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Maine (Maine, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
al inference, universal suffrage; that is, a suffrage constantly tending to be universal, although it still leaves out one-half the human race. This universal suffrage is inevitably based on the doctrine of human equality, as further interpreted by Franklin's remark that the poor man has an equal right to the suffrage with the rich man, and more need, because he has fewer ways in which to protect himself. But it is not true, as even such acute European observers as M. Scherer and Sir Henry Maine assume, that democracy is but a form of government; for democracy has just as distinct a place in society, and, above all, in the realm of literature. The touchstone there applied is just the same, and it consists in the essential dignity and value of the individual man. The distinctive attitude of the American press must lie, if anywhere, in its recognition of this individual importance and worth. The five words of Jefferson—words, which Matthew Arnold pronounced not solid, thus prove
Kansas (Kansas, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
social position. The heroes who successively conquered Europe in the hands of American authors were of low estate,—a backwoodsman, a pilot, a negro slave, a lamplighter; to which gallery Bret Harte added the gambler, and the authors of Democracy and the Bread-Winners flung in the politician. In all these figures social distinctions disappear: a man's a man for a‘ that. And so of our later writers, Miss Wilkins in New England, Miss Murfree in Tennessee, Mr. Cable in Louisiana, Mr. Howe in Kansas, Dr. Eggleston in Indiana, Julien Gordon in New York, all represent the same impulse; all recognize that all men are created equal in Jefferson's sense, because all recognize the essential and inalienable value of the individual man. It would be, of course, absurd to claim that America represents the whole of this tendency, for the tendency is a part of that wave of democratic feeling which is overflowing the world. But Dickens, who initiated the movement in English fiction, was unquest
Louisiana (Louisiana, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
hood, irrespective of social position. The heroes who successively conquered Europe in the hands of American authors were of low estate,—a backwoodsman, a pilot, a negro slave, a lamplighter; to which gallery Bret Harte added the gambler, and the authors of Democracy and the Bread-Winners flung in the politician. In all these figures social distinctions disappear: a man's a man for a‘ that. And so of our later writers, Miss Wilkins in New England, Miss Murfree in Tennessee, Mr. Cable in Louisiana, Mr. Howe in Kansas, Dr. Eggleston in Indiana, Julien Gordon in New York, all represent the same impulse; all recognize that all men are created equal in Jefferson's sense, because all recognize the essential and inalienable value of the individual man. It would be, of course, absurd to claim that America represents the whole of this tendency, for the tendency is a part of that wave of democratic feeling which is overflowing the world. But Dickens, who initiated the movement in Englis
Europe (search for this): chapter 2
s an equal right to the suffrage with the rich man, and more need, because he has fewer ways in which to protect himself. But it is not true, as even such acute European observers as M. Scherer and Sir Henry Maine assume, that democracy is but a form of government; for democracy has just as distinct a place in society, and, abovemate aim, but a strong national literature must come first. The new book must express the spirit of the New World. We need some repressing, no doubt, and every European newspaper is free to apply it; we listen with exemplary meekness to every little European lecturer who comes to enlighten us, in words of one syllable, as to whaEuropean lecturer who comes to enlighten us, in words of one syllable, as to what we knew very well before. We need something of repression, but much more of stimulus. So Spenser's Britomart, when she entered the enchanted hall, found above four doors in succession the inscription, Be bold! be bold! be bold! be bold! and only over the fifth door was the inscription, needful but wholly subordinate, Be n
Indiana (Indiana, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
oes who successively conquered Europe in the hands of American authors were of low estate,—a backwoodsman, a pilot, a negro slave, a lamplighter; to which gallery Bret Harte added the gambler, and the authors of Democracy and the Bread-Winners flung in the politician. In all these figures social distinctions disappear: a man's a man for a‘ that. And so of our later writers, Miss Wilkins in New England, Miss Murfree in Tennessee, Mr. Cable in Louisiana, Mr. Howe in Kansas, Dr. Eggleston in Indiana, Julien Gordon in New York, all represent the same impulse; all recognize that all men are created equal in Jefferson's sense, because all recognize the essential and inalienable value of the individual man. It would be, of course, absurd to claim that America represents the whole of this tendency, for the tendency is a part of that wave of democratic feeling which is overflowing the world. But Dickens, who initiated the movement in English fiction, was unquestionably influenced by tha
Jefferson City (Missouri, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
negro slave, a lamplighter; to which gallery Bret Harte added the gambler, and the authors of Democracy and the Bread-Winners flung in the politician. In all these figures social distinctions disappear: a man's a man for a‘ that. And so of our later writers, Miss Wilkins in New England, Miss Murfree in Tennessee, Mr. Cable in Louisiana, Mr. Howe in Kansas, Dr. Eggleston in Indiana, Julien Gordon in New York, all represent the same impulse; all recognize that all men are created equal in Jefferson's sense, because all recognize the essential and inalienable value of the individual man. It would be, of course, absurd to claim that America represents the whole of this tendency, for the tendency is a part of that wave of democratic feeling which is overflowing the world. But Dickens, who initiated the movement in English fiction, was unquestionably influenced by that very American life which he disliked and caricatured, and we have since seen a similar impulse spread through other
Arlington (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
e themselves solid enough to sustain not merely the government of sixty-three million people, but their literature. Instead of avoiding, with Goethe, the common, das Gemeinde, American literature must freely seek the common; its fiction must record not queens and Cleopatras alone, but the emotion in the heart of the schoolgirl and the sempstress; its history must record, not great generals alone, but the nameless boys whose graves people with undying memories every soldiers' cemetery from Arlington to Chattanooga. And Motley the pupil was not unworthy of Irving from whom the suggestion came. His Dutch Republic was written in this American spirit. William the Silent remains in our memory as no more essentially a hero than John Haring, who held single-handed his submerged dike against an army; and Philip of Burgundy and his knights of the Golden Fleece are painted as far less important than John Coster, the Antwerp apothecary, printing his little grammar with movable types. Motle
New England (United States) (search for this): chapter 2
ich gallery Bret Harte added the gambler, and the authors of Democracy and the Bread-Winners flung in the politician. In all these figures social distinctions disappear: a man's a man for a‘ that. And so of our later writers, Miss Wilkins in New England, Miss Murfree in Tennessee, Mr. Cable in Louisiana, Mr. