realistic novel, _Dr. +Sevier_. He was a surveyor, a clerk to cotton merchants, and a reporter on +the New Orleans _Picayune_; but his tastes were literary, and after the +publication in 1879 of a volume of short stories, _Old Creole Days_, his +attention was turned wholly to literature. + +Cable's _Old Creole Days_ is a collection of picturesque short stories of +the romantic Creoles of New Orleans. _Jean-ah-Poquelin_, the story of an +old recluse, is most artistically told. There are few incidents; Cable +merely describes the former roving life of Jean, tells how suddenly it +stopped, how he never again left the old home where he and an African mute +lived, and how Jean's younger brother mysteriously disappeared, and the +suspicion of his murder rested upon Jean's shoulders. The explanation of +these points is unfolded by hints, conjectures, and rare glimpses into the +Poquelin grounds at night, and finally by an impressive but simple +description of Jean's funeral, at which the terrible secret is completely +revealed. The deftest and finest touch of an artist is seen in the working +out of this pathetic story. + +_Madame Delphine_, now included in the volume _Old Creole Days_, is equally +the product of a refined art. Here is shown the anguish of a quadroon +mother who turns frantically from one to another for help to save her +beautiful child, the ivory-tinted daughter of the South. When every one +fails, the mother heart makes one grand sacrifice by which the end is +gained, and she dies at the foot of the altar in an agony of remorse and +love. The beautiful land of flowers, the jasmine-scented night of the +South, the poetic chivalry of a proud, high-souled race are painted vividly +in this idyllic story. Its people are not mortals, its beauty is not of +earth, but, like the carved characters on Keats's Grecian urn, they have +immortal youth and cannot change. Keats could have said to the lovers in +_Madame Delphine_, as to his own upon the vase:-- + + "Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair!" + +Cable's best long works are _The Grandissimes_ (1880), _Dr. Sevier_ (1884), +and _Bonaventure, a Prose Pastoral of Arcadian Louisiana_ (1888). Of these +three, _The Grandissimes_ is easily first in merit. It is a highly romantic +work, full of dramatic episodes, and replete with humor. The abundance and +variety of interesting characters in this romance evidence the great +fertility and power of invention possessed by Cable. First of all, there is +the splendid Creole, Honore' Grandissime, the head of the family,--a man +who sees far into the future, and places his trust in the young American +republic. Combating the narrow prejudices of his family, he leads them in +spite of themselves to riches and honor. Opposing him in family counsels is +his uncle, Agricola Fusilier, the brave, blustering, fire-eating +reactionary. There is also the beautiful quadroon, Palmyre Philosophe. The +"united grace and pride of her movement was inspiring, but--what shall we +say?--feline? It was a femininity without humanity,--something that made +her, with all her superbness, a creature that one would want to find +chained." Beside her are the dwarf Congo woman and Clemence, the +sharp-tongued negress, who sells her wares in the streets and sends her +bright retorts back to the young bloods who taunt her. There is Bras +Coupe', the savage slave, who had once been a chief in Africa and who +fights like a fiend against enslavement, blights the broad acres with his +curse, lives an exile in snake-infested swamps, and finally meets a most +tragic fate. These unusual and somewhat sensational characters give high +color, warmth, and variety to the romance. The two exquisite Creole women, +Aurora and her daughter, Clotilde, are a triumph of delicate +characterization, being at one and the same time winning, lovable, +illogical, innocent, capable, and noble. The love scene in which Aurora +says "no," while she means "yes," and is not taken at her word, is as +delicious a bit of humor and sentiment as there is in modern fiction. In +neither _Dr. Sevier_ nor _Bonaventure_ are there the buoyancy, vital +interest, and unity of impression of _The Grandissimes_, which is one of +the artistic products of American novelists. Cable may not have rendered +the Creole character exactly true to life; but he has in a measure done for +these high-spirited, emotional, brave people what Irving did for the +Knickerbockers of New York and what Hawthorne did for the Puritan. + +Cable has also given graphic pictures of New Orleans. His poetic powers of +description enabled him to make the picturesque streets, the quaint +interiors, the swamps, bayous, forests, and streams very vivid realities to +his readers. He has warmth of feeling and a most refined and subtle humor. +His scenes are sometimes blood-curdling, his characters unusual, and the +deeds described sensational; but in his best work, his manner is so quiet, +his English so elegant, and his treatment so poetic, that the effect is +never crude or harsh, but always mild and harmonious. + + +JAMES LANE ALLEN, 1849- + +James Lane Allen was born in 1849 near Lexington, in the rich blue-grass +section of Kentucky. He did not leave the state until he was twenty-two, so +that his education both at school and college was received in Kentucky, and +all his early and most impressionable years were passed amid Kentucky +scenes. Many of these years were spent on a farm, where his faculty for +observing was used to good advantage. As he grew older, he took his share +in the farm work and labored in the fields of hemp, corn, and wheat, which +he describes in his works. He graduated from Transylvania College, +Lexington, and taught for several years, but after 1884 devoted himself to +writing. + +[Illustration: JAMES LANE ALLEN] + +In 1891, Allen published _Flute and Violin and Other Kentucky Tales and +Romances_. For artistic completeness, Allen wrote nothing superior to the +story in this collection, entitled, _King Solomon of Kentucky_, a tale of +an idle vagabond who proved capable of a heroism from which many heroes +might have flinched. All of the stories are romantic and pathetic. _The +Kentucky Cardinal_ (1894) and _Aftermath_ (1895) are poetic idyls, whose +scenes are practically confined within one small Kentucky garden, where the +strawberries grow, the cardinal sings, and the maiden watches across the +fence her lover at his weeding. The compass of the garden is not too small +to embody the very spirit of out-of-doors, which is continuously present in +these two delightful stories. + +From the human point of view, _The Choir Invisible_ (1897) is Allen's +strongest book. John Gray, Mrs. Falconer, and Amy are convincingly alive. +No better proof of the vital interest they arouse is needed than the +impatience felt by the reader at John's mistaken act of chivalry, which +causes the bitterest sorrow to him and Mrs. Falconer. Allen's later works, +_The Reign of Law_ (1900), _The Mettle of the Pasture_ (1903), _The Bride +of the Mistletoe_ (1909), lose in charm and grace what they gain as studies +of moral problems. The hardness and incompleteness of outline of the +character portrayals and the grimness of spirit in the telling of the tales +make these novels uninviting after the luxuriance of the earlier books. + +The setting is an important part of Allen's stories. He describes with the +graphic touch of a true nature lover the witchery of Kentucky's fallow +meadows, the beauty of her hempfields, the joys of a June day. A noisy +conflict could not occur in the restful garden of _The Kentucky Cardinal_, +while in the frontier garden of Mrs. Falconer, in _The Choir Invisible_, +the ambitious, fiery John Gray seems not out of harmony because the +presence of the adjacent wild forest affects the entire scene. In one way +or another, the landscapes, by preparing the reader for the moods of the +characters, play a part in all of Allen's novels. He is a master of the art +that holds together scenes and actions. His descriptive powers are unusual, +and his style is highly wrought. It is more that of the literary essayist +than of the simple narrator, and it is full of poetic touches, delicate +suggestions, and refined art. + + +MARY N. MURFREE (CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK), 1850- + +Miss Mary Noailles Murfree, better known as Charles Egbert Craddock, was +born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in 1850. For fifteen years she spent her +summers in the Tennessee mountains among the people of whom she writes. Her +pen name of Charles Egbert Craddock deceived her publishers into the belief +that she was a man. Both Howells and Thomas Bailey Aldrich accepted her +stories for the _Atlantic Monthly_ without suspecting her sex, and Aldrich +was a surprised man the day she entered his office and introduced herself +as Charles Egbert Craddock. + +The stories that suggested to her editors a masculine hand are lively +recitals of family feuds, moonshiners' raids, circuit court sessions, +fights over land grants, discoveries of oil, and many similar incidents, +which make up the life of a people separated from the modern world by +almost inaccessible mountains. The rifle is used freely by this people, and +murder is frequent, but honor and bravery, daring and sacrifice, are not +absent, and Craddock finds among the women, as well as the men, examples of +magnanimity and heroism that thrill the reader. + +[Illustration: MARY N. MURFREE (Charles Egbert Craddock)] + +The presence of the mountains is always imminent, and seems to impress the +lives of the people in some direct way. To Cynthia Ware, for instance, in +the story, _Drifting Down Lost Creek_, Pine Mountain seems to stand as a +bar to all her ambitions and dreams:-- + + "Whether the skies are blue or gray, the dark, austere line of its summit + limits the horizon. It stands against the west like a barrier. It seems + to Cynthia Ware that nothing which went beyond this barrier ever came + back again. One by one the days passed over it, and in splendid + apotheosis, in purple and crimson and gold, they were received into the + heavens and returned no more. She beheld love go hence, and many a hope. + Even Lost Creek itself, meandering for miles between the ranges, suddenly + sinks into the earth, tunnels an unknown channel beneath the mountain, + and is never seen again." + +And, finally, after a tremendous self-sacrifice, when all appears lost and +her future looks colorless and hopeless, she fears that the years of her +life are "like the floating leaves drifting down Lost Creek, valueless, +purposeless, and vaguely vanishing in the mountains." All of the stories +are by no means so tragically sad as this one, but all are overshadowed by +the mountains. Among the best of the novels, _Down the Ravine_ and _The +Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountain_ may be mentioned. Craddock shows +marked ability in delineating this primitive type of level-headed, +independent people, and she tells their story with ease and vigor. The +individual characters are not strongly differentiated in her many books, +and the heroines bear considerable resemblance to each other, but the +entire community of mountain folk, their ideals, hopes, and circumscribed +lives are clearly and vividly shown. + + +MADISON J. CAWEIN, 1865-1914 + +[Illustration: MADISON J. CAWEIN] + +Cawein spent the greater part of his life in Louisville, Kentucky, where he +was born in 1865 and died in 1914. He wrote more than twenty volumes of +verse, the best of which he collected in five volumes (1907) and later in +one volume (1911). The appreciative English critic, Edmund Gosse, in his +_Introduction_ to the 1907 collection, calls Cawein "the only hermit +thrush" singing "through an interval comparatively tuneless." W. D. +Howells's (p. 373) _Foreword_ in the 1911 volume emphasizes Cawein's +unusual power of making common things 'live and glow thereafter with +inextinguishable beauty.' + +Cawein actually writes much of his poetry out of doors in the presence of +the nature which he is describing. His lyrics of nature are his best verse. +He can even diminish the horror of a Kentucky feud by placing it among:-- + + "Frail ferns and dewy mosses and dark brush,-- + Impenetrable briers, deep and dense, + And wiry bushes,--brush, that seemed to crush + The struggling saplings with its tangle, whence + Sprawled out the ramble of an old rail-fence." + +In his verses the catbird nests in the trumpet vine, the pewee pours forth +a woodland welcome, the redbird sings a vesper song, the lilacs are musky +of the May, the bluebells and the wind flowers bloom. We hear + + "... tinkling in the clover dells, + The twilight sound of cattle bells." + +His verse often shows exactness of observation, characteristic of modern +students of nature, as well as a romantic love of the outdoor world. Note +the specific references to the shape and color of individual natural +objects in these lines from Cawein:-- + + "May-apples, ripening yellow, lean + With oblong fruit, a lemon-green, + Near Indian-turnips, long of stem, + That bear an acorn-oval gem." + +He loves the nymphs of mythology, the dryads, naiads, and the fairies. One +of his poems is called _There Are Fairies_:-- + + "There are fairies, I could swear + I have seen them busy where + Rose-leaves loose their scented hair, + * * * * * + Leaning from the window sill + Of a rose or daffodil, + Listening to their serenade, + All of cricket music made." + +In luxuriance of imagery and profuse appeal to the senses, he is the Keats +of the South. Lines like these remind us of the greater poet's _The Eve of +St. Agnes_:-- + + "Into the sunset's turquoise marge + The moon dips, like a pearly barge + Enchantment sails through magic seas + To fairyland Hesperides." + +Keats exclaims:-- + + "O for a beaker full of the warm South." + +Cawein proceeds to fill the beaker from the summer of a southern land, +where + + "The west was hot geranium-red," + +where + + "The dawn is a warp of fever, + The eve is a woof of fire," + +and where + + "The heliotropes breathe drowsy musk + Into the jasmine-dreamy air." + +Cawein sometimes suffers from profuseness and lack of pruning, but the +music, sentiment, imaginative warmth, and profusion of nature's charms in +his best lyrics rouse keen delight in any lover of poetry. While he revels +in the color, warmth, and joys of nature, it should also be observed that +he can occasionally strike that deeper note which characterizes the great +nature poets of the English race. In _A Prayer for Old Age_, he asks:-- + + "Never to lose my faith in Nature, God: + But still to find + Worship in trees; religion in each sod; + And in the wind + that breathe the universal God." + + +SUMMARY + +The lack of towns, the widely separated population, the aristocratic nature +of the civilization depending on slave labor, the absorption of the people +in political questions, especially the question of slavery, the attitude +toward literature as a profession, the poverty of public education, the +extreme conservatism and isolation of the South, and, finally, the Civil +War, and the period of reconstruction after it,--were all influences that +served to retard the development of literature in the South. + +The greatest name in southern literature is that of Edgar Allan Poe, the +literary artist, the critic, the developer of the modern short story, the +writer of superlatively melodious verse. He was followed by Simms, who was +among the first in the South to live by his pen. His tales of adventure are +still interesting and important for the history that they embody. Timrod's +spontaneity and strength appear in lyrics of war, nature, and love. Hayne, +a skilled poetic artist, is at his best in lyrics of nature. Lanier's poems +of nature embody high ideals in verse of unusual melody, and voice a faith +in "the greatness of God," as intense as that of any Puritan poet. Lanier +shared with Simms, Hayne, and Timrod the bitter misfortunes of the war. +Father Ryan is affectionately remembered for his stirring war lyrics and +Father Tabb for his nature poems, sacred verse, and entertaining humor. The +nature poetry of Cawein abounds in the color and warmth of the South. + +In modern southern fiction there is to be found some of the most +imaginative, artistic, and romantic work of the entire country in the +latter quarter of the nineteenth century. Rich local color renders much of +this fiction attractive. Harris fascinates the ear of the young world with +the Georgia negro's tales of Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit. The Virginia negroes +live in the stories of Page. Craddock introduces the Tennessee mountaineer, +and Allen, the Kentucky farmer, scholar, and gentleman, while Cable paints +the refined Creole in the fascinating city of New Orleans. + +Notwithstanding the use of dialect and other realistic touches of local +color, the fiction is largely romantic. The careful analysis of motives and +detailed accounts of the commonplace, such as the eastern realists +developed in the last part of the nineteenth century, are for the most part +absent from this southern fiction. + +A strong distinguishing feature of this body of fiction is the large part +played by natural scenes. Allen shows unusual skill in employing nature to +heighten his effects. If the poetic and vivid scenes were removed from +Cable's stories, they would lose a large part of their charm. When Miss +Murfree chooses eastern Tennessee for the scene of her novels, she never +permits the mountains to be forgotten. These writers are lovers of nature +as well as of human beings. The romantic prose fiction as well as the +poetry is invested with color and beauty. + + +REFERENCES + +Page's _The Old South_. + +Page's _Social Life in Old Virginia before the War_. + +Hart's _Slavery and Abolition_. + +Baskerville's _Southern Writers_, 2 vols. + +Link's _Pioneers of Southern Literature_, 2 vols. + +Moses's _The Literature of the South_. + +Holliday's _A History of Southern Literature_. + +Manly's _Southern Literature_. + +Painter's _Poets of the South_. + +Woodberry's _The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, Personal and Literary, with his +chief Correspondence with Men of Letters,_ 2 vols., 1909. (The best life.) + +Woodberry and Stedman's _The Works of Edgar Allan Poe with a Memoir, +Critical Introductions, and Notes_, 10 vols. + +Harrison's _The Virginia Edition of the Works of Edgar Allan Poe_, 17 vols. +(Contains excellent critical essays.) + +Harrison's _Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe_, 2 vols. + +Stedman's _Poets of America_. (Poe.) + +Fruit's _The Mind and Art of Poe's Poetry_. + +Canby's _The Short Story in English_, Chap. XI. (Poe.) + +Baldwin's _American Short Stories_. (Poe.) + +Payne's _American Literary Criticism_. (Poe.) + +Prescott's _Selections from the Critical Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, +edited with an Introduction and Notes_. + +Gates's _Studies and Appreciations_. (Poe.) + +Trent's _William Gilmore Simms_. + +Erskine's _Leading American Novelists_. (Simms.) + +Ward's _Memorial of Sidney Lanier_, in _Poems of Sidney Lanier_, edited by +his Wife. + +Burt's _The Lanier Book_. + +Burt and Cable's _The Cable Story Book_. + +Page's _The Page Story Book_. + + +SUGGESTED READINGS + +Selections (not always the ones indicated below) from _all_ the authors +mentioned in this chapter may be found in Trent's _Southern Writers_, 524 +pages, and Mims and Payne's _Southern Prose and Poetry for Schools_, 440 +pages. Selections from the majority of the poets are given in Painter's +_Poets of the South_, 237 pages, and Weber's _Selections from the Southern +Poets_, 221 pages. The best poems of Poe and Lanier may be found in Page's +_The Chief American Poets_. + +POETRY + +POE.--His best poems are short, and may soon be read. They are _Annabel +Lee_, _To One in Paradise_, _The Raven_, _The Haunted Palace_, _The +Conqueror Worm_, _Ulalume_, _Israfel_, _Lenore_, and _The Bells_. + +HAYNE.--_A Dream of the South Winds_, _Aspects of the Pines_, _The Woodland +Phases_, and _A Storm in the Distance_. + +TIMROD.--_Spring_, _The Lily Confidante_, _An Exotic_, _The Cotton Boll_, +and _Carolina_. + +LANIER.--_The Marshes of Glynn_, _Sunrise_, _The Song of the +Chattahoochee_, _Tampa Robins_, _Love and Song_, _The Stirrup Cup_, and +_The Symphony_. + +RYAN.--_The Conquered Banner_, and _The Sword of Robert Lee_. + +TABB.--Fourteen of his complete poems may be found on two pages (489 and +490) of Stedman's _An American Anthology_. Much of Tabb's best work is +contained in his little volume entitled _Poems_ (1894). + +CAWEIN.