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Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Henry Walcott Boynton, Reader's History of American Literature, Chapter 10: forecast (search)
, to perfect the finer graces without sacrificing things more vital. She was not a good singer, says some novelist of his heroine, but she sang with an inspiration such as good singers rarely indulge in. Given those positive qualities, and it may be justly claimed that a fine execution does not hinder acceptance in America, but rather aids it. Where there is beauty of execution alone, a popular audience, even in America, very easily goes to sleep. And in such matters, as the French actor, Samson, said to the young dramatist, after snoring during the reading of his new play, Sleep is an opinion. And this brings us to the conclusion, that while the enormous material and business life now developing is sometimes feared as a substitute for literature, it may yet prove its ultimate friend and promoter. Perhaps it may be found that the men who are contributing most to raise the tone of American literature are the men who have never yet written a book, and have scarcely time to read on