--_The Whippoorwill_, _There are Fairies_, _The Shadow Garden_, _One +Day and Another_, _In Solitary Places_, _A Twilight Moth_, _To a Wind +Flower_, _Beauty and Art_, _A Prayer for Old Age_. + +The best two volumes of general selections from Cawein's verse have been +published in England and given the titles, _Kentucky Poems_ (1902), 264 +pages, edited with an excellent _Introduction_ by Edmund Gosse, and _New +Poems_ (1909), 248 pages. His best nature poetry will be found in his +single American volume of selections, entitled _Poems, Selected by the +Author_ (1911). + +PROSE + +POE.--Poe's best short story is _The Fall of the House of Usher_, but it is +better to begin with such favorites as either _The Murders in the Rue +Morgue_, _The Gold-Bug_, or _A Descent into the Maelstrom_. There are many +poor editions of Poe's _Tales_. Cody's _The Best Tales of Edgar Allan Poe_ +and Macmillan's _Pocket Classics_ edition may be recommended. The best part +of his critical remarks on short-story writing is quoted in this text, p. +299. A part of his essay, _The Poetic Principle_, is given in Trent. + +SIMMS.--Mims and Payne give (pp. 50-69) a good selection from _The +Yemassee_, describing an Indian episode in the war of 1715, between the +Spaniards and the Indians on the one hand, and the English on the other. +Trent gives (pp. 186-189) from _The Partisan_, a scene laid at the time of +the Revolutionary War. + +HARRIS.--Read anywhere from _Uncle Remus, his Songs, and his Sayings_ +(1880), _Nights with Uncle Remus_ (1881), _Uncle Remus and his Friends_ +(1892). An excellent selection, _Brother Billy Goat eats his Dinner_, is +given in Trent. + +CABLE.--_Madame Delphine_ and _Jean-ah-Poquelin_, two of Cable's best short +stories, are published under the title, _Old Creole Days_. + +PAGE, ALLEN, AND CRADDOCK.--From Page, read either _Marse Chan_ or _Meh +Lady_; from Allen, _King Solomon of Kentucky_, and _Two Gentlemen of +Kentucky,_ from _Flute and Violin,_ or _The Kentucky Cardinal,_ or _The +Choir Invisible_; from Craddock, selections from _Down the Ravine,_ _In the +Tennessee Mountains,_ or _The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountain._ + + +QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS + +Poetry.--Which of Poe's nine poems indicated for reading pleases you most +and which least? What is the chief source of your pleasure in reading him? +Do you feel like reading any of his poems a second time or repeating parts +of them? Account for the extraordinary vitality of Poe's verse. What is the +subject matter of most of his poems? + +What is the subject of Lanier's best verse? Compare his melody and ideals +with Poe's. Is Lanier's _Song of the Chattahoochee_ as melodious as +Tennyson's _The Brook?_ Which is the most beautiful stanza in _My Springs?_ +What are the strongest and most distinguishing qualities of Lanier's verse? +Which of these are especially prominent in _The Marshes of Glynn_ and +_Sunrise,_ and which in _Tampa Robins?_ + +Compare Hayne and Timrod for artistic finish, definiteness, and +spontaneity. Does Hayne or Timrod love nature more for herself alone? +Select the best stanza from Timrod's _The Lily Confidante_ and compare it +with your favorite stanza from Lanier's _My Springs._ From each of the +poems of Hayne suggested for reading, select some of the most artistic +creations of his fancy. + +Indicate the patriotism and the pathos in Father Ryan's verse. + +Point out some unique qualities in Tabb's poetry. Is the length of his +poems in accordance with Poe's dictum? Select some passage showing special +delicacy or originality in describing nature. + +What in Cawein's verse would indicate that he wrote his poems out of doors? +Compare the definiteness of his references to nature with Hayne's. What +specific references in Cawein's nature poems please you most? Compare +Keats's poems _On the Grasshopper and Cricket, Fancy,_ and stanzas here and +there from _The Eve of St. Agnes_ with Cawein's imagery and method of +appealing to the senses. + +Prose.--Take one of Poe's tales, and point out how it illustrates his +theory of the short story given on p. 299. In order to hold the attention +of an average audience, should you select for reading one of Irving's, +Hawthorne's, or Poe's short stories? Should you use the same principle in +selecting one of these stories for a friend to read quietly by himself? + +Is Simms dramatic? In what particulars does he remind you of Cooper? In the +selection from _The Yemassee_ (Mims and Payne) are there any qualities +which Poe indicates for a short story? + +What is the secret of the attractiveness of the stories of Joel Chandler +Harris? Point out some valuable philosophy of human nature which frequently +crops out. What special characteristics of Uncle Remus are revealed in +these tales? What are the most prominent qualities of Brer Rabbit? Why does +the negro select him for his hero? What is the final result of Brer Fox's +trick in _The Wonderful Tar Baby Story_? What resemblances and differences +can you find between the animal stories of Harris and Kipling? + +Why are Cable's stories called romantic? What remarkable feature do you +notice about their local color? Give instances of his poetic touch and of +his power to draw character. Does he reveal his characters in a plain, +matter-of-fact manner, or by means of subtle touches and unexpected +revelations? + +Compare Page's negroes with Uncle Remus. What characteristics of Virginia +life do the stories of Page reveal? What do you find most attractive in him +as a story-teller? + +What impression does Allen's _King Solomon of Kentucky_ make on you? What +are some of the strong situations in _The Choir Invisible_? What effect +does the natural setting have on his scenes? + +In the presentation of what scenes does Craddock excel? What are some of +the characteristics of her mountain people? Is the individuality of the +characters strongly marked or are they more frequently general types? In +what parts of the South are the scenes of the stories of Cable, Page, +Allen, and Craddock chiefly laid? How should you define "local color" in +terms of the work of each of these writers? + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WESTERN LITERATURE + + +THE NEWNESS OF THE WEST.-It is difficult for the young of to-day to realize +that Wisconsin and Iowa were not states when Hawthorne published his Twice +Told Tales (1837), that Lowell's _The Vision of Sir Launfal_ (1848) was +finished ten years before Minnesota became a state, that Longfellow's +_Hiawatha_ (1855) appeared six years before the admission of Kansas, and +Holmes's _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_ (1858), nine years before +the admission of Nebraska. In 1861 Mark Twain went to the West in a +primitive stagecoach. Bret Harte had finished _The Luck of Roaring Camp_ +(1868) before San Francisco was reached by a transcontinental railroad. + +Even after the early pioneers had done their work, the population of the +leading states of the West underwent too rapid a change for quick +assimilation. Between 1870 and 1880 the population of Minnesota increased +77 per cent; Kansas, 173 per cent; Nebraska, 267 per cent. This population +was mostly agricultural, and it was busy subduing the soil and getting +creature comforts. + +Mark Twain says of the advance guard of the pioneers who went to the far +West to conquer this new country:-- + + "It was the _only_ population of the kind that the world has ever seen + gathered together, and it is not likely that the world will ever see its + like again. For, observe, it was an assemblage of two hundred thousand + _young_ men--not simpering, dainty, kid-gloved weaklings, but stalwart, + muscular, dauntless young braves, brimful of push and energy, and royally + endowed with every attribute that goes to make up a peerless and + magnificent manhood--the very pick and choice of the world's glorious + ones." [Footnote: Roughing It.] + +In even as recent a period as the twenty years from 1880 to 1900, the +population of Minnesota increased 124 per cent; Nebraska, 135 per cent; and +Colorado, 177 per cent. This increase indicates something of the strenuous +work necessary on the physical side to prepare comfortable permanent homes +in the country, town, and city, and to plan and execute the other material +adaptations necessary for progressive civilized life and trade. It is +manifest that such a period of stress is not favorable to the development +of literature. Although the population of California increased 60 per cent +and that of the state of Washington 120 per cent between 1900 and 1910, the +extreme stress, due to pioneer life and to rapid increase in population, +has already abated in the vast majority of places throughout the West, +which is rapidly becoming as stable as any other section of the country. + +THE DEMOCRATIC SPIRIT.--In settling the West, everybody worked shoulder to +shoulder. There were no privileged classes to be excepted from the common +toils and privations. All met on common ground, shared each other's +troubles, and assisted each other in difficult work. All were outspoken and +championed their own opinions without restraint. At few times in the +history of the civilized world has the home been a more independent unit. +Never have pioneers been more self-reliant, more able to cope with +difficulties, more determined to have their rights. + +This democratic spirit is reflected in the works of western authors. It +made Mark Twain the champion of the weak, the impartial upholder of justice +to the Maid of Orleans, to a slave, or to a vivisected dog. It made him +join the school of Cervantes and puncture the hypocrisy of pretension in +classes or individuals. The Clemens family had believed in the aristocracy +of slavery, but the great democratic spirit of the West molded Mark Twain +as a growing boy. All the characters of worth in the great stories of his +young life are democratic. The son of the drunkard, the slave mother, the +crowds on the steamboats, the far western pioneers, belong to the great +democracy of man. + +Abraham Lincoln owes his fame in oratory to this democratic spirit, to the +feeling that prompted him to say, "With malice toward none; with charity +for all." Bret Harte's world-famous short stories picture the rough mining +camps. Eugene Field is a poet of that age of universal democracy, the age +of childhood. The poetry of James Whitcomb Riley is popular because it +speaks directly to the common human heart. + +Although the West has already begun a period of greater repose, she has +been fortunate to retain an Elizabethan enthusiasm and interest in +many-sided life. This quality, so apparent in much of the work discussed in +this chapter, is full of virile promise for the future. + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1809-1865 + +[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN] + +Migrating from his birthplace in Kentucky, first to Indiana and then to +Illinois, where he helped to clear the unbroken forest, Abraham Lincoln was +one of America's greatest pioneers. Shackled by poverty and lack of +education, his indomitable will first broke his own fetters and then those +of the slave. History claims him as her own, but some of the plain, +sincere, strong English that fell from his lips while he was making history +demands attention as literature. Passing by his great debates with Douglas +(1858), not because they are unimportant, but because they belong more to +the domain of politics and history, we come to his _Gettysburg Address_ +(1863), which is one of the three greatest American orations. In England, +Oxford University displays on its walls this _Address_ as a model to show +students how much can be said simply and effectively in two hundred and +sixty-nine words. Edward Everett, a graduate of Harvard, called the most +eloquent man of his time, also spoke at Gettysburg, although few are to-day +aware of this fact. + +The question may well be asked, "How did Lincoln, who had less than one +year's schooling, learn the secret of such speech?" The answer will be +found in the fixity of purpose and the indomitable will of the pioneer. +When he was a boy, he seemed to realize that in order to succeed, he must +talk and write plainly. As a lad, he used to practice telling things in +such a way that the most ignorant person could understand them. In his +youth he had only little scraps of paper or shingles on which to write, and +so perforce learned the art of brevity. Only a few books were accessible to +him, and he read and reread them until they became a part of him. The +volumes that he thus absorbed were the _Bible_, _Aesop's Fables_, _Arabian +Nights_, _Robinson Crusoe_, _The Pilgrim's Progress_, _Franklin's +Autobiography_, Weems's _Life of Washington_, and two or three textbooks. +Without such good reading, which served to guide his practice in writing +and speaking, he could never have been President. Later in life he read +Shakespeare, especially _Macbeth_. + +Parts of his _Second Inaugural Address_ (1865) show even better than his +_Gettysburg Address_ the influence of the _Bible_ on his thought and style. +One reason why there is so much weak and ineffective prose written to-day +is because books like the _Bible_ and _The Pilgrim's Progress_ are not read +and reread as much as formerly. Of the North and the South, he says in his +_Second Inaugural_:-- + + "Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his + aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to + ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of + other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The + prayers of both could not be answered--that of neither has been answered + fully.... + + "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the + right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the + work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds...." + +Absolute sincerity is the most striking quality in his masterpieces. +Simplicity and brevity are next in evidence; to these are sometimes added +the pathos and intensity of a Hebrew prophet. + + +BRET HARTE, 1839-1902 + +LIFE.--The father of Bret Harte was professor of Greek in the Albany, New +York, Female College, where his son, named Francis Bret, was born in 1839. +The boy never attended an institution of learning higher than a common +school. Fatherless at the age of fifteen, he went with his mother to +California in 1854. Here he tried teaching school, mining, going on stages +as an express messenger, printing, government service, and editing. Of his +experience in California, he writes:-- + + "Here I was thrown among the strangest social conditions that the + latter-day world has perhaps seen.... Amid rushing waters and wildwood + freedom, an army of strong men, in red shirts and top-boots, were + feverishly in search of the buried gold of earth.... It was a land of + perfect freedom, limited only by the instinct and the habit of law which + prevailed in the mass.... Strong passions brought quick climaxes, all the + better and worse forces of manhood being in unbridled play. To me it was + like a strange, ever-varying panorama, so novel that it was difficult to + grasp comprehensively." + +[Illustration: BRET HARTE (From a painting by John Pettie, R. A.)] + +Amid such surroundings he was educated for his life work, and his +idealization of these experiences is what entitles him to a sure place in +American literature. + +After spending sixteen years in California, he returned in 1871 to the +East, where he wrote and lectured; but these subsequent years are of +comparatively small interest to the student of literature. In 1878 he went +as consul to Crefeld in Germany. He was soon transferred from there to +Glasgow, Scotland, the consulship of which he held until his removal by +President Cleveland in 1885. These two sentences from William Black, the +English novelist, may explain the presidential action: "Bret Harte was to +have been back from Paris last night, but he is a wandering comet. The only +place he is sure not to be found is at the Glasgow consulate." Bret Harte +was something of a lion in a congenial English literary set, and he never +returned to America. He continued to write until his death at Camberly, +Surrey, in 1902. The tourist may find his grave in Frimley churchyard, +England. + +WORKS.--Bret Harte was a voluminous writer. His authorized publishers have +issued twenty-eight volumes of his prose and one volume of his collected +poems. While his _Plain Language from Truthful James_, known as his +"Heathen Chinee" poem, was very popular, his short stories in prose are his +masterpieces. The best of these were written before 1871, when he left +California for the East. Much of his later work was a repetition of what he +had done as well or better in his youth. + +_The Overland Magazine_, a San Francisco periodical, which Bret Harte was +editing, published in 1868 his own short story, _The Luck of Roaring Camp_. +This is our greatest short story of pioneer life. England recognized its +greatness as quickly as did America. The first two sentences challenge our +curiosity, and remind us of Poe's dictum concerning the writing of a story +(p. 299):-- + + "There was commotion in Roaring Camp. It could not have been a fight, for + in 1850 that was not novel enough to have called together the entire + settlement." + +We at once stand face to face with the characters of that mining camp. "The +assemblage numbered about a hundred men. One or two of these were actual +fugitives from justice, some were criminal, and all were reckless." We +shall remember "Kentuck" and Oakhurst and "Stumpy," christening the baby:-- + + "'I proclaim you Thomas Luck, according to the laws of the United States + and the State of California, so help me God.' It was the first time that + the name of the Deity had been otherwise uttered than profanely in the + camp." + +There are two sentences describing the situation of Roaring Camp:-- + + "The camp lay in a triangular valley between two hills and a river. The + only outlet was a steep trail over the summit of a hill that faced the + cabin, now illuminated by the rising moon." + +Poe would have approved of the introduction of this bit of description, for +it heightens the pathetic effect and focuses attention upon the mother. +Even that "steep trail" is so artistically introduced that she + + "... might have seen it from the rude bunk whereon she lay,--seen it + winding like a silver thread until it was lost in the stars above.... + Within an hour she had climbed, as it were, that rugged road that led to + the stars, and so passed out of Roaring Camp, its sin and shame, + forever." + +Bret Harte in a few words relates how these miners reared the child, how +they were unconsciously influenced by it, and how one day an expressman +rushed into an adjacent village saying:-- + + "They've a street up there in 'Roaring,' that would lay over any street + in Red Dog. They've got vines and flowers round their houses, and they + wash themselves twice a day." + +He had, as we have seen, something of the remarkable technique of which Poe +was a master. The influence of Dickens, especially his sentimentalism, is +often apparent in Harte's work. Some have accused him of caricature or +exaggeration, but these terms, when applied to his best work, signify +little except the use of emphasis and selection, of which Homer and +Shakespeare freely availed themselves. The author of _The Luck of Roaring +Camp_, _The Outcasts of Poker Flat_, and _Tennessee's Partner_ seemed to +know almost instinctively what he must emphasize or neglect in order to +give his readers a vivid impression of the California argonauts. He mingles +humor and pathos, realism and idealism, in a masterly way. No other author +has had the necessary dramatic touch to endow those times with such a +powerful romantic appeal to our imagination. No one else has rescued them +from the oblivion which usually overtakes all transitory stages of human +development. + +Bret Harte's pages afford us the rare privilege of again communing with +genuine primitive feeling, with eternal human qualities, not deflected or +warped by convention. He gives us the literature of democracy. In +self-forgetfulness, sympathy, love for his kind, Tennessee's partner in his +unkempt dress is the peer of any wearer of the broadcloth. + +Bret Harte's best work is as bracing, as tonic, as instinct with the spirit +of vigorous youth, as the mountain air which has never before been +breathed. Woodberry well says: "He created lasting pictures of human life, +some of which have the eternal outline and pose of a Theocritean idyl. The +supreme nature of his gift is shown by the fact that he had no rival and +left no successor. His work is as unique as that of Poe or Hawthorne." +[Footnote: Woodberry: _America in Literature_.] + + +EUGENE FIELD, 1850-1895 + +THE POET LAUREATE OF CHILDREN.--Eugene Field was born in St. Louis in 1850. +Of this western group of authors he was the only member who went to +college. He completed the junior year at the University of Missouri, but +did not graduate. At the age of twenty-three he began newspaper work there, +and he continued this work in various places until his death in Chicago in +1895. For the last twelve years of his life he was connected with the +Chicago _Daily News_. + +[Illustration: EUGENE FIELD] + +He wrote many poems and prose tales, but the work by which he will probably +live in literature is his poetry for children. For his title of +poet-laureate of children, he has had few worthy competitors. His _Little +Boy Blue_ will be read as long as there are parents who have lost a child. +"What a world of little people was left unrepresented in the realms of +poetry until Eugene Field came!" exclaimed a noted teacher. Children listen +almost breathlessly to the story of the duel between "the gingham dog and +the calico cat," and to the ballad of "The Rock-a-By Lady from Hushaby +Street," and the dreams which she brings:-- + + "There is one little dream of a big sugar plum, + And lo! thick and fast the other dreams come + Of popguns that bang, and tin tops that hum, + And a trumpet that bloweth!" + +He loved children, and any one else who loves them, whether old or young, +will enjoy reading his poems of childhood. Who, for instance, will admit +that he does not like the story of _Wynken, Blynken, and Nod_? + + "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night + Sailed off in a wooden shoe-- + Sailed on a river of crystal light, + Into a sea of dew. + 'Where are you going, and what do you wish?' + The old moon asked the three. + 'We have come to fish for the herring fish + That live in this beautiful sea; + Nets of silver and gold have we!' + Said Wynken, + Blynken, + And Nod. + + "The old moon laughed and sang a song, + As they rocked in the wooden shoe, + And the wind that sped them all night long + Ruffled the waves of dew." + +Who does not wish to complete this story to find out what became of the +children? Who does not like Krinken? + + "Krinken was a little child,-- + It was summer when he smiled." + +Field could write exquisitely beautiful verse. His tender heart had felt +the pathos of life, and he knew how to set this pathos to music. He was +naturally a humorist, and his humor often caused him to take a right angle +turn in the midst of serious thoughts. Parents have for nearly a quarter of +a century used the combination of humor and pathos in his poem, The _Little +Peach_, to keep their children from eating green fruit:-- + + "A little peach in the orchard grew,-- + A little peach of emerald hue; + Warmed by the sun and wet by the dew, + It grew. + + * * * * * + + "John took a bite and Sue a chew, + And then the trouble began to brew,-- + Trouble the doctor couldn't subdue. + Too true! + + "Under the turf where the daisies grew + They planted John and his sister Sue, + And their little souls to the angels flew,-- + Boo hoo!" + +Time is not likely to rob Eugene Field of the fame of having written _The +Canterbury Tales of Childhood_. + + +JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY, 1853-1916 + +[Illustration: JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY] + +The poet of our time who has most widely voiced the everyday feeling of +democracy, of the man on the farm, in the workshop, and in his home circle, +is James Whitcomb Riley. His popularity with this generation suggests the +part which the ballad makers played in developing a love for verse before +Shakespeare came. + +He was born in the little country town of Greenfield, twenty miles east of +Indianapolis. Like Bret Harte and Mark Twain, Riley had only a common +school education. He became a sign painter, and traveled widely, first +painting advertisements for patent medicines and then for the leading +business firms in the various towns he visited. After this, he did work on +newspapers and became a traveling lecturer, and reader of his own poems. + +Much of his poetry charms us with its presentation of rural life. In _The +Old Swimmin'-Hole and 'Leven More Poems_ (1883), it is a delight to +accompany him + + "When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock," + +or when + + "The summer winds is sniffin' round the bloomin' locus' trees, + And the clover in the pastur' is a big day fer the bees," + +or again, in _Neighborly Poems_ (1891), as he listens to _The First +Bluebird_ singing with + + "A breezy, treesy, beesy hum, + Too sweet fer anything!" + +We welcome him as the champion of a new democratic flower. In his poem, +_The Clover_, he says:-- + + "But what is the lily and all of the rest + Of the flowers, to a man with a hart in his brest + That was dipped brimmin' full of the honey and dew + Of the sweet clover-blossoms his babyhood knew?" + +Like Eugene Field, Riley loved children. His _Rhymes of Childhood_ (1890) +contains such favorites as _The Raggedy Man_, _Our Hired Girl_, _Little +Orphant Annie_, with its bewitching warning about the "_Gobble-uns_," and +the pathetic _Little Mahala Ashcraft_. + +But no matter whether his verses take us to the farm, to the child, to the +inner circle of the home, or to a neighborly gathering, their first +characteristic is simplicity. Some of his best verse entered the homes of +the common people more easily because it was written in the Hoosier +dialect. He is a democratic poet, and the common people listen to him. In +_Afterwhiles_ (1887), he says:-- + + "The tanned face, garlanded with mirth, + It hath the kingliest smile on earth-- + The swart brow, diamonded with sweat, + Hath never need of coronet." + +In like vein are his lines from _Griggsby's Station_:-- + + "Le's go a-visitin' back to Griggsby's Station-- + Back where the latch string's a-hangin' from the door, + And ever' neighbor 'round the place is dear as a relation-- + Back where we ust to be so happy and so pore!" + +In lines like the following from _Afterwhiles_, there is a rare mingling of +pathos and hope and kindly optimism:-- + + "I cannot say, and I will not say + That he is dead.--He is just away! + + "With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand, + He has wandered into an unknown land, + + "And left us dreaming how very fair + It needs must be, since he lingers there." + +The charitable optimism of his lines:-- + + "I would sing of love that lives + On the errors it forgives," + +has touched many human hearts. + +Furthermore, he has unusual humor, which is as delightful and as pervasive +as the odor of his clover fields. Humor drives home to us the application +of the optimistic philosophy in these lines:-- + + "When a man's jest glad plum through, + God's pleased with him, same as you." + + "When God sorts out the weather and sends rain, + W'y, rain's my choice." + +In poems like _Griggsby's Station_ he shows his power in making a subject +pathetic and humorous at the same time. + +Albert J. Beveridge says of Riley, "The aristocrat may make verses whose +perfect art renders them immortal, like Horace, or state high truths in +austere beauty, like Arnold. But only the brother of the common man can +tell what the common heart longs for and feels, and only he lives in the +understanding and affection of the millions." + + +SAMUEL L. CLEMENS, 1835-1910 + +[Illustration: MARK TWAIN] + +LIFE IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.--The author who is known in every village +of the United States by the pen name of Mark Twain, which is the river +phrase for two fathoms of water, was born in Florida, Missouri, in 1835. He +says of his birthplace: "The village contained a hundred people, and I +increased the population by one per cent. It is more than the best man in +history ever did for any other town." When he was two and a half years old, +the family moved to Hannibal on the Mississippi, thirty miles away. + +The most impressionable years of his boyhood were spent in Hannibal, which +he calls "a loafing, down-at-the-heels, slave-holding Mississippi town." He +attended only a common school, a picture of which is given in _The +Adventures of Tom Sawyer_. Even this schooling ceased at the age of twelve, +when his father died. Like Benjamin Franklin and W. D. Howells, the boy +then became a printer, and followed this trade in various places for nearly +eight years, traveling east as far as the City of New York. He next became +a "cub," or under pilot, on the Mississippi River. After an eighteen +months' apprenticeship, he was an excellent pilot, and he received two +hundred and fifty dollars a month for his services. He says of these days: +"Time drifted smoothly and prosperously on, and I supposed--and hoped--that +I was going to follow the river the rest of my days, and die at the wheel +when my mission was ended. But by and by the war came, commerce was +suspended, my occupation was gone." For an inimitable account of these +days, the first twenty-one chapters of his _Life on the Mississippi_ (1883) +should be read. + + "... in that brief, sharp schooling, I got personally and familiarly + acquainted with about all the different types of human nature that are to + be found in fiction, biography, or history. The fact is daily borne in + upon me, that the average shore employment requires as much as forty + years to equip a man with this sort of education.... When I find a + well-drawn character in fiction or biography, I generally take a warm + personal interest in him, for the reason that I have known him + before--met him on the river." [Footnote: _Life on the Mississippi_, + Chapter XVIII.] + +No other work in American literature or history can take the place of this +book and of his three great stories (pp. 359-361), which bring us face to +face with life in the great Mississippi Valley in the middle of the +nineteenth century. + +LIFE IN THE FAR WEST.--In 1861 he went to Nevada as private secretary to +his brother, who had been appointed secretary of that territory. Mark Twain +intended to stay there but a short time. He says, "I little thought that I +would not see the end of that three-month pleasure excursion for six or +seven uncommonly long years." + +The account of his experiences in our far West is given in the volume +called _Roughing It_ (1871). This book should be read as a chapter in the +early history of that section. The trip from St. Joseph to Nevada by stage, +the outlaws, murders, sagebrush, jackass rabbits, coyotes, mining +camps,--all the varied life of the time--is thrown distinctly on the screen +in the pages of _Roughing It_. While in the West, he caught the mining +fever, but he soon became a newspaper reporter and editor, and in this +capacity he discovered the gold mine of his genius as a writer. The +experience of these years was only second in importance to his remarkable +life in the Mississippi Valley. No other American writer has received such +a variety of training in the university of human nature. + +LATER LIFE.--In 1867, he supplemented his purely American training with a +trip to Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land. The story of his journey is given +in _The Innocents Abroad_ (1869), the work which first made him known in +every part of the United States. _A Tramp Abroad_ (1880), and _Following +the Equator: A Journey Around the World_ (1897), are records of other +foreign travels. While they are largely autobiographical, and show in an +unusually entertaining way how he became one of the most cosmopolitan of +our authors, these works are less important than those which throb with the +heart beats of that American life of which he was a part in his younger +days. + +In 1884 he became a partner in the publishing house of Charles L. Webster +and Co. This firm incurred risks against his advice, and failed. The +failure not only swallowed up every cent that he had saved, but left him, +past sixty, staggering under a load of debt that would have been a despair +to most young men. Like Sir Walter Scott in a similar misfortune, Mark +Twain made it a point of honor to assume the whole debt. He lectured, he +wrote, he traveled, till finally, unlike Scott, he was able to pay off the +last penny of the firm's indebtedness. His life thus set a standard of +honor to Americans, which is to them a legacy the peer of any left by any +author to his nation. + +After his early pioneer days, his American homes were chiefly in New +England. For many years he lived in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1908 he went +to a new home at Redding, Connecticut. His last years were saddened by the +death of his daughter and his wife. His death in 1910 made plain the fact +that few American authors had won a more secure place in the affections of +all classes. + +It does not seem possible that the life of any other American author can +ever closely resemble his. He had Elizabethan fullness of experience. Even +Sir Walter Raleigh's life was no more varied; for Mark Twain was a printer, +pilot, soldier, miner, newspaper reporter, editor, special correspondent, +traveler around the world, lecturer, biographer, writer of romances, +historian, publisher, and philosopher. + +STORIES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.--The works by which Mark Twain will +probably be longest known are those dealing with the scenes of his youth. +He is the historian of an epoch that will never return. His works that +reveal the bygone life of the Mississippi Valley are not unlikely to +increase in fame as the years pass. He resembles Hawthorne in presenting +the early history of a section of our country. New England was old when +Hawthorne was a boy, and he imaginatively reconstructed the life of its +former days. When Mark Twain was young, the West was new; hence his task in +literature was to preserve contemporary life. He has accomplished this +mission better than any other writer of the middle West. + +_The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ (1876) is a story of life in a Missouri town +on the Mississippi River. Tom Sawyer, the hero, is "a combination," says +the author, "of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew." Probably +Mark Twain himself is the largest part of this combination. The book is the +record of a wide-awake boy's impression of the life of that day. The +wretched common school, the pranks of the boys, the Sunday school, the +preacher and his sermon, the task of whitewashing the fence, the belief in +witches and charms, the half-breed Indian, the drunkard, the murder scene, +and the camp life of the boys on an island in the Mississippi,--are all +described with a vividness and interest due to actual experience. The +author distinctly says, "Most of the adventures recorded in this book +really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of +boys who were schoolmates of mine." + +[Illustration: HUCKLEBERRY FINN +(From "Huckleberry Finn," by Samuel L. Clemens)] + +_Huckleberry Finn_ (1885) has been called the _Odyssey_ of the Mississippi. +This is a story of life on and along the great river, just before the +middle of the nineteenth century. Huckleberry Finn, the son of a drunkard, +and the friend of Tom Sawyer, is the hero of the book. The reader becomes +deeply interested in the fortunes of Jim, a runaway slave, who accompanies +Huck on a raft down the river, and who is almost hourly in danger of being +caught and returned or again enslaved by some chance white man. + +One of the strongest scenes in the story is where Huck debates with himself +whether he shall write the owner where to capture Jim, or whether he shall +aid the poor creature to secure his freedom. Since Huck was a child of the +South, there was no doubt in his mind that punishment in the great +hereafter awaited one who deprived another of his property, and Jim was +worth eight hundred dollars. Huck did not wish to lose his soul, and so he +wrote a letter to the owner. Before sending it, however, he, like Hamlet, +argued the case with himself. Should he send the letter or forfeit human +respect and his soul? The conclusion that Huck reached is thoroughly +characteristic of Mark Twain's attitude toward the weak. The thirty-first +chapter of _Huckleberry Finn_, in which this incident occurs, could not +have been written by one who did not thoroughly appreciate the way in which +the South regarded those who aided in the escape of a slave. Another unique +episode of the story is the remarkable dramatic description of the deadly +feud between the families of the Shepherdsons and the Grangerfords. + +This story is Mark Twain's masterpiece, and it is not improbable that it +will continue to be read as long as the Mississippi flows toward the Gulf. +Of Mark Twain's achievement in these two tales, Professor William Lyon +Phelps of Yale says: "He has done something which many popular novelists +have signally failed to accomplish--he has created real characters. His two +wonderful boys, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, are wonderful in quite +different ways. The creator of Tom exhibited remarkable observation; the +creator of Huck showed the divine touch of imagination.... _Tom Sawyer_ and +_Huckleberry Finn_ are prose epics of American life." + +Mark Twain says that he was reared to believe slavery a divine institution. +This fact makes his third story of western life, _Pudd'nhead Wilson_. +interesting for its pictures of the negro and slavery, from a different +point of view from that taken by Mrs. Stowe in _Uncle Tom's Cabin._ + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--During his lifetime, Mark Twain's humor was the +chief cause of his well-nigh universal popularity. The public had never +before read a book exactly like his _Innocents Abroad_. Speaking of an +Italian town, he says, "It is well the alleys are not wider, because they +hold as much smell now as a person can stand, and, of course, if they were +wider they would hold more, and then the people would die." Incongruity, or +the association of dissimilar ideas, is the most frequent cause of laughter +to his readers. His famous cablegram from England that the report of his +death was much exaggerated is of this order, as is also the following +sentence from _Roughing It:_-- + + "Then he rode over and began to rebuke the stranger with a six-shooter, + and the stranger began to explain with another." + +Such sentences convey something more than a humorous impression. They +surpass the usual historical records in revealing in an incisive way the +social characteristics of those pioneer days. His humor is often only a +means of more forcibly impressing on readers some phase of the philosophy +of history. Even careless readers frequently recognize that this statement +is true of much of the humor in _A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's +Court_, which is one of his most successful exhibitions of humor based on +incongruity. + +While his humor is sometimes mechanical, coarse, and forced, we must not +forget that it also often reveals the thoughtful philosopher. To confirm +this statement, one has only to glance at the humorous philosophy that +constitutes _Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar_. + +Mark Twain's future place in literature will probably be due less to humor +than to his ability as a philosopher and a historian. Humor will +undoubtedly act on his writings as a preservative salt, but salt is +valuable only to preserve substantial things. If matter of vital worth is +not present in any written work, mere humor will not keep it alive. + +One of his most humorous scenes may be found in the chapter where Tom +Sawyer succeeds in getting other boys to relieve him of the drudgery of +whitewashing a fence. That episode was introduced to enable the author to +make more impressive his philosophy of a certain phase of human action:-- + + "He had discovered a great law of human action without knowing + it--namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is + only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a + great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now + have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, + and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do." + +His statement about illusions shows that his philosophy does not always +have a humorous setting:-- + + "The illusions are the only things that are valuable, and God help the + man who reaches the time when he meets only the realities." + +Hatred of hypocrisy is one of his emphatic characteristics. If Tom Sawyer +enjoyed himself more in watching a dog play with a pinch-bug in church than +in listening to a doctrinal sermon, if he had a better time playing hookey +than in attending the execrably dull school, Mark Twain is eager to expose +the hypocrisy of those who would misrepresent Tom's real attitude toward +church and school. While Mark Twain is determined to present life +faithfully as he sees it, he dislikes as much as any Puritan to see evil +triumph. In his stories, wrongdoing usually digs its own grave. + +His strong sense of justice led him to write _Personal Recollections of +Joan of Arc_ (1896), to defend the Maid of Orleans. Because he loved to +protect the weak, he wrote _A Dogs Tale_ (1904). For the same reason he +paid all the expenses of a negro through an eastern college. + +Although he was self-taught, he gradually came to use the English language +with artistic effect and finish. His style is direct and energetic, and it +shows his determination to say a thing as simply and as effectively as +possible. One of the rules in _Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar_ is, "As to the +Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out." He followed this rule. Some have +complained that the great humorist's mind, like Emerson's, often worked in +a disconnected fashion, but this trait has been exaggerated in the case of +both. Mark Twain has certainly made a stronger impression than many authors +whose "sixthly" follows more inevitably. It is true that his romances do +not gather up every loose end, that they do not close with a grand climax +which settles everything; but they reflect the spirit of the western life, +which also had many loose ends and left much unsettled. + +His mingled humor and philosophy, his vivid, interesting, contemporary +history, which gives a broad and sympathetic delineation of important +phases of western life and development, fill a place that American +literature could ill afford to leave vacant. + + +SUMMARY + +Lincoln spoke to the common people in simple virile English, which serves +as a model for the students of Oxford University. Bret Harte wrote stories +filled with the humor and the pathos of the rough mining camps of the far +West. Eugene Field's simple songs appeal to all children. The virtues of +humble homes, the smiles and tears of everyday life, are presented in James +Whitcomb Riley's poems. Mark Twain, philosopher, reformer of the type of +Cervantes, and romantic historian, has, largely by means of his humor, made +a vivid impression on millions of Americans. Every member of this group had +an unusual development of humor. Each one was imbued with the democratic +spirit and eager to present the elemental facts of life. For these reasons, +the audiences of this group have been numbered by millions. + + +REFERENCES + +Roosevelt's _The Winning of the West_. + +Turner's _Rise of the New West_. + +Hart's _National Ideals Historically Traced_. + +Johnston's _High School History of the United States_ (612 pp.). + +Clemens's _Life on the Mississippi_. + +Clemens's _Roughing It_. + +Schurz's _Abraham Lincoln_. (Excellent.) + +Morse's _Abraham Lincoln_. + +Chubb's _Selections from the Addresses, Inaugurals, and Letters of Abraham +Lincoln, edited with an Introduction and Notes_. (Macmillan's Pocket +Classics.) + +Boynton's _Bret Harte_. + +Pemberton's _The Life of Bret Harte_. + +Erskinels _Leading American Novelists_, pp. 325-379. (Harte.) + +Canby's _The Short Story in English_, Chap. XIV. (Harte.) + +Field's _The Eugene Field Book_, edited by Burt and Cable. (Contains +autobiographical matter and Field's best juvenile poems and stories.) + +Thompson's _Eugene Field_, 2 vols. + +Field's _The Writings in Prose and Verse of Eugene Field_, Sabine Edition, +12 vols. + +Garland's _A Dialogue between James Whitcomb Riley and Hamlin Garland_, in +Me duress Magazine, February, 1894. + +_In Honor of James Whitcomb Riley, with a Brief Sketch of his Life_, by +Hughes, Beveridge, and Others, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1906. + +Clemens's _Autobiography_. + +Matthews's _Biographical Criticism of Mark Twain_, in the _Introduction_ to +_The Innocents Abroad_. + +Phelps's _Essays on Modern Novelists_. (Mark Twain; excellent.) + +Henderson's _Mark Twain_, in _Harpers Magazine_, May, 1909. + +Howells's _My Mark Twain_. + + +SUGGESTED READINGS + +Lincoln.--_The Gettysburg Address_, part of the _Second Inaugural Address_. + +Harte.--_Tennessee's Partner_, and _How Santa Claus came to Simpson's Bar_. +Harte's two greatest stories, _The Luck of Roaring Camp_ and _The Outcasts +of Poker Flat_, should be read in mature years. These stories may all be +found in the single volume, entitled _The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other +Stories_. (Riverside Aldine Press Series.) + +Field.--_Little Boy Blue_, _The Duel_, _Krinken_, _Wynken, Blynken, and +Nod_, _The Rock-a-By Lady_. These poems may all be found in Burt and +Cable's _The Eugene Field Book_. + +Riley.--_When the Frost is on the Punkin, The Clover, The First Bluebird, +Ike Walton's Prayer, A Life Lesson, Away, Griggsby's Station, Little Mahala +Ashcraft, Our Hired Girl, Little Orphant Annie._ These poems may be found +in the three volumes, entitled _Neighborly Poems_, _Afterwhiles_, and +_Rhymes of Childhood_. + +Mark Twain.--_Life on the Mississippi_, Chaps. VIII., IX., XIII. _Roughing +It_, Chap. II. If the first two chapters of _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ +and _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ are read, the time will probably +be found to finish the books. For specimens of his humor at its best, read +_Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar_, printed at the beginning of the twenty-one +chapters of _Pudd'nhead Wilson_. His humor depending on incongruity is well +shown in _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court_. _The Prince and the +Pauper_ is a fascinating story of sixteenth-century England. + + +QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS + +Why does Oxford University display on its walls _The Gettysburg Address_ of +Lincoln? What books helped mold his style? + +What period of our development do Bret Harte's stories illustrate? What are +some special characteristics of his short stories? Does he belong to the +school of Poe or Hawthorne? Which one of our great short story writers has +the most humor,--Irving, Hawthorne, Poe, or Harte? Which one of them do you +enjoy the most? + +Why is Eugene Field called the poet-laureate of children? Which of his +poems indicated for reading do you prefer? What are the most striking +qualities of his verse? + +Point out the chief characteristics of Riley's verse. What lines please you +most for their humor, references to rural life, optimism, kindly spirit, +and pathos? Why is he so widely popular? + +Which of Mark Twain's works are most valuable to the student of American +literature and history? In what sense is he a historian? What phases of +western development does he describe? Give instances (_a_) of his humor +which depends on incongruity, (_b_) of his philosophical humor, (_c_) of +his hatred of hypocrisy, and (_d_) of his solicitude for the weak. Why is +he said to belong to the school of Cervantes? What specially impresses you +about Mark Twain's style? + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE EASTERN REALISTS + + +FROM ROMANTICISM TOWARD REALISM.--The enormous circulation of magazines in +the United States has furnished a wide market for the writers of fiction. +Magazines have especially stimulated the production of short stories, which +show how much technique their authors have learned from Poe. The increased +attention paid to fiction has led to a careful study of its guiding +principles and to the formation of new rules for the practice of the art. + +When we look back at the best work of earlier writers of American fiction, +we shall find that it is nearly all romantic. In the eighteenth century, +Charles Brockden Brown wrote in conformity to the principles of early +romanticism, and combined the elements of strangeness and terror in his +tales. The modified romanticism persisting through the greater part of the +nineteenth century demanded that the _unusual_ should at least be retained +in fiction as a dominating factor. Irving's _Rip Van Winkle_ has the older +element of the impossible, and _The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_ shows +fascinating combinations of the unusual. Cooper achieved his greatest +success in presenting the Indians and the stalwart figure of the pioneer +against the mysterious forest as a background. Hawthorne occasionally +availed himself of the older romantic materials, as in _The Snow Image_, +Rappaccini's Daughter_, and _Young Goodman Brown_, but he was more often +attracted by the newer elements, the strange and the unusual, as in _The +Scarlet Letter_ and _The House of the Seven Gables_. Poe followed with a +combination of all the romantic materials,--the supernatural, the +terrible, and the unusual. Bret Harte applied his magnifying glass to +unusual crises in the strange lives of the western pioneers. By a skillful +use of light and shadow, Mark Twain heightened the effect of the strange +scenes through which he passed in his young days. Almost all the southern +writers, from Simms to Cable and Harris, loved to throw strong lights on +unusual characters and romantic situations. + +The question which the romanticists, or idealists, as they were often +called in later times, had accustomed themselves to ask, was, "Have these +characters or incidents the unusual beauty or ugliness or goodness +necessary to make an impression and to hold the attention?" The masters of +the new eastern school of fiction took a different view, and asked, "Is our +matter absolutely true to life?" + +REALISM IN FICTION.--The two greatest representatives of the new school of +realism in fiction are William D. Howells and Henry James. Both have set +forth in special essays the realist's art of fiction. The growing interest +in democracy was the moving force in realism. In that realist's textbook, +Criticism and Fiction (1891), Howells says of the aristocratic spirit in +literature:-- + + "It is averse to the mass of men; it consents to know them only in some + conventionalized and artificial guise.... Democracy in literature is the + reverse of all this. It wishes to know and to tell the truth, confident + that consolation and delight are there; it does not care to paint the + marvelous and impossible for the vulgar many, or to sentimentalize and + falsify the actual for the vulgar few." + +"Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of +material," says Howells. He sometimes insists on considering "honesty" and +"realism" as synonymous terms. His primary object is not merely to amuse by +a pleasant story or to startle by a horrible one. His object is to reflect +life as he finds it, not only unusual or exceptional life. He believes that +it is false to real life to overemphasize certain facts, to overlook the +trivial, and to make all life dramatic. He says that the realist in fiction +"cannot look upon human life and declare this thing or that thing unworthy +of notice, any more than the scientist can declare a fact of the material +world beneath the dignity of his inquiry." + +Howells recognizes the great importance of the spirit of romanticism, and +says that it was at the beginning of the nineteenth century + + "... making the same fight against effete classicism which realism is + making to-day against effete romanticism.... The romantic of that day and + the real of this are in certain degree the same. Romanticism then sought, + as realism seeks now, to widen the bounds of sympathy, to level every + barrier against aesthetic freedom, to escape from the paralysis of + tradition. It exhausted itself in this impulse; and it remained for + realism to assert that fidelity to experience and probability of motive + are essential conditions of a great imaginative literature." + +Henry James in his essay, _The Art of Fiction_, denies that the novelist is +less concerned than the historian about the quest for truth. He says, "The +only reason for the existence of a novel is that it _does_ compete with +life. When it ceases to compete as the canvas of the painter competes, it +will have arrived at a very strange pass." To the intending novelist he +says:-- + + "All life belongs to you, and don't listen either to those who would shut + you up into corners of it and tell you that it is only here and there + that art inhabits, or to those who would persuade you that this heavenly + messenger wings her way outside of life altogether, breathing a superfine + air and turning away her head from the truth of things." + +It must not be supposed that Howells and James were the original founders +of the realistic school, any more than Wordsworth, Coleridge, and their +associates were the originators of the romantic school. History has not yet +discovered the first realist or the first romanticist. Both schools have +from time to time been needed to hold each other in check. Howells makes no +claim to being considered the first realist. He distinctly says that Jane +Austen (1775-1817) had treated material with entire truthfulness. Henry +James might have discovered that Fielding had preceded him in writing, "It +is our business to discharge the part of a faithful historian, and to +describe human nature as it is, not as we would wish it to be." + +An occasional revolt against extreme romanticism is needed to bring +literature closer to everyday life. The tendency of the followers of any +school is to push its conclusions to such an extreme that reaction +necessarily sets in. Some turned to seek for the soul of reality in the +uninteresting commonplace. Others learned from Shakespeare the necessity of +looking at life from the combined point of view of the realist and the +romanticist, and they discovered that the great dramatist's romantic +pictures sometimes convey a truer idea of life than the most literal ones +of the painstaking realist. Critics have pointed out that the original +_History of Dr. Faustus_ furnished Marlowe with a realistic account of +Helen of Troy's hair, eyes, "pleasant round face," lips, "neck, white like +a swan," general figure, and purple velvet gown, but that his two romantic +lines:-- + + "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, + And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?" + +enable any imaginative person to realize her fascination better than pages +of realistic description. But we must not forget that it was an achievement +for the writers of this group to insist that truth must be the foundation +for all pictures of life, to demonstrate that even the pillars of +romanticism must rest on a firm basis in a world of reality, and to teach +the philosophy of realism to a school of younger writers. + +By no means all of the eastern fiction, however, is realistic. THOMAS +BAILEY ALDRICH (1836-1907), for instance, wrote in a romantic vein _The +Story of a Bad Boy_, which ranks among the best boys' stories produced in +the last half of the nineteenth century. There were many other writers of +romantic fiction, but the majority of them at least felt the restraining +influence of the realistic school. + +REALISM IN POETRY.--One eastern poet, Walt Whitman, took a step beyond any +preceding American poet in endeavoring to paint with realistic touches the +democracy of life. He defined the poet as the indicator of the path between +reality and the soul. He thus proclaims his realistic creed:-- + + "I will not have in my writing any elegance or effect or originality to + hang in the way between me and the rest like curtains. I will have + nothing hang in the way, not the richest curtains. What I tell I tell for + precisely what it is. Let who may exalt or startle or fascinate or + soothe, I will have purposes as health or heat or snow has and be as + regardless of observation. You shall stand by my side and look in the + mirror with me." + +The subject of his verse is the realities of democracy. No other great +American poet had indulged in realism as extreme as this:-- + + + "The butcher-boy puts off his killing-clothes, or sharpens his knife + at the stall in the market, + I loiter enjoying his repartee and his shuffle and break-down." + +Whitman says boldly:-- + + "And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue." + +He discarded ordinary poetic meter, because it seemed to lack the rhythm of +nature. It is, however, very easy for a poet to cross the line between +realism and idealism, and we sometimes find adherents of the two schools +disagreeing whether Whitman was more realist or idealist in some of his +work, for instance, in a line or verse unit, like this, when he says:-- + + "That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash + again, and ever again, this soil'd world." + +[Illustration: IDENTITY +(Drawing by Elihu Vedder)] + +The fact that not all the later eastern poets were realistic needs +emphasis. Thomas Bailey Aldrich, perhaps the most noted successor of New +England's famous group, was frequently an exquisite romantic artist, or +painter in miniature, as these eight lines which constitute the whole of +his poem, _Identity_, show:-- + + "Somewhere--in desolate wind-swept space-- + In Twilight-land--in No-man's-land-- + Two hurrying Shapes met face to face, + And bade each other stand. + + "And who are you?' cried one, agape, + Shuddering in the gloaming light. + 'I know not,' said the second Shape, + 'I only died last night!'" + + +WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS, 1837-1920 + +[Illustration: WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS] + +The foremost leader of realism in modern American fiction, the man who +influenced more young writers than any other novelist of the last quarter +of the nineteenth century, was William Dean Howells, who was born in +Martin's Ferry, Ohio, in 1837. He never went to college, but obtained +valuable training as a printer and editor in various newspaper offices in +Ohio. He was for many years editor of the _Atlantic Monthly_ and an +editorial contributor to the _New York Nation_ and _Harper's Magazine_. In +these capacities, as well as by his fiction, he reached a wide public. +Later he turned his attention mainly to the writing of novels. So many of +their scenes are laid in New England that he is often claimed as a New +England writer. + +His strongest novels are _A Modern Instance_ (1882), _The Rise of Silas +Lapham_ (1885), _The Minister's Charge_ (1886), _Indian Summer_ (1886), and +_A Hazard of New Fortunes_ (1889). These belong to the middle period of his +career. Before this, his mastery of character portrayal had not culminated, +and later, his power of artistic selection and repression was not so +strictly exercised. + +_The Rise of Silas Lapham_ is a story of the home life and business career +of a self-made merchant, who has the customary braggadocio and lack of +culture, but who possesses a substantial integrity at the root of his +nature. The little shortcomings in social polish, so keenly felt by his +wife and daughters, as they rise to a position due to great wealth, the +small questions of decorum, and the details of business take up a large +part of the reader's attention; but they are treated with such ease, +naturalness, repressed humor, refinement of art, and truth in sketching +provincial types of character, that the story is a triumph of realistic +creation. _A Modern Instance_ is not so pleasant a book, but the attention +is firmly held by the strong, realistic presentation of the jealousy, the +boredom, the temptations, and the dishonesty exhibited in a household of a +commonplace, ill-mated pair. _Indian Summer_ begins well, proceeds well, +and ends well. It may be a trifle more conventional than the two other +novels just mentioned, but it is altogether delightful. The conversations +display keen insight into the heart of the young, imaginative girl and of +the older woman and man. _The Minister's Charge_ is thoroughly individual. +The young boy seems so close to his readers that every detail in his life +becomes important. The other people are also full of real blood, while the +background is skillfully arranged to heighten the effect of the characters. +_A Hazard of New Fortunes_ would be decidedly improved if many pages were +omitted, but it is full of lifelike characters, and it sometimes approaches +the dramatic, in a way unusual with Howells. + +In his effort to present life without any misleading ideas of heroism, +beauty, or idyllic sweetness, Howells sometimes goes so far toward the +opposite extreme as to write stories that seem to be filled with +commonplace women, humdrum lives, and men like Northwick in _The Quality of +Mercy_, of whom one of the characters says:-- + + "He was a mere creature of circumstances like the rest of us! His + environment made him rich, and his environment made him a rogue. + Sometimes I think there _was_ nothing to Northwick except what happened + to him." + +But in such work as the five novels enumerated, Howells shows decided +ability in portraying attractive characters, in making their faults human +and as interesting as their virtues, in causing ordinary life to yield +variety of incident and amusing scenes, and, finally, in engaging his +characters in homelike, natural, self-revealing conversations, which are +often spiced with wit. + +Howells does not always have a plot, that is, a beginning, a climax, and a +solution of all the questions suggested. He has, of course, a story, but he +does not find it necessary to present the entire life of his characters, if +he can accurately portray them by one or more incidents. After that purpose +is accomplished, the story often ceases before the reader feels that a real +ending has been reached. + +Howells rarely startles or thrills; he usually both interests and convinces +his readers by a straightforward presentation of everyday, well-known +scenes and people. The strongest point in his art is the easy, natural way +in which he seems to be retailing faithfully the facts exactly as they +happened, without any juggling or rearranging on his part. His characters +are so clearly presented that they do not remain in dreary outline, but +emerge fully in rounded form, as moving, speaking, feeling beings. His keen +insight into human frailties, his delicate, pervading humor, his skill in +handling conversations, and his delightfully clear, easy, natural, and +familiar style make him a realist of high rank and a worthy teacher of +young writers. + + +HENRY JAMES, 1843-1916 + +[Illustration: HENRY JAMES] + +The name most closely associated with Howells is that of Henry James, who +was born in New York. William James (1842-1910) the noted psychologist, was +an older brother. Henry James is called an "international novelist" because +he lived mostly abroad and laid the scenes of his novels in both Europe and +America. His sympathy with England in the European war caused him to become +a British subject in 1915, eight months before his death in 1916. + +Like Howells, James was a leader in modern realistic fiction. His work has +been called the "quintessence of realism." But instead of selecting, as +Howells does, the well-known types of the average people, James prefers to +study the ordinary mind in extraordinary situations, surroundings, and +combinations. For this reason, his characters, while realistically +presented, rarely seem well-known and obvious types. + +James was the first American to succeed in the realistic short story, that +is, the story stripped of the supernatural and romantic elements used by +Hawthorne and Poe. James selects neither a commonplace nor a dramatic +situation, but chooses some difficult and out-of-the-way theme, and clears +it up with his keen, subtle, impressionistic art. _A Passionate Pilgrim_, +_The Madonna of the Future_, and _The Lesson of the Master_ are short +stories that show his abstruse, unusual subject matter and his analytical +methods. + +He was a very prolific writer. He published as many as three volumes in +twelve months. Year after year, with few exceptions, he brought out either +a novel, a book of essays, or a volume of short stories. His most +interesting novels are _Roderick Hudson_ (1875), _Daisy Miller: A Study_ +(1878), _The Portrait of a Lady_ (1881), and _The Princess Casamassima_ +(1886). + +_Daisy Miller_ is a brilliant study of the Italian experiences of an +American girl of the unconventionally independent type. She is beautiful, +frank, original, but whimsical, shallow, and headstrong. One minute she +attracts, the next moment she repels. One feels baffled and provoked, but +is held to the book by the spell of a writer who is clever, intellectual, a +master of style, and a skilled scientist in dissecting human character. In +_Roderick Hudson_ and _The Portrait of a Lady_, the characters are much +more interesting, the situations are larger, the human emotion deeper, and +the books richer from every point of view. These novels also show Americans +in European surroundings. Isabel Archer and Ralph Touchet in _The Portrait +of a Lady_ have qualities that deeply stir the admiration and emotions. +Every scene in which these characters appear adds to the pleasure in being +able to know and love them, even though they are merely characters in a +book. + +Only a few such persons as these, so rich in the qualities of the heart, +appear in James's novels. He has portrayed a greater variety of men and +women than any other American writer, but they usually interest him for +some other quality than their power to love and suffer. He is tempted to +regard life from the intellectual viewpoint, as a problem, a game, and a +panorama. He does not, like Hawthorne, enter into the sanctuary and become +the hero, laying the lash of remorse upon his back. James stands off, a +disinterested onlooker, and exhibits his characters critically, accurately, +minutely, as they take their parts in the procession or game. Brilliant and +faultless as the portraits are, they too frequently appear cold, pitiless +renditions of life, often of life too trivial to seem worthy the searching +study that he gives it. Ralph Touchet, Roderick Hudson, Isabel Archer, and +Miss Light are sufficient to prove the tremendous power possessed by James +to present the emotional side of life. Both in theory and practice, +however, he usually prefers to remain the disinterested, impartial, +detached spectator. + +Like Howells, James does not depend upon a plot. There is little action in +his works. The interest is psychological, and a chance word, an encounter +on the street, even a look, may serve to change an attitude of mind and +affect the outcome. + +The popular impression that James is impossible to understand and that he +uses words to obscure his meaning is, of course, false, although in his +later novels his style is extremely involved and often difficult to follow. +In such works as _The Wings of a Dove_ (1902) and _The Golden Bowl_ (1904), +for example, there are long and intricate psychological explanations, which +are most abstruse and confusing. It is this later work which has given rise +to the common saying that William James wrote psychology like a novelist, +and Henry James, novels like a psychologist. + +Judged by his best work, however, such as _The Portrait of a Lady_ and +_Roderick Hudson_, Henry James must be acknowledged a master of English +style. His keen analytical mind is reflected in a brilliant, highly +polished, and impressively incisive style. In a few perfectly selected +words the subtlest thoughts are clearly revealed. In these masterpieces, +the reader is constantly delighted by the artist's skill, which leads ever +deeper into human motives after it would seem that the heart and mind could +disclose no further secrets. Such skill shows a mastery of language rarely +surpassed in fiction. At his best, James has a fineness and sureness of +touch, and a command of perfectly fitting words, as well as elegance and +grace in style. + + +MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN, 1862- + +[Illustration: MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN] + +Mary Eleanor Wilkins (Mrs. Freeman), known for her realistic stories of the +provincial New Englander, was born in Randolph, Massachusetts. With humor +to see the little eccentricities of the people among whom she lived and a +sympathetic understanding of their heroic qualities, she has created real +men and women,--farmers, school teachers, prim spinsters, clergymen, stern +Roman matrons,--all unmistakable types of New England village life. Her +unfailing ability to transplant the reader into rock-ribbed, snow-clad New +England, with its many fond associations for most Americans, is proof of +her power as an artist. Her art is subtle, and it commands both attention +and admiration, as she reveals every slight move in a simple plot and with +extraordinary deftness of touch brings out the most delicate shadings that +differentiate her characters. + +Her style is easy and clear, and is pervaded by a fine sense of humor. Her +short stories are her most artistic work, especially those in the two +volumes, _A New England Nun_, and _Silence and Other Tales_; but she can +also tell a long story well, as is shown in _Pembroke_, which combines at +their best all her qualities as a novelist. + +She is distinctly a realist of Howells's school, presenting the daily +rounds of the life which she knew intimately, and making complete stories +of such meager material as the subterfuges which two poor but proud sisters +practiced in order to make one black silk dress, owned in partnership, +appear as if each really possessed "a gala dress." She takes stolid, +practical characters, who have seemingly nothing attractive in their +composition, and by her sympathetic treatment causes them to appeal +strongly to human hearts. She discovers heroic qualities in apparently +commonplace homes and families, and finds humorous or pathetic +possibilities in men and women whom most writers would consider very +unpromising. Miss Wilkins knows that in rural New England romantic things +do happen, tragedies do occur, and heroes and heroines do appear in +unexpected quarters to meet emergencies, and she occasionally transfers +such events to her pages, thereby enlivening them without sacrificing the +reality of her pictures. But the triumph of her art consists in her facile +handling of simple incidents and everyday men and women and her power to +carry them without a hint of sentimentality to a natural, artistic, +effective climax, heightened usually by a touch of either humor or pathos. + + +WALT WHITMAN, 1819-1892 + +[Illustration: WALT. WHITMAN] + +Life.--Suffolk County, Long Island, in which is situated the village of +West Hills, where Walt Whitman was born in 1819, was in some ways the most +remarkable eastern county in the United States. Hemmed in on a narrow strip +of land by the ocean on one side and Long Island Sound on the other, the +inhabitants saw little of the world unless they led a seafaring life. Many +of the well-to-do farmers, as late as the middle of the nineteenth century, +never took a land journey of more than twenty miles from home. Because of +such restricted environment, the people of Suffolk County were rather +insular in early days, yet the average grade of intelligence was high, for +some of England's most progressive blood had settled there in the first +half of the seventeenth century. + +Nowhere else in this country, not even at the West, was there a greater +feeling of independence and a more complete exercise of individuality. +There was a certainty about life and opinions, a feeling of relationship +with everybody, a defiance of convention, that made Suffolk County the fit +birthplace of a man who was destined to trample poetic conventions under +his feet and to sing the song of democracy. In Walt Whitman's young days, +all sorts and conditions of men on Long Island met familiarly on equal +terms. The farmer, the blacksmith, the carpenter, the mason, the +woodchopper, the sailor, the clergyman, the teacher, the young college +student home on his vacation,--all mingled as naturally as members of a +family. No human being felt himself inferior to any one else, so long as +the moral proprieties were observed. Nowhere else did there exist a more +perfect democracy of conscious equals. Although Whitman's family moved to +Brooklyn before he was five years old, he returned to visit relatives, and +later taught school at various places on Long Island and edited a paper at +Huntington, near his birthplace. In various ways Suffolk County was +responsible for the most vital part of his early training. In his poem, +_There Was a Child Went Forth_, he tells how nature educated him in his +island home. In his prose work, _Specimen Days and Collect_, which all who +are interested in his autobiography should read, he says, "The successive +growth stages of my infancy, childhood, youth, and manhood were all pass'd +on Long Island, which I sometimes feel as if I had incorporated." + +Like Mark Twain, Walt Whitman received from the schools only a common +education but from life he had an uncommon training. His chief education +came from associating with all sorts and conditions of people. In Brooklyn +he worked as a printer, carpenter, and editor. His closest friends were the +pilots and deck hands of ferry boats, the drivers of New York City +omnibuses, factory hands, and sailors. After he had become well known, he +was unconventional enough to sit with a street car driver in front of a +grocery store in a crowded city and eat a watermelon. When people smiled, +he said, "They can have the laugh--we have the melon." + +[Illustration: WHITMAN AT THE AGE OF THIRTY-SIX] + +His Suffolk County life might have left him democratic but insular; but he +traveled widely and gained cosmopolitan experience. In 1848 he went +leisurely to New Orleans, where he edited a newspaper, but in a short time +he journeyed north along the Mississippi, traveled in Canada, and finally +returned to New York, having completed a trip of eight thousand miles. + +After his return, he seems to have worked with his father in Brooklyn for +about three years, building and selling houses. He was then also engaged on +a collection of poems, which, in 1855, he published under the title of +_Leaves of Grass_. From this time he was known as an author. + +In 1862 he went South to nurse his brother, who was wounded in the Civil +War. For nearly three years, the poet served as a volunteer nurse in the +army hospitals in Washington and its vicinity. Few good Samaritans have +performed better service. He estimated that he attended on the field and in +the hospital eighty thousand of the sick and wounded. In after days many a +soldier testified that his recovery was aided by Whitman's kindly +ministrations. Finally, however, his own iron constitution gave way under +this strain. + +When the war closed, he was given a government clerkship in Washington, but +was dismissed in 1865, because of hostility aroused by his _Leaves of +Grass_. He soon received another appointment, however, which he held until +1873, when a stroke of paralysis forced him to relinquish his position. He +went to Camden, New Jersey, where he lived the life of a semi-invalid +during the rest of his existence, writing as his health would permit. He +died in 1892, and was buried in Harleigh Cemetery, near Camden. + +POETRY.--Whitman gave to the world in 1855 the first edition of the poems, +which he called _Leaves of Grass_. His favorite expression, "words simple +as grass," and his line:-- + +"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars," + +give a clue to the idea which prompted the choice of such an unusual title. +He continued to add to these poems during the rest of his life, and he +published in 1892 the tenth edition of _Leaves of Grass_, in a volume +containing four hundred and twenty-two closely printed octavo pages. + +Whitman intended _Leaves of Grass_ to be a realistic epic of American +democracy. He tried to sing this song as he heard it echoed in the life of +man and man's companion, Nature. While many of Whitman's poems have the +most dissimilar titles, and record experiences as unlike as his early life +on Long Island, his dressing of wounds during the Civil War, his +comradeship with the democratic mass, his almost Homeric communion with the +sea, and his memories of Lincoln, yet according to his scheme, all of this +verse was necessary to constitute a complete song of democracy. His poem, +_I Hear America Singing_, shows the variety that he wished to give to his +democratic songs:-- + + "I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, + Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and + strong, + The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, + The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, + The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand + singing on the steamboat deck, + The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as + he stands, + The woodcutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or + at noon intermission or at sundown, + The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of + the girl sewing or washing, + Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else." + +His ambition was to put human life in America "freely, fully, and truly on +record." + +His longest and one of his most typical poems in this collection is called +_Song of Myself_, in which he paints himself as a representative member of +the democratic mass. He says:-- + + "Agonies are one of my changes of garments, + I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the + wounded person, + My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe. + * * * * * + Not a youngster is taken for larceny but I go up too, and am tried and + sentenced." + +In these four lines, he states simply what must be the moving impulse of a +democratic government if it is to survive. Here is the spirit that is +to-day growing among us, the spirit that forbids child labor, cares for +orphans, enacts model tenement laws, strives to regenerate the slum +districts, and is increasing the altruistic activities of clubs and +churches throughout the country. But these verses will not submit to iambic +or trochaic scansion, and their form is as strange as a democratic +government was a century and a half ago to the monarchies of Europe. Place +these lines beside the following couplet from Pope:-- + + "Self-love and Reason to one end aspire, + Pain their aversion, Pleasure their desire." + +Here the scansion is regular, the verse polished, the thought undemocratic. +The world had long been used to such regular poetry. The form of Whitman's +verse came as a distinct shock to the majority. + +Sometimes what he said was a greater shock, as, for instance, the line:-- + + "I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." + +For a considerable time many people knew Whitman by this one line alone. +They concluded that he was a barbarian and that all that he said was +"yawp." Although much of his work certainly deserved this characterization, +yet those who persisted in reading him soon discovered that their +condemnation was too sweeping, as most were willing to admit after they had +read, for instance, _When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd_, a poem that +Swinburne called "the most sonorous nocturn yet chanted in the church of +the world." The three _motifs_ of this song are the lilac, the evening +star, and the hermit thrush:-- + + "Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul, + There in the fragrant pines and the cedars dusk and dim." + +In the same class we may place such poems as _Out of the Cradle Endlessly +Rocking_, where we listen to a song as if from + + "Out of the mocking-bird's throat, the musical shuttle." + +Whitman also wrote in almost regular meter his dirge on Lincoln, the +greatest dirge of the Civil War:-- + + "O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, + The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, + The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting." + +In 1888 Whitman wrote that "from a worldly and business point of view, +_Leaves of Grass_ has been worse than a failure--that public criticism on +the book and myself as author of it yet shows mark'd anger and contempt +more than anything else." But he says that he had comfort in "a small band +of the dearest friends and upholders ever vouchsafed to man or cause." He +was also well received in England. He met with cordial appreciation from +Tennyson. John Addington Symonds (1840-1893), a graduate of Oxford and an +authority on Greek poetry and the Renaissance, wrote, "_Leaves of Grass_, +which I first read at the age of twenty-five, influenced me more, perhaps, +than any other book has done except the _Bible_; more than Plato, more than +Goethe." Had Whitman lived until 1908, he would probably have been +satisfied with the following statement from his biographer, Bliss Perry, +formerly professor of English at Princeton, "These primal and ultimate +things Whitman felt as few men have ever felt them, and he expressed them, +at his best, with a nobility and beauty such as only the world's very +greatest poets have surpassed." + +GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. His most pronounced single characteristic is his +presentation of democracy:-- + + "Stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse and stuff'd with the stuff that is + fine." + +He said emphatically, "Without yielding an inch, the working man and +working woman were to be in my pages from first to last." He is the only +American poet of his rank who remained through life the close companion of +day laborers. Yet, although he is the poet of democracy, his poetry is too +difficult to be read by the masses, who are for the most part ignorant of +the fact that he is their greatest representative poet. + +He not only preached democracy, but he also showed in practical ways his +intense feeling of comradeship and his sympathy with all. One of his +favorite verses was + + "And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own + funeral drest in his shroud." + +His Civil War experiences still further intensified this feeling. He looked +on the lifeless face of a son of the South, and wrote:-- + + "... my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead." + +Like Thoreau, Whitman welcomed the return to nature. He says:-- + + "I am enamour'd of growing out-doors, + Of men that live among cattle or taste of the ocean or woods." + +He is the poet of nature as well as of man. He tells us how nature educated +him:-- + + "The early lilacs became part of this child, + And grass and white and red morning-glories, and white and red + clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird, + And the Third-month lambs and the sow's pink-faint litter, and the + mare's foal and the cow's calf." + +He delights us + + "... with meadows, rippling tides and trees and flowers and grass, + And the low hum of living breeze--and in the midst God's beautiful + eternal right hand." + +No American poet was more fond of the ocean. Its aspect and music, more +than any other object of nature, influenced his verse. He addresses the sea +in lines like these:-- + + "With husky-haughty lips, O sea! + Where day and night I wend thy surf-beat shore, + Imaging to my sense thy varied strange suggestions, + (I see and plainly list thy talk and conference here,) + Thy troops of white-maned racers racing to the goal, + Thy ample, smiling face, dash'd with the sparkling dimples of the sun." + +He especially loves motion in nature. His poetry abounds in the so-called +motor images. [Footnote: For a discussion of the various types of images of +the different poets, see the author's _Education of the Central Nervous +System_, Chaps. VII., VIII., IX., X.] He takes pleasure in picturing a +scene + + "Where the heifers browse, where geese nip their food with short jerks," + +or in watching + + "The white arms out in the breakers tirelessly tossing." + +While his verse is fortunately not without idealistic touches, his poetic +theory is uncompromisingly realistic, as may be seen in his critical prose +essays, some of which deserve to rank only a little below those of Lowell +and Poe. Whitman says:-- + + "For grounds for _Leaves of Grass_, as a poem, I abandoned the + conventional themes, which do not appear in it: none of the stock + ornamentation, or choice plots of love or war, or high exceptional + personages of Old-World song; nothing, as I may say, for beauty's + sake--no legend or myth or romance, nor euphemism, nor rhyme." + +His unbalanced desire for realism led him into two mistakes. In the first +place, his determination to avoid ornamentation often caused him to insert +in his poems mere catalogues of names, which are not bound together by a +particle of poetic cement. The following from his _Song of Myself_ is an +instance:-- + + "Land of coal and iron! land of gold! land of cotton, sugar, rice! + Land of wheat, beef, pork! land of wool and hemp! land of the apple + and the grape!" + +In the second place, he thought that genuine realism forbade his being +selective and commanded him to put everything in his verse. He accordingly +included some offensive material which was outside the pale of poetic +treatment. Had he followed the same rule with his cooking, his chickens +would have been served to him without removing the feathers. His refusal to +eliminate unpoetic material from his verse has cost him very many readers. + +He further concluded that it was unfitting for a democratic poet to be +hampered by the verse forms of the Old World. He discarded rhyme almost +entirely, but he did employ rhythm, which is determined by the tone of the +ideas, not by the number of syllables. This rhythm is often not evident in +a single line, but usually becomes manifest as the thought is developed. +His verse was intended to be read aloud or chanted. He himself says that +his verse construction is "apparently lawless at first perusal, although on +closer examination a certain regularity appears, like the recurrence of +lesser and larger waves on the seashore, rolling in without intermission, +and fitfully rising and falling." There is little doubt that he carried in +his ear the music of the waves and endeavored to make his verse in some +measure conform to that. He says specifically that while he was listening +to the call of a seabird + + "... on Paumanok's [Footnote: The Indian name for Long Island.] gray + beach, + With the thousand responsive songs at random, + My own songs awaked from that hour, + And with them the key, the word up from the waves." + +In ideals he is most like Emerson. Critics have called Whitman a concrete +translation of Emerson, and have noticed that he practiced the independence +which Emerson preached in the famous lecture on _The American Scholar_ (p. +185). In 1855 Emerson wrote to Whitman: "I am not blind to the worth of the +wonderful gift of _Leaves of Grass_. I find it the most extraordinary piece +of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed." + +Whitman is America's strangest compound of unfiltered realism, alloyed with +rich veins of noble idealism. No students of American democracy, its ideals +and social spirit, can afford to leave him unread. He sings, "unwarped by +any influence save democracy," + + "Of Life, immense in passion, pulse, and power, + Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine." + +Intelligent sympathy with the humblest, the power to see himself "in prison +shaped like another man and feel the dull unintermitted pain," prompts him +to exclaim:-- + + "I seize the descending man and raise him with resistless will." + +An elemental poet of democracy, embodying its faults as well as its +virtues, Whitman is noteworthy for voicing the new social spirit on which +the twentieth century is relying for the regeneration of the masses. + + +SUMMARY + +American fiction had for the most part been romantic from its beginning +until the last part of the nineteenth century. Charles Brockden Brown, +Irving, Cooper, Hawthorne, Poe, Bret Harte, and Mark Twain were all tinged +with romanticism. In the latter part of the last century, there arose a +school of realists who insisted that life should be painted as it is, +without any addition to or subtraction from reality. This school did not +ask, "Is the matter interesting or exciting?" but, "Is it true to life?" + +Howells and James were the leaders of the realists. Howells uses everyday +incidents and conversations. James not infrequently takes unusual +situations, so long as they conform to reality, and subjects them to the +most searching psychological analysis. Mary Wilkins Freeman, a pupil of +Howells, shows exceptional skill in depicting with realistic interest the +humble life of provincial New England. While this school did not turn all +writers into extreme realists, its influence was felt on the mass of +contemporary fiction. + +Walt Whitman brings excessive realism into the form and matter of verse. +For fear of using stock poetic ornaments, he sometimes introduces mere +catalogues of names, uninvested with a single poetic touch. He is America's +greatest poet of democracy. His work is characterized by altruism, by +all-embracing sympathy, by emphasis on the social side of democracy, and by +love of nature and the sea. + + +REFERENCES + +Stanton's _A Manual of American Literature._ + +Alden's _Magazine Writing and the New Literature._ + +Perry's _A Study of Prose Fiction_, Chap. IX., _Realism_. + +Howells's _Criticism and Fiction_. + +Burt and Howells's _The Howells Story Book_. (Contains biographical +matter.) + +Henry James's _The Art of Fiction_. + +Phelps's _William Dean Howells_, in _Essays on Modern Novelists_. + +Brownell's _Henry James_, in _American Prose Masters_. + +Canby's _The Short Story in English_. (James.) + +Whitman's _Leaves of Grass_ (1897), 446 pp. (Contains all of his poems, the +publication of which was authorized by himself.) + +Triggs's _Selections from the Prose and Poetry of Walt Whitman_. (The best +for general readers.) + +Perry's _Walt Whitman, his Life, and Work_. (Excellent.) + +G. R. Carpenter's _Walt Whitman_. + +Platt's _Walt Whitman_. (_Beacon Biographies_) + +Noyes's _An Approach to Walt Whitman_. (Excellent.) + +Bucke's _Walt Whitman_. (A biography by one of his executors.) + +_In Re Walt Whitman_, edited by his literary executors. (Supplements +Bucke.) + +Burroughs's _Whitman: A Study_. + +Symonds's _Walt Whitman: A Study_. + +Dowden's _The Poetry of Democracy_, in _Studies in Literature_. + +Stevenson's _Familiar Studies of Men and Books_. (Whitman.) + +Whitman's _Works_, edited by Triggs. (Putnam Subscription Edition.) Vol. X. +contains a bibliography and reference list of 98 pp. + + +SUGGESTED READINGS + +THE PROSE REALISTS.--Sections II., XV., and XXVIII., from Howells's +_Criticism and Fiction_. _Silas Lapham_ is the best of his novels. Those +who desire to read more should consult the list on p. 373 of this book. + +In Henry James, read either _The Portrait of a Lady_ or _Roderick Hudson_. +_A Passionate Pilgrim_, and _The Madonna of the Future_ are two of his best +short stories. + +Read any or all of these short stories by Mary Wilkins Freeman: _A New +England Nun,_ _A Gala Dress_, in the volume, _A New England Nun and Other +Stories_, _Evelina's Garden_, in the volume, _Silence and Other Stories_. +Her best long novel is _Pembroke_. + +WALT WHITMAN.--While the majority of his poems should be left for mature +years, the following, carefully edited by Triggs in his volume of +_Selections_, need not be deferred:-- + +_Song of Myself_, Triggs, pp. 105-120. (Begin with the line on p. 105, "A +child said, _What is the Grass?_"), _Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking_, +pp. 154-160, _I Hear America Singing_, p. 100, _Reconciliation_ p. 175, _O +Captain! My Captain_, p. 184, _When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed_, +pp. 176-184, _Patrolling Barnegat_, p. 163, _With Husky-Haughty Lips, O +Sea!_ p. 232. + +Selections from his prose, including _Specimen Days_, _Memoranda of the +War_, and his theories of art and poetry, may be found in Triggs, pp. 3-95. + + +QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS + +THE PROSE REALISTS.--To what school did the best writers in American +fiction belong, prior to the last quarter of the nineteenth century? What +was the subject of each? What is the realistic theory advanced by Howells? +In what respects does this differ from the practice of the romantic school? + +Take any chapter of _Silas Lapham_ and of either _The Portrait of a Lady_, +or of _Roderick Hudson_, and show how Howells and James differ from the +romanticists. What difference do you notice in the realistic method and in +the style of Howells and of James? + +What special qualities characterize the work of Mary Wilkins Freeman? What +is the secret of her success in so employing a little realistic incident as +to hold the reader's attention? Compare the two short stories, _The Madonna +of the Future_ (James) and _A New England Nun_ (Wilkins Freeman) and show +how James's interest lies in the subtle psychological problem, while Mrs. +Freeman's depends on the unfolding of simple emotions. It will also be +found interesting to compare the method of that early English realist Jane +Austen, _e.g._ in her novel _Emma_, with the work of the American realists. + +In general, do you think that the romantic or the realistic school has the +truer conception of the mission and art of fiction? Why is it desirable +that each school should hold the other in check? + +WALT WHITMAN.--How did his early life prepare him to be the poet of +democracy? To what voices does he specially listen in his poem, _I Hear +America Singing_? In his _Song of Myself_, point out some passages that +show the modern spirit of altruism. In _Out of the Cradle Endlessly +Rocking_, what lines best show his lyric gift? What individual objects +stand out most strongly and poetically? Could this poem have been written +by one reared in the middle West? Why does he select the lilacs, evening +star, and hermit thrush, as the _motifs_ of the poem, _When Lilacs Last in +the Dooryard Bloom'd?_ In _Patrolling Barnegat_, do you notice any +resemblance to Anglo-Saxon poetry of the sea, _e.g._ to _Beowulf_ or _The +Seafarer?_ In _With Husky-Haughty Lips, O Sea!_ what touches are unlike +those of Anglo-Saxon poets? (See the author's _History of English +Literature_, pp. 21, 25, 33, 35, 37.) Which of Whitman's references to +nature do you consider the most poetic? How does _O Captain! My Captain!_ +differ in form from the other poems indicated for reading? What qualities +in his verse impress you most? + + + + +A GLANCE BACKWARD + + +Lack of originality is a frequent charge against young literatures, but the +best foreign critics have testified to the originality of the Knickerbocker +Legend, of Leatherstocking, of the great Puritan romances, in which the Ten +Commandments are the supreme law, of the work of that southern wizard who +has taught a great part of the world the art of the modern short story and +who has charmed the ear of death with his melodies, of America's unique +humor, so conspicuous in the service of reform and in rendering the New +World philosophy doubly impressive. + +American literature has not only produced original work, but it has also +delivered a worthy message to humanity. Franklin has voiced an unsurpassed +philosophy of the practical. Emerson is a great apostle of the ideal, an +unexcelled preacher of New World self-reliance. His teachings, which have +become almost as widely diffused as the air we breathe, have added a cubit +to the stature of unnumbered pupils. We still respond to the half Celtic, +half Saxon, song of one of these:-- + + "Luck hates the slow and loves the bold, + Soon come the darkness and the cold." + +American poets and prose writers have disclosed the glory of a new +companionship with nature and have shown how we, + + "... pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth." + +After association with them, we also feel like exclaiming:-- + + "Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue! + ... rich apple-blossom'd earth! + Smile, for your lover comes." + +No other literature has so forcibly expressed such an inspiring belief in +individuality, the aim to have each human being realize that this plastic +world expects to find in him an individual hero. Emerson emphasized "the +new importance given to the single person." No philosophy of individuality +could be more explicit than Walt Whitman's:-- + + "The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one + single individual,--namely to You." + +This emphasis on individuality is an added incentive to try "to yield that +particular fruit which each was created to bear." We feel that the universe +is our property and that we shall not stop until we have a clear title to +that part which we desire. As we study this literature, the moral greatness +of the race seems to course afresh through our veins, and our individual +strength becomes the strength of ten. + +No other nation could have sung America's song of democracy:-- + + "Stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse and stuff'd with the stuff + that is fine." + +The East and the West have vied in singing the song of a new social +democracy, in holding up as an ideal a + + "... love that lives + On the errors it forgives," + +in teaching each mother to sing to her child:-- + + "Thou art one with the world--though I love thee the best, + And to save thee from pain, I must save all the rest. + Thou wilt weep; and thy mother must dry + The tears of the world, lest her darling should cry." + +True poets, like the great physicians, minister to life by awakening faith. +The singers of New England have made us feel that the Divine Presence +stands behind the darkest shadow, that the feeble hands groping blindly in +the darkness will touch God's strengthening right hand. Amid the snows of +his Northland, Whittier wrote:-- + + "I know not where his islands lift + Their fronded palms in air; + I only know I cannot drift + Beyond his love and care." + +Lanier calls from the southern marshes, fringed with the live oaks "and +woven shades of the vine":-- + + "I will fly in the greatness of God as the marsh-hen flies + In the freedom that fills all the space 'twixt the marsh and the skies: + By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod + I will heartily lay me a-hold on the greatness of God." + +The impressive moral lesson taught by American literature is a presence not +to be put by. Lowell's utterance is typical of our greatest authors:-- + + "Not failure, but low aim, is crime." + +Hawthorne wrote his great masterpiece to express this central truth:-- + + "To the untrue man, the whole universe is false,--it is impalpable,-- + it shrinks to nothing within his grasp." + +Finally, American literature has striven to impress the truth voiced in +these lines:-- + + "As children of the Infinite Soul + Our Birthright is the boundless whole.... + + "High truths which have not yet been dreamed, + Realities of all that seemed.... + + "No fate can rob the earnest soul + Of his great Birthright in the boundless whole!" + + + + +SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF AUTHORS AND THEIR CHIEF WORKS + +[Footnote: For a complete record of the work of contemporary authors, +consult _Who's Who in America_.] + + +EASTERN AUTHORS + +ABBOTT, JACOB (1803-1879), b. Hallowell, Maine. One of America's most +voluminous writers on all classes of popular subjects. He wrote one hundred +and eighty volumes and aided in the preparation of thirty-one more. +_Illustrated Histories_, _The Rollo Books_. + +ADAMS, HENRY (1838- ), b. Boston, Mass. Historian. _History of the +United States_ from 1801 to 1817, that is, under Jefferson's and Madison's +administrations. 9 vols. Excellent for this important period. + +ALCOTT, LOUISA MAY (1832-1888), b. Germantown, Pa. Daughter of Amos Bronson +Alcott. Writer of wholesome, humorous, and interesting stories for young +people. _Little Women_, _An Old-Fashioned Girl_, _Eight Cousins_, _Rose in +Bloom_. + +ALLSTON, WASHINGTON (1779-1843), b. Waccamaw, S. C. Moved to New England +and graduated at Harvard in 1800. Artist; early poet of Wordsworthian +school. _The Sylphs of the Seasons, and Other Poems_. + +AMES, FISHER (1758-1808), b. Dedham, Mass. Orator, statesman. Best speech, +_On the British Treaty_ (1796). + +AUSTIN, JANE G. (1831-1894), b. Worcester, Mass. Novelist of early colonial +New England. _Standish of Standish_, _Betty Alden_, _Dr. Le Baron and his +Daughters_, _A Nameless Nobleman_, _David Alden's Daughter, and Other +Stories of Colonial Times_. + +BACHELLER, IRVING (1859- ), b. Pierrepont, N. Y. Novelist. _Eben +Holden_, _D'ri and I_, _Darrel of the Blessed Isles_. + +BANCROFT, GEORGE (1800-1891), b. Worcester, Mass. Historian, diplomatist. +_History of the United States, from the Discovery of the Continent to the +Establishment of the Constitution in 1789_, 6 vols. _History of the +Formation of the Constitution of the United States_, 2 vols. Covers the +period to the inauguration of Washington. The volumes on the Revolutionary +War and the formation of the Constitution are the best part of the work. +While Bancroft's improved methods of research among original authorities +almost entitle him to be called the founder of the new American school of +historical writing, yet the best critics do not to-day consider his work +scientific. They regard it more as an apotheosis of democracy, written by a +man who loved truth intensely, who shirked no drudgery in original +investigations, but who shows the strong bias of the days of Andrew Jackson +in the tendency to believe that what democracy does is almost necessarily +right. + +BANGS, JOHN KENDRICK (1862- ), b. Yonkers, N. Y. Humorist. _House-Boat +on the Styx_, _The Idiot at Home_, _A Rebellious Heroine._ + +BARR, AMELIA E. (1831- ), b. Ulverston, Lancashire, Eng. Anglo-American +novelist. _A Bow of Orange Ribbon_, _Jan Vedder's Wife_, _A Daughter of +Fife_, and _Between Two Loves_. + +BATES, ARLO (1850- ), b. East Machias, Me. Educator, author. _Under the +Beech Tree_ (poems), _Talks on the Study of Literature_. + +BEDOTT, WIDOW. See WHITCHER, FRANCES. + +BEECHER, HENRY WARD (1813-1887), b. Litchfield, Conn. Congregational +clergyman, widely popular as a preacher and lecturer. Delivered noted +anti-slavery lectures in England. Some of his published works are _Eyes and +Ears_, _Life Thoughts_, _Star Papers_, _Yale Lectures on Preaching_. + +"BILLINGS, JOSH." See SHAW, HENRY WHEELER. + +BOKER, GEO. H. (1823-1890), b. Philadelphia, Pa. Dramatist, poet, diplomat. +_Francesca da Rimini_, _Dirge for a Soldier_. + +"BREITMANN, HANS." See LELAND, CHARLES GODFREY. + +BROOKS, PHILLIPS (1835-1893), b. Boston, Mass. Bishop of the Episcopal +Diocese of Massachusetts. One of the foremost preachers of his day. Wrote +many works on religious subjects, also _Essays and Addresses_, _Letters of +Travel._ + +BROWN, ALICE (1857- ), b. Hampton Falls, N. H. Novelist, _The Story of +Thyrza, John Winterburn's Family, Country Neighbors, Tiverton Tales, The +Mannerings._ + +BROWNE, CHARLES F. ("Artemus Ward") (1834-1867), b. Waterford, Maine. +Newspaper writer and lecturer. Famous humorist of the middle of the +nineteenth century. _Artemus Ward: His Book_, _Artemus Ward: His Travels_, +_Artemus Ward in London._ + +BROWNSON, ORESTES A. (1803-1876), b. Stockbridge, Vt. Clergyman, +journalist, Christian socialist. Brownson's _Quarterly Review_ (1844-1875), +_New Views of Christianity, Society, and the Church._ + +BUNNER, HENRY CUYLER (1855-1896), b. Oswego, N. Y. Editor of _Puck_ for +many years. A clever and successful short-story writer. _Short Sixes_, +_Love in Old Cloathes_, _Zadoc Pine and Other Stories._ + +BURROUGHS, JOHN (1837- ), b. Roxbury, N. Y. An exact observer of life in +the woods and one of the most conservative and entertaining writers on +nature. He tells only what he sees and does not draw on his fancy to endow +animals with man's power to reason. Some of his nature books are: +_Wake-Robin, Signs and Seasons, Pepacton, Riverby, Locusts and Wild Honey, +Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers. Indoor Studies_ and _Whitman, A Study_, +show keen critical powers and genuine literary appreciation. Burroughs +reminds the reader of Thoreau in closeness of observation and honesty of +expression, but Burroughs is less of a philosopher and poet and more of a +scientist. + +CARY, ALICE (1820-1871) and her sister Phoebe Gary (1824-1871), b. Miami +Valley, near Cincinnati, Ohio. Moved to New York, N. Y. Poets. _Poems_ by +Alice and Phoebe Cary. + +CHAMBERS, ROBERT W. (1865- ), b. Brooklyn, N. Y. Author of exciting +romances. _The Red Republic_, _A King and a Few Dukes_, _The Conspirators._ + +CHARMING, WILLIAM ELLERY (1780-1842), b. Newport, R. I. Great Unitarian +preacher and reformer. _Spiritual Freedom_, _Evidences of Christianity and +of Revealed Religion_, _Self-Culture_, _Slavery._ + +CHILD, LYDIA MARIA (1802-1880), b. Medford, Mass. Novelist, editor. +Hobomok, a story of life in colonial Salem; _The Rebels,_ a tale of the +Revolution, introduces James Otis, Governor Hutchinson, and the Boston +Massacre; _Appeal for that Class of Americans called Africans._ + +CHURCHILL, WINSTON (1871- ), b. St. Louis, Mo. Home in Cornish, N. H. +Novelist. _Richard Carvel, The Crisis,_ and _The Crossing_ are interesting +novels of American historical events. _Mr. Crewe's Career._ + +CLARKE, JAMES FREEMAN (1810-1888), b. Hanover, N. H. Noted Unitarian +clergyman. _Orthodoxy: Its Truths and Errors_, _Ten Great Religions_, +_Self-Culture._ + +CONE, HELEN GRAY (1859- ), b. New York, N. Y. Poet. _Oberon and Puck_, +_The Ride to the Lady_, _Verses Grave and Gay._ + +COOKE, ROSE TERRY (1827-1892), b. West Hartford, Conn. Poet and short-story +writer. _The Two Villages_ is her best-known poem, and _The Deacon's Week_ +one of her best stories. + +CRAIGIE, PEARL MARY TERESA ("John Oliver Hobbes") (1867-1906), b. Boston, +Mass. Novelist. _School for Saints_, _The Herb Moon_, _The Flute of Pan_, +_The Tales of John Oliver Hobbes._ + +CRANCH, CHRISTOPHER PEARSE (1813-1892), b. Alexandria, Va. Educated in +Massachusetts. Artist, transcendental poet, and contributor to _The Dial_. +Best poems, _Gnosis, I in Thee._ + +CRANE, STEPHEN (1870-1900), b. Newark, N. J. Novelist. _The Red Badge of +Courage_ is a remarkable romance of the American Civil War. + +CRAWFORD, FRANCIS MARION (1854-1909), b. Bagni di Lucca, Italy. Voluminous +writer of novels and romances. Some are historical, and the scenes of the +best of them are laid in Italy. He wrote his _Zoroaster_ and _Marzio's +Crucifix_ in both English and French, and received a reward of one thousand +francs from the French Academy. _Saracinesca_, _Sant' Ilario_, and _Don +Orsino_, a trio of novels about one Roman family, and _Katherine +Lauderdale_ and its sequel, _The Ralstons_, are among his best works. + +CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM (1824-1892), b. Providence, R. I. Literary and +political essayist, civil service reformer, and critic. Was a resident in +his youth at Brook Farm. Spent four years of his early life in foreign +travel. _Nile Notes of a Howadji_ and _The Howadji in Syria_ are poetic +descriptions of his trip. His masterpiece is _Prue and I_, a prose idyl of +simple, contented, humble life. The largest part of his work was done as +editor. He was editor of _Putnam's Magazine_ at the time of its failure in +1857, and undertook to pay up every creditor, a task which consumed sixteen +years. He wrote the _Easy Chair_ papers in _Harper's Monthly_. A volume of +these essays contains some of his easiest, most urbane, and humorous +writings. They are light and in the vein of Addison's _Spectator_. In +_Orations and Addresses_ are to be found some of his strongest and most +polished speeches on moral, historical, and political subjects. + +DANA, RICHARD HENRY, SR. (1787-1879), b. Cambridge, Mass. Author, diplomat, +judge. Co-editor _North American Review_ when it published Bryant's +_Thanatopsis_. Champion of the romantic school of Wordsworth and Coleridge. +Dana's best known poem, _The Buccaneer_, shows the influence of this +school. + +DANA, RICHARD HENRY, JR. (1815-1882), b. Cambridge, Mass. Lawyer, +statesman, author. His _Two Years before the Mast_ keeps, its place among +the best books written for boys during the nineteenth century. The British +admiralty officially adopted this book for circulation in the navy. + +DAVIS, RICHARD HARDING (1864-1916), b. Philadelphia, Pa. Journalist, +playwright, novelist. Best works are short stones of New York life, such as +_Van Bibber and Others_, _Gallegher and Other Stories_. _The Bar Sinister_, +which holds boys spellbound, is an excellent story of a dog. + +DELAND, MARGARETTA WADE (1857- ), b. Allegheny, Pa. Voluminous writer of +stories. _Old Chester Tales_, _Dr. Lavendar's People_, _John Ward_, +_Preacher._ + +DICKINSON, EMILY (1830-1886), b. Amherst, Mass. Author of unique short +lyrics. _Poems_. + +DICKINSON, JOHN (1732-1808), b. Crosia, Md. Statesman. _The Farmer's +Letters to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies_. + +DODGE, MARY MAPES (1838-1905), b. New York, N. Y. Editor of _Saint Nicholas +Magazine_. Among her juvenile books may be mentioned _Hans Brinker_, +_Donald and Dorothy_, _The Land of Pluck_. + +DORR, JULIA C. R. (1825- ), b. Charleston, S. C. Moved to Vermont. Poet, +novelist. _Poems_, _In Kings' Houses_, _Farmingdale_. + +DWIGHT, JOHN S. (1813-1893), b. Boston, Mass. Musician, transcendentalist. +Best poem, _Rest_, appeared in first number of _The Dial_. + +EGAN, MAURICE FRANCIS (1852- ), b. Philadelphia, Pa. Diplomat, poet, +essayist, novelist. _Preludes_, _Songs and Sonnets_, _Lectures on English +Literature_, _The Ghost of Hamlet_. + +EVERETT, EDWARD (1794-1865), b. Dorchester, Mass. Orator, statesman. +_Orations and Speeches_. + +FIELDS, JAMES T. (1817-1881), b. Portsmouth, N. H. Editor _Atlantic +Monthly_ and publisher. _Yesterdays with Authors_. + +FISKE, JOHN (1842-1901), b. Hartford, Conn. Scientist and historian. His +histories are both philosophical and interesting. _The Critical Period of +American History_, _The Beginnings of New England_, _The American +Revolution_, _The Discovery of America_. + +FORD, PAUL LEICESTER (1865-1902), b. Brooklyn, N. Y. Novelist, historian. +_The Honorable Peter Stirling_, _Janice Meredith_. + +FOSTER, STEPHEN COLLINS (1826-1864), b. Pittsburgh, Pa. Writer of some of +the most widely known songs of the nineteenth century. _Old Folks at Home_ +("Down on the Suwanee River"), _My Old Kentucky Home_, _Nellie was a Lady_. + +FREDERIC, HAROLD (1856-1898), b. Utica, N.Y. Novelist, journalist. _The +Damnation of Theron Ware_, _Gloria Mundi_. + +GILDER, RICHARD WATSON (1844-1909), b. Bordentown, N. J. Editor and poet. +Editor of _Century Magazine_ until his death. Poems: _The New Day_, _Five +Books of Song_, _For the Country_. + +GOODWIN, MAUD WILDER (1856- ), b. Ballston Spa, N. Y. Writer of +romances, chiefly historical. _The Colonial Cavalier_, _or Southern Life +before the Revolution_, _Four Roads to Paradise_. + +GRANT, ROBERT (1852- ), b. Boston, Mass. Novelist, essayist, jurist. +_Confessions of a Frivolous Girl_, _An Average Man_, _The Art of Living_. + +GREELEY, HORACE (1811-1872), b. Amherst, N. H. Founder and editor of The +Tribune, New York, N. Y. Exerted strong influence on the thought of his +time. _Recollections of a Busy Life_. + +GREEN, ANNA KATHARINE (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs) (1846- ), b. Brooklyn, N. Y. +Voluminous writer of interesting detective stories, of which _The +Leavenworth Case_ is the most noted. + +GUINEY, LOUISE IMOGEN (1861- ), b. Boston, Mass. Poet, essayist. _The +White Sail and Other Poems_, _A Roadside Harp_, _The Martyr's Idyl and +Shorter Poems_. + +HALE, EDWARD EVERETT (1822-1909), b. Boston, Mass. Unitarian divine, +author, philanthropist. Best known story, _The Man without a Country_. +Wrote many miscellaneous essays. + +HARDY, ARTHUR S. (1847- ), b. Andover, Mass. Educator, novelist, +diplomat. _But Yet a Woman_, _Wind of Destiny_, _Passe Rose_. + +HARLAND, HENRY ("Sidney Luska") (1861-1905), b. Petrograd, Russia. +Novelist. _The Cardinal's Snuff-Box_, _My Friend Prospero_, _The Lady +Paramount_. + +HAWTHORNE, JULIAN (1846- ), b. Boston, Mass., son of Nathaniel +Hawthorne. Novelist, essayist. Deserves to be called his father's Boswell +for the excellent and sympathetic two volumes, entitled _Nathaniel +Hawthorne and his Wife_. + +HEDGE, FREDERICK H. (1805-1890), b. Cambridge, Mass. Clergyman, +transcendentalist. Best poem, _Questionings_, appeared in _The Dial_. + +HIGGINSON, THOMAS WENTWORTH (1823- ), b. Cambridge, Mass. Unitarian +minister, prominent anti-slavery agitator, author. _Life of Margaret Fuller +Ossoli_, _Cheerful Yesterdays_, _Contemporaries_, _Old Cambridge_. + +"HOBBES, JOHN OLIVER," See CRAIGIE, PEARL MARY TERESA. + +HOLLAND, J. G. (1819-1881), b. Belchertown, Mass. Editor of the first +series of _Scribner's Monthly_, wrote several poems, of which +_Bitter-Sweet_ was the most popular, and several novels, the best of which +is _Arthur Bonnicastle_. + +HOLLEY, MARIETTA (1850- ), b. Ellisburg, N. Y. Humorist, Author of +_Josiah Allen's Wife_, _My Opinions and Betsey Bobbet's_, _Sweet Cicely_, +_Samantha at Saratoga_, and _Poems_. + +HOWARD, BLANCHE WILLIS (1847-1898), b. Bangor, Maine. Novelist. _Guenn_ is +an unusually strong novel. _One Summer_, _Aunt Serena_, and _The Open Door_ +are wholesome, pleasing stories. + +HOWE, JULIA WARD (1819-1910), b. New York, N. Y. Philanthropist, author of +the famous _Battle Hymn of the Republic_. + +HUTCHINSON, THOMAS (1711-1780), b. Boston, Mass. America's greatest +historical writer before the nineteenth century. His great work is _The +History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay_. + +IRELAND, JOHN (1838- ), b. Ireland. Roman Catholic archbishop. _The +Church and Modern Society_. + +JANVIER, THOMAS ALLIBONE (1849-1913), b. Philadelphia, Pa. Journalist and +author. _Color Studies_, _Stories of Old New Spain_, _An Embassy to +Provence_, _The Passing of Thomas_. + +JEWETT, SARAH ORNE (1849-1909), b. South Berwick, Maine. Artistic novelist +of old New England villages. _Deephaven_, _The Country of the Pointed +Firs_, _The Tory Lover_. She shows a more genial side of New England life +than Miss Wilkins gives. + +KING, CHARLES (1844- ), b. Albany, N. Y. Soldier, novelist. _A War-Time +Wooing_, _The Colonel's Daughter_, _The Deserter_, _The General's Double_. + +KIRK, ELLEN OLNEY (1842- ), b. Southington, Conn. Novelist. _Through +Winding Ways_, _A Midsummer Madness_, _The Story of Margaret Kent_, +_Marcia_. + +LARCOM, LUCY (1826-1893), b. Beverly Farms, Mass. A factory hand in Lowell, +encouraged by Whittier to write. _Poems; A New England Girlhood, Outlined +from Memory_. + +LATHROP, GEORGE P. (1851-1898), b. Oahu, Hawaii. Son-in-law of Nathaniel +Hawthorne, editor, author. _A Study of Hawthorne_, _Spanish Vistas_, +_Newport_. + +LAZARUS, EMMA (1849-1887), b. New York, N. Y. Poet, translator, essayist. +_Admetus_, _Songs of a Semite_, _Poems_. + +LELAND, CHARLES GODFREY ("Hans Breitmann") (1824-1903), b. Philadelphia, +Pa. Humorist. _Hans Breitmann's Ballads_, written in what is known as +Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. + +LOCKE, DAVID ROSS ("Petroleum V. Nasby") (1833-1888), b. Vestal, N. Y. +Political satirist. _Nasby Letters_. + +LODGE, HENRY CABOT (1850- ), b. Boston, Mass. Statesman, historian, +essayist. _A Short History of the English Colonies in America, Alexander +Hamilton, Daniel Webster, Studies in History, Hero Tales from American +History_ (with Theodore Roosevelt). + +"LUSKA, SIDNEY." See HARLAND, HENRY. + +MABIE, HAMILTON W. (1846-1916), b. Cold Spring, N. Y. Editor, essayist. _My +Study Fire, William Shakespeare: Poet, Dramatist, and Man, Essays on Books +and Culture_. + +MACKAYE, PERCY WALLACE (1875- ), b. New York, N. Y. Dramatist. _Jeanne +d'Arc_, _Sappho and Phaon_, _The Canterbury Pilgrims_, _Ticonderoga and +Other Poems_. + +MCMASTER, JOHN BACH (1852- ), b. Brooklyn, N. Y. Historian and professor +of American history. _A History of the People of the United States from the +Revolution to the Civil War_. 7 vols. An entertaining history, sometimes +suggestive of Macaulay. + +MARKS, MRS. LIONEL. See PEABODY, JOSEPHINE PRESTON. + +"MARVEL, IK." See MITCHELL, DONALD G. + +MELVILLE, HERMAN (1819-1891), b. New York, N. Y. Novelist. _Typee Omoo_, +_Mardi_, _White Jacket or the World in a Man of War_, _Moby Dick or the +White Whale_ contain interesting accounts of his wide travels. + +MITCHELL, DONALD GRANT ("Ik Marvel") (1822-1908), b. Norwich, Conn. +Essayist. _Reveries of a Bachelor_, _Dream Life_. + +MITCHELL, S. WEIR (1829- ), b. Philadelphia, Pa. Physician, novelist, +and poet. _Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker_; _The Adventures of Francois_; _Dr. +North and his Friends_; and _Constance Trescot_. + +MOORE, CLEMENT CLARKE (1779-1863), b. New York, N. Y. Oriental scholar and +poet. Known to children to-day for his poem, _'Twas the Night before +Christmas_. + +MOULTON, ELLEN LOUISE CHANDLER (1835-1908), b. Pomfret, Conn. Story writer, +poet, correspondent. _Some Women's Hearts_, _Swallow Flights and Other +Poems_, _In Childhood's Country_. + +"NASBY, PETROLEUM V." See LOCKE, DAVID ROSS. + +ODELL, JONATHAN (1737-1818), b. Newark, N.J. Clergyman, greatest +anti-Revolution poetic satirist. Shows influence of Dryden and Pope. _The +American Congress_, _The American Times_. + +O'REILLY, JOHN BOYLE (1844-1890), b. Ireland. Journalist, poet. _Songs, +Legends and Ballads_; _Moondyne_; _Songs from the Southern Seas_. + +"PARTINGTON, MRS." See SHILLABER, BENJAMIN P. + +PAULDING, JAMES KIRKE (1779-1860), b. Pleasant Valley, N.Y. Satirical +humorist and descriptive writer. _The Dutchman's Fireside._ Assisted Irving +in the _Salmagundi_ papers. + +PAYNE, JOHN HOWARD (1792-1852), b. New York, N.Y. Dramatist. Author of the +song, _Home, Sweet Home_. + +PEABODY, JOSEPHINE PRESTON (Mrs. Lionel Marks) (1874- ), b. New York, +N.Y. Poet, dramatist. _The Singing Leaves_, _Fortune and Men's Eyes_, +_Marlowe_, _The Piper_ (Stratford-on-Avon prize drama). Author of excellent +poems for children. + +PERRY, BLISS (1860- ), b. Williamstown, Mass. Educator, editor, author. +_Walt Whitman_, _A Study of Prose Fiction_, _John Greenleaf Whittier_. + +READ, THOMAS BUCHANAN (1822-1872), b. Chester Co., Pa. Poet and painter. +_The New Pastoral_, _Sheridan's Ride_. + +REPPLIER, AGNES (1857- ), b. Philadelphia, Pa. Witty essayist. _Books +and Men_, _Points of View_, _Essays in Idleness_. + +RIGGS, MRS. See WIGGIN, KATE DOUGLAS. + +ROE, EDWARD PAYSON (1838-1888), b. New Windsor, N.Y. Clergyman, novelist. +_Barriers Burned Away_, _Opening a Chestnut Burr_, _Nature's Serial Story_. + +ROHLFS, MRS. CHARLES. See GREEN, ANNA KATHERINE. + +ROOSEVELT, THEODORE (1858-1919), b. New York, N. Y. Ex-President of the +United States. Lived for awhile on a western ranch and amassed material for +some of his most popular works. _Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail_, _The +Winning of the West_, _The Rough Riders_. He has written also on civil, +economic, and ethical subjects with great vigor and incisive clearness. His +_African Game Trails_ is the record of his trip to Africa. + +SANGSTER, MARGARET (1838- ), b. New Rochelle, N. Y. Editor, writer of +stories and poems. _Poems of the Household_, _Home Fairies and Heart +Flowers_. + +SAXE, JOHN GODFREY (1816-1887), b. Highgate, Vt. Journalist, writer of +humorous verse. _Humorous and Satirical Poems_, _The Money King and Other +Poems_. + +SCHOULER, JAMES (1839- ), b. Arlington, Mass. Lawyer, historian. _A +History of the United States under the Constitution_. 6 vols. + +SCOLLARD, CLINTON (1860- ), b. Clinton, N. Y. Educator, poet. _With Reed +and Lyre_, _The Hills of Song_, _Voices and Visions_. + +SEDGWICK, CATHERINE M. (1789-1867), b. Stockbridge, Mass. Novelist. Her +best stories are those of simple New England country life. _Redwood_, +_Clarence_, _A New England Tale_. + +SHAW, HENRY WHEELER (Josh Billings) (1818-1885), b. Lanesborough, Mass. +Humorist. _Farmers' Allminax_, _Every Boddy's Friend_, _Josh Billings' +Spice Box_. + +SHEA, JOHN DAWSON GILMARY (1824-1892), b. New York, N. Y. Editor, +historian. _Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley_, _History +of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States_, +_History of the Catholic Church in the United States_, and many other +historical and religious studies. + +SHERMAN, FRANK DEMPSTER (1860-1916), b. Peekskill, N.Y. Professor of +architecture, poet. _Madrigals and Catches_, _Lyrics for a Lute_, _Lyrics +of Joy_. + +SHILLABER, BENJAMIN P. ("Mrs. Partington") (1814-1890), b. Portsmouth, N. +H. Humorist of Mrs. Malaprop's style, mistaking words of similar sounds but +dissimilar sense. _Life and Sayings of Mrs. Partington_, _Partingtonian +Patchwork_, _Ike and his Friend_. + +SMITH, SAMUEL F. (1808-1895), b. Boston, Mass. Clergyman. Author of our +national poem, _America_. Of him, Holmes wrote, "Fate tried to conceal him +by naming him Smith." + +SPARKS, JARED (1789-1866), b. Willington, Conn. Unitarian minister and +historian. _Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution_, _The +Writings of George Washington_, _The Works of Benjamin Franklin_. + +SPOFFORD, HARRIET PRESCOTT (1835- ), b. Calais, Maine. Novelist, poet. +_The Amber Gods and Other Stories_, _New England Legends_, _Poems_. + +STEDMAN, EDMUND CLARENCE (1833-1908), b. Hartford, Conn. Poet, critic. One +of America's fairest critics. Did valuable work in compiling and +criticizing modern English and American literature. _A Victorian +Anthology_, _An American Anthology_, _Victorian Poets_, _Poets of America_. +Co-editor of _Library of American Literature_ in eleven large octavo +volumes. + +STOCKTON, FRANK R. (1834-1902), b. Philadelphia, Pa. Novelist and humorist. +His novels have a farcical humor, due to ridiculous situations and +absurdities, treated in a mock-serious vein. _The Lady or the Tiger?_ _The +Late Mrs. Null_, _The Casting away of Mrs. Leeks and Mrs. Aleshine_, _The +Hundredth Man_. + +STODDARD, CHARLES WARREN (1843-1909), b. Rochester, N.Y. Author, educator, +traveler. _South Sea Idyls_, _Lepers of Molokai_, _Poems_. + +STODDARD, RICHARD HENRY (1825-1903), b. Hingham, Mass. Journalist, editor, +poet. _Songs of Summer_, _Abraham Lincoln: a Horatian Ode_, _The Lion's +Cub_. + +STORY, WILLIAM WETMORE (1819-1895), b. Salem, Mass. Sculptor, author. _Roba +di Roma_, or _Walks and Talks about Rome_, _Poems_, _Conversations in a +Studio_, _Excursions in Art and Letters_. + +SUMNER, CHAS. (1811-1874), b. Boston, Mass. Noted anti-slavery statesman. +His published speeches and orations fill fifteen volumes. + +TAYLOR, BAYARD (1825-1878), b. Kennett Square, Chester Co., Pa. Extensive +traveler, wrote twelve different volumes of travels, the first being _Views +Afoot, or Europe Seen with Knapsack and Staff_ (1846). He wrote also much +poetry. Among the best of his shorter poems are _The Bedouin Song_, +_Nubia_, and _The Song of the Camp. Lars: a Pastoral of Norway_ is his best +long poem. The work by which he will probably remain longest known in +literature is his excellent translation of Goethe's _Faust_. + +THAXTER, CELIA LAIGHTON (1836-1894), b. Portsmouth, N.H. Spent most of life +upon Isles of Shoals. Artist, author. _Poems_ (Appledore Edition, 1896). +Best single poem, _The Sandpiper_. + +THOMAS, EDITH MATILDA (1854- ), b. Chatham, Ohio. Poet. _A New Year's +Masque, A Winter Swallow, and Other Verse, Fair Shadow Land, Lyrics and +Sonnets_. + +TICKNOR, GEORGE (1791-1871), b. Boston, Mass. _A History of Spanish +Literature_. + +TORREY, BRADFORD (1843-1912), b. Weymouth, Mass. Nature writer. _Birds in +the Bush_, _The Footpath Way_, _Footing it in Franconia_. Editor of +Thoreau's _Journal_. + +TOURGEE, ALBION W. (1838-1905), b. Williamsfield, Ohio. Educated in New +York. Soldier, judge, novelist of the reconstruction period. _A Fool's +Errand_, _Bricks without Straw_. + +TROWBRIDGE, JOHN TOWNSEND (1827-1916), b. Ogden, N.Y. Editor, novelist, +poet, juvenile writer. _My Own Story_ (biography) Among his stories for +young people are _The Drummer Boy_, _The Prize Cup_, _The Tide-Mill +Stories._ Best known poem, _The Vagabonds_. + +VAN DYKE, HENRY (1852- ), b. Germantown, Pa. Clergyman, professor, +essayist, poet. _The Builders and Other Poems_, _Fisherman's Luck and Some +Other Uncertain Things_, _The Story of the Other Wise Man_. An interesting, +optimistic philosopher, and lover of nature, whose works deserve the widest +reading. + +WARD, ARTEMUS. See BROWNE, CHARLES F. + +WARD, ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS (1844-1911), b. Boston, Mass. Novelist. _The +Gates Ajar_, _The Story of Avis_, _A Singular Life_. + +WARNER, CHARLES DUDLEY (1829-1900), b. Plainfield, Mass. Traveler, +journalist, essayist. Wrote the _Editor's Drawer_ and _Editor's Study of +Harper's Magazine. My Summer in a Garden_ and _Backlog Studies_ are +delightful for their subtle humor and style. He wrote many entertaining +books of travel, such as _Saunerings_, _In the Levant_, _My Winter on the +Nile_, _Baddeck and that Sort of Thing._ He wrote _The Gilded Age_ in +collaboration with Mark Twain. + +WEBSTER, NOAH (1758-1843), b. Hartford, Conn. Philologist. Published in +1783 his famous _Speller_, which superseded _The New England Primer_, and +which almost deserves to be called "literature by reason of its admirable +fables." More than sixty million copies of this _Speller_ have been sold. + +WESTCOTT, EDWARD NOYES (1847-1898), b. Syracuse, N. Y. Banker, author of +one remarkable novel which was published posthumously, _David Harum_, a +story of central New York. + +WHARTON, EDITH (1862- ), b. New York, N. Y. Essayist, novelist. Her +fiction deals largely with modern society problems. She treats subtle +psychological questions with especial skill in the short story. _The Valley +of Decision_, _Crucial Instances_, _The House of Mirth_, _The Fruit of the +Tree_, _Italian Backgrounds._ + +WHIPPLE, EDWIN PERCY (1819-1886), b. Gloucester, Mass. Critic, essayist. +_Essays and Reviews_, _American Literature and Other Papers_, +_Recollections of Eminent Men._ + +WHITCHER, FRANCES ("Widow Bedott") (1811-1852), b. Whitestown, N. Y. +Humorist. _The Widow Bedott Papers._ + +WHITNEY, ADELINE BUTTON TRAIN (1824-1906), b. Boston, Mass. Poet, novelist, +and writer of juvenile stories. _Faith Gartney's Girlhood, We Girls, Boys +at Chequasset, Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life, Poems._ + +WIGGIN, KATE DOUGLAS (Mrs. Riggs) (1857- ), b. Philadelphia, Pa. +Novelist and writer on kindergarten subjects. Author of _The Bird's +Christmas Carol, Timothy's Quest, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Penelope's +Progress, A Cathedral Courtship._ Pathos, humor, and sympathy for the poor, +the weak, and the helpless are characteristic qualities of her work. There +are few better children's stories than the first two mentioned. + +WILLIAMS, ROGER (1604?-1683), b. probably in London. Founder of Rhode +Island. The first great preacher of "soul liberty" in America. _The Bloody +Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed_, _The Bloody +Tenent yet More Bloody_. + +WILLIS, N.P. (1806-1867), b. Portland, Maine. Traveler, prose writer, poet, +editor. While his work has proved ephemeral, he taught many writers of his +day the necessity of artistic finish in their prose. His prose _Letters +from under a Bridge_, and his poems, _Parrhasius_ and _Unseen Spirits_, may +be mentioned. + +WINSOR, JUSTIN (1831-1897), b. Boston, Mass. Librarian at Harvard, +historian, editor of _Narrative and Critical History of America_. Author of +_The Mississippi Basin: the Struggle in America between England and France, +1697-1763_; _The Westward Movement, 1763-1798_; _Reader's Handbook of the +American Revolution_, _Christopher Columbus_. + +WINTER, WILLIAM (1836- ), b. Gloucester, Mass. Dramatic editor of the +New York _Tribune_ from 1865 to 1909. Edited numbers of plays. Author of +_Shakespeare's England_, _Gray Days and Gold_, _Life and Art of Edwin +Booth_, _Wanderers_ (poems). + +WINTHROP, THEODORE (1828-1861), b. New Haven, Conn. Novelist. His best +story, _John Brent_, contains some of his western experiences. + +WISTER, OWEN (1860- ), b. Philadelphia, Pa. Lawyer and novelist. Gives +realistic pictures of the middle West. _New Swiss Family Robinson, The +Dragon of Wantley, Red Men and White, Lin McLean, Lady Baltimore_, and _The +Virginian_. + +WOODBERRY, GEO. E. (1855- ), b. Beverly, Mass. Educator, author of +excellent biographies of Poe, Hawthorne, and Emerson. _America in +Literature_, _Poems_. + +WOOLSON, CONSTANCE FENIMORE (1848-1894), b. Claremont, N. H. Novelist. Best +novel, _Horace Chase_. Some of her other novels are _Castle Nowhere, Anne, +East Angels, Jupiter Lights, The Old Stone House_. + + +SOUTHERN AUTHORS + +ALSOP, GEORGE (1638-?), b. England. Published in 1666 an entertaining +volume, _A Character of the Province of Maryland_. + +AUDUBON, JOHN J. (1780-1851), b. near New Orleans, La. Noted ornithologist +and painter of birds. Published _Birds of America_ at one thousand dollars +a copy and _Ornithological Biography_ in 5 vols. + +AZARIAS, BROTHER. See MULLANY, P. F. + +BURNETT, FRANCES HODGSON (1849- ), b. Manchester, Eng. Anglo-American +novelist. _Little Lord Fauntleroy_, _That Lass o' Lowrie's_, _Haworth's_, +_A Fair Barbarian_, _A Lady of Quality_. + +CALHOUN, JOHN C. (1782-1850), b. Abbeville District, S.C. Statesman, +orator. Best work, _Disquisition on Government and Discourse on the +Constitution and Government of the United States_. Best speech, +_Nullification and the Force Bill_ (1833). + +CLAY, HENRY (1777-1852), b. near Richmond, Va. Orator, statesman. Best +speeches: _On the War of 1812_ (1813), _The Seminole War_ (1819), _The +American System_ (1832). + +COOKE, JOHN ESTEN (1830-1886), b. Winchester, Va. Colonial and military +story writer. Best romance, _The Virginia Comedians_. + +DIXON, THOMAS (1864- ), b. Shelby, N. C. Clergyman, novelist. _The +Leopard's Spots_, _The One Woman_, _The Clansman_. + +EVANS, AUGUSTA. See WILSON, AUGUSTA EVANS. + +FOX, JOHN JR. (1863- ), b. in Bourbon Co., Kentucky. Novelist of life in +the Kentucky mountains. _The Kentuckians_, _A Mountain Europa_, _A +Cumberland Vendetta_, _The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come_, _The Trail of +the Lonesome Pine_. + +GAYARRE, CHARLES E. A. (1805-1895), b. New Orleans, La. Jurist, historian. +_History of Louisiana_. + +GIBBONS, JAMES (1834- ), b. Baltimore, Md. Roman Catholic cardinal. _The +Faith of Our Fathers_, _The Ambassador of Christ_. + +GLASGOW, ELLEN ANDERSON GHOLSON (1874- ), b. Richmond, Va. Novelist. +_The Descendant_, _The Voice of the People_, _The Deliverance_. + +GRADY, HENRY W. (1851-1889), b. Athens, Ga. Editor, orator. Best oration, +_The New South_. + +HEARN, LAFCADIO (1850-1904), b. in Ionian Islands of Irish and Greek +parentage. Journalist, author. Lived many years in New Orleans, went thence +to New York, and still later to Japan. Author of _Stray Leaves from Strange +Literature_, _Two Years in the French West Indies_, _Glimpses of Unfamiliar +Japan_, _Out of the East_. Shows marked descriptive ability. + +HEGAN, ALICE. See RICE, ALICE HEGAN. + +"HENRY, O." See PORTER, SIDNEY. + +JOHNSTON, MARY (1870- ), b. Buchanan, Va. Writer of vigorous, +well-handled romances of Virginia history. _Prisoners of Hope_, _To Have +and to Hold_, _Audrey_, _Lewis Rand_. + +JOHNSTON, RICHARD MALCOLM (1822-1898), b. Hancock Co., Ga. Lawyer, +professor of English. Writer of Georgia stories. _Dukesborough Tales_. + +KENNEDY, J. P. (1795-1870), b. Baltimore, Md. Wrote three works of fiction, +_Swallow Barn_, a picture of the manners and customs of Virginia at the end +of the eighteenth century, _Horse-Shoe Robinson, a Tale of the Tory +Ascendency_, _Rob of the Bowl_, a story of colonial Maryland. + +KEY, FRANCIS SCOTT (1780-1843), b. Frederick Co., Md. _The Star-Spangled +Banner_. + +KING, GRACE E. (1852- ), b. New Orleans, La. Novels of Creole life and +historical works on De Soto and New Orleans: _Monsieur Motte_, _Tales of +Time and Place_, _Balcony Stones_. + +LONGSTREET, AUGUSTUS B. (1790-1870), b. Augusta, Ga. Judge, and (later) a +Methodist minister. His _Georgia Scenes_ is one of the liveliest pictures +of provincial Georgia life. + +MARSHALL, JOHN (1755-1835), b. Germantown, Va. Great Chief Justice of U. S. +_The Life of George Washington_. + +MARTIN, GEORGE MADDEN (1866- ), b. Louisville, Ky. Novelist. _Emmy +Lou--Her Book and Heart_. + +MATTHEWS, JAMES BRANDER (1852- ), b. New Orleans, La. Lecturer on +literature at Columbia College. Critic and story writer. _French Dramatists +of the Nineteenth Century_, _Margery's Lovers, A Secret of the Sea and +Other Stories, The Story of a Story, The Historical Novel, Study of the +Drama, The Short Story._ + +MULLANY, P. F. (Brother Azarias) (1847-1893), b. Ireland. Educator, +essayist. _The Development of Old English Thought_, _Phases of Thought and +Criticism._ + +O'HARA, THEODORE (1820-1867), b. Danville, Ky. Poet. _The Bivouac of the +Dead._ + +PECK, SAMUEL MINTURN (1854- ), b. Tuscaloosa, Ala. Poet and novelist. +_Caps and Bells_, _Rhymes and Roses._ + +PIKE, ALBERT (1809-1891), b. Boston, Mass. Moved to Arkansas. Teacher, +editor, lawyer. Wrote the popular song, _Dixie_, and _To the Mocking Bird._ + +PINKNEY, EDWARD COATE (1802-1828), b. London, Eng. Poet. Best lyrics, _A +Serenade_, _A Health_, _Songs_, _The Indian's Bride._ + +PORTER, SYDNEY ("O. Henry") (1867-1910), b. Greensboro, N. C. Edited +newspapers in Texas. Successful short-story writer. _The Four Million, The +Heart of the West, The Gentle Grafter, Roads of Destiny, Options, The Voice +of the City._ + +PRENTICE, GEO. D. (1802-1870), b. Preston, Conn. Editor Louisville +_Journal_, poet. _Poems._ Best poem, _The Closing Year._ + +PRESTON, MARGARET JUNKIN (1825-1897), b. Philadelphia, Pa. Moved to +Lexington, Va. Representative woman poet of the Confederacy. _Cartoons, For +Love's Sake, Colonial Ballads, Sonnets, and Other Verse._ + +RANDALL, JAMES RYDER (1839-1908), b. Baltimore, Md. Teacher, poet. +_Maryland, My Maryland_ (song). + +REID, CHRISTIAN. See TIERNAN, FRANCES F. + +RICE (Alice Hegan) (1870- ), b. Shelbyville, Ky. A widely popular story +writer of humble folk, a humorist of rare power, a cheery, breezy +philosopher, and a sympathetic interpreter of the simple heart of the brave +poor. _Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, Lovey Mary, Captain June, Sandy, +Mr. Opp._ + +RICE, CALE YOUNG (1872- ), b. Dixon, Ky. Author of exquisite lyrics. One +of the greatest of the younger poetic dramatists whose plays have acting +qualities. Poems: _From Dusk to Dusk, _With Omar_, _Song-Surf_, _Nirvana +Days_. Plays: _Charles di Tocca_, _David_, _Yolanda of Cyprus_, _A Night in +Avignon_. + +RIVES, AMELIE (PRINCESS TROUBETSKOY) (1863- ), b. Richmond, Va. +Novelist. _The Quick or the Dead_, _Virginia of Virginia_. + +RUSSELL, IRWIN (1853-1879), b. Port Gibson, Miss. Caricaturist, musician, +poet. He was among the first to see the possibilities of the negro dialect +in verse. _Poems_. + +SEAWELL, MOLLY ELLIOT (1860-1916), b. Gloucester Co., Va. Novelist. _Little +Jarvis_ (awarded a $500 prize), _Sprightly Romance of Marsac_ (awarded a +$3000 prize), _Throckmorton_. + +SMITH, F. HOPKINSON (1838-1915), b. Baltimore, Md. Artist, author, +engineer. _Colonel Carter of Cartersville_ is his most enduring work. The +Colonel is a remarkable portrait. _A Gentleman Vagabond and Some Others_, +_Caleb West: Master Diver_, _A Day at Laguerre's and Other Days_, _The +Fortunes of Oliver Horn_. + +STITH, WILLIAM (1689-1755), b. Virginia. Scholarly historian who was so +painstaking and detailed in his accounts that he was almost neglected until +the present time. _History of Virginia from the First Discovery to the +Dissolution of the London Company_. + +STUART, RUTH MCENERY (1856- ), b. in parish of Avoyelles, La. Specially +liked for her humorous negro and plantation stories. _A Golden Wedding and +Other Tales_, _Sonny_, _Holly and Pizen_. + +THOMPSON, WILLIAM TAPPAN (1812-1882), b. Ravenna, Ohio. Georgia journalist +and humorist. _Major Jones's Courtship_. + +TIERNAN, FRANCES F. ("Christian Reid") (1846- ), b. Salisbury, N. C. +Novelist. _Child of Mary_, _Heart of Steel_. + +TROUBETSKOY, PRINCESS. See RIVES, AMELIE. + +WEEMS, MASON LOCKE (1760-1825), b. Dumfries, Va. Clergyman, biographer. +_Life of Washington_. + +WILSON, AUGUSTA EVANS (1835-1909), b. Columbus, Ga. Prolific novelist. Best +novel, _Saint Elmo_. + +WILSON, WOODROW (1856- ), b. Staunton, Va. Educator, historian, +statesman. _A History of the American People_. + +WIRT, WILLIAM (1772-1834), b. Bladensburg, Md. Lawyer. _Life and Character +of Patrick Henry_, _Letters of the British Spy_. + + +WESTERN AUTHORS + +ATHERTON, GERTRUDE FRANKLIN (1859- ), b. San Francisco, Calif. Novelist. +_The Doomswoman_, _The Aristocrats_, _The Conqueror._ + +BALDWIN, JAMES (1841- ), b. Westfield, Ind. Writer of excellent stories +for children. _The Story of Siegfried, Old Greek Stories', Stories of the +King, Discovery of the Old Northwest, The Book Lover._ + +BIERCE, AMBROSE (1842- ), b. Ohio. For many years a San Francisco +journalist. _Can Such Things Be? In the Midst of Life_ (tales of soldiers +and civilians). + +BURDETTE, ROBERT JONES (1844-1914), b. Greensboro, Pa. Journalist on +Burlington (Iowa) _Hawkeye_ and other papers, lecturer, humorist, +clergyman. _The Rise and Fall of the Moustache_, _Hawkeyetems_, _Life of +William Penn._ + +BURNHAM, CLARA LOUISE (1854- ) b. Newton, Mass. Moved to Chicago. +Novelist. _Dr. Latimer_, _The Wise Woman._ + +CARLETON, WILL (1845-1912), b. Hudson, Mich. Poet, editor, lecturer. _Farm +Ballads_, _Farm Legends_, _Farm Festivals_, _City Ballads_. _Over the Hills +to the Poor House,_ best known single poem. + +CATHERWOOD, MARY HARTWELL (1847-1902), b. Luray, Ohio. Writer of historical +tales of Canada and the Northwest. _A Woman in Armour, The Lady of Fort St. +John, The Romance of Dollard, The White Islander, a Story of Mackinac, +Lazarre._ + +CHENEY, JOHN VANCE (1848- ), b. Groveland, N.Y. Moved to the West. Poet +and critic. _Thistle-Drift, Wood-Blooms, Queen Helen and Other Poems._ +Critical Works: _That Dome in Air_ and _The Golden Guess._ + +DUNBAR, PAUL LAURENCE (1872-1906), b. Dayton, Ohio. African descent. +Journalist, poet. Wrote many fine lyrics. _Oak and Ivy_, _Lyrics of Lowly +Life_, _Lyrics of the Hearthside._ + +DUNNE, FINLEY PETER (1867- ), b. Chicago, Ill. Humorist, journalist. +_Mr. Dooley's Philosophy._ + +EGGLESTON, EDWARD (1837-1902), b. Vevay, Ind. Novelist of the early life of +southern Indiana. _The Hoosier Schoolmaster_, _The Hoosier Schoolboy_, +_Roxy_, _The Graysons._ + +FOOTE, MARY HALLOCK (1847- ), b. Milton, N. Y. Her novels give vivid +representations of western life. _The Led Horse Claim_, _The Chosen +Valley_, _Coeur d'Alene_. + +FRENCH, ALICE ("Octave Thanet") (1850- ), b. Andover, Mass. Novelist. +_Knitters in the Sun_, _Stories of a Western Town_, _A Book of True +Lovers_, _The Man of the Hour_. + +GARLAND, HAMLIN (1860- ), b. West Salem, Wis. Presents graphic pictures +of the middle West in such stories as _Main-Traveled Roads_, _Prairie +Folks_, _Rose of Dutcher's Coolly_, _Boy Life on the Prairie_. + +HAY, JOHN (1838-1905), b. Salem, Ind. Private secretary to President +Lincoln. Lawyer, journalist, diplomatist, and statesman. _Pike County +Ballads_. Joint author with J. G. Nicolay of _Abraham Lincoln: A History_, +9 vols. + +HERRICK, ROBERT (1868- ), b. Cambridge, Mass. Professor (University of +Chicago), novelist. _The Web of Life_, _The Common Lot_, _The Master of the +Inn_. + +HOVEY, RICHARD (1864-1900), b. Normal, Ill. Poet, dramatist. _Songs from +Vagabondia_, _The Marriage of Guenevere_, _Taliesin: A Masque_. + +JACKSON, HELEN HUNT (1831-1885), b. Amherst, Mass. Novelist, poet. Her +great western novel, _Ramona_, stands in the same relation to the Indian as +_Uncle Tom's Cabin_ to the negro. Her _Century of Dishonor_ shows the +wrongs done to the Indian race. _Poems_. + +LONDON, JACK (1876-1916), b. San Francisco, Calif. Novelist of adventure. +_The Call of the Wild_, _The Children of the Frost_, _The Sea Wolf_, _The +Game_. + +LUMMIS, CHARLES F. (1859- ), b. Lynn, Mass. Traveler, librarian, writer. +_The Spanish Pioneers_, _The Man Who Married the Moon_, _The Enchanted +Burn_. + +MCCUTCHEON, GEO. BARR (1866- ), b. Tippecanoe Co., Ind. Novelist. +_Castle Craneycrow_, _Brewster's Millions_, _Beverly of Graustark_. + +MARKHAM, EDWIN (1852- ), b. Oregon City, Oregon. Poet. _The Man with the +Hoe and Other Poems_. + +MILLER, CINCINNATUS HEINE (Joaquin Miller) (1841-1913), b. Wabash District, +Ind. Lived in the far West, about which he writes in his poetry. _Songs of +the Sierras_, _Songs of the Sunlands_, _Songs of the Desert_. + +MOODY, WILLIAM VAUGHAN (1869-1910), b. Spencer, Ind. Poet, dramatist. _The +Masque of Judgment_, _The Fire Bringer_, _The Great Divide_ (play). + +NICHOLSON, MEREDITH (1866- ), b. Crawforusville, Ind. Novelist. _The +House of a Thousand Candles_, _The Port of Missing Men_, _The Hoosiers_ (in +_National Studies in American Letters_). + +NORRIS, FRANK (1870-1902), b. Chicago, Ill. Realistic novel writer. +_McTeague_, _The Octopus_, _The Pit_. + +PHILLIPS, DAVID GRAHAM (1867-1911), b. Madison, Ind. Novelist. _The Social +Secretary_, _The Second Generation_, _The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua +Craig_. + +PIATT, JOHN JAMES (1835- ), b. James Mills, Ind. Poet. _Western +Windows_, _Idyls and Lyrics of the Ohio Valley_, _Poems of Two Friends_ +(with W. D. Howells). + +RHODES, JAMES FORD (1848- ), b. Cleveland, Ohio. Historian. _History of +the United States from the Compromise of 1850_, 7 vols. The seventh volume +ends with 1877. + +SETON, ERNEST THOMPSON (1860- ), b. South Shields, Eng. Painter, +naturalist. _Wild Animals I Have Known, Lives of the Hunted, Natural +History of the Ten Commandments, The Trail of the Sandhill Stag, The +Biography of a Grizzly_. + +SILL, EDWARD ROWLAND (1841-1887), b. Windsor, Conn. Professor in University +of California. Transcendental poet. Some fine verse may be found in his +volumes, _Hermione and Other Poems_ and _The Hermitage and Later Poems_. + +SPALDING, JOHN L. (1840- ), b. Lebanon, Ky. Roman Catholic archbishop. +_Education and the Higher Life_, _Things of the Mind_, _Socialism and +Labor_ + +TARKINGTON, NEWTON BOOTH (1869- ), b. Indianapolis, Ind. Novelist. _The +Gentleman from Indiana, Monsieur Beaucaire, The Two Vanrevels, Cherry, The +Conquest of Canaan._ + +"THANET, OCTAVE." See FRENCH, ALICE. + +THOMPSON, MAURICE (1844-1901), b. Fairfield, Ind. Novelist, naturalist, +poet. Best known works, _By-Ways and Bird Notes_, _My Winter Garden_, +_Alice of Old Vincennes_. + +WALLACE, LEW (1827-1905), b. Brookville, Ind. Lawyer, diplomat, author. +_Ben Hur_, a tale of remarkable power; _The Fair God_, _The Prince of +India_. + +WHITE, STEWART EDWARD (1873- ) b. Grand Rapids, Mich. Writer of vigorous +stories of western mountain life. _The Blazed Trail_, _The Silent Places_, +_The Claim Jumpers_, _The Riverman_. + +WILCOX, ELLA WHEELER (1855- ), b. Johnstown Center, Wis. Journalist and +poet. _Poems of Passion_, _Poems of Pleasure_, _Poems of Power_, _Poems of +Sentiment_. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of American Literature +by Reuben Post Halleck + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN LITERATURE *** + +This file should be named 6423.txt or 6423.zip + +Produced by Tom Allen, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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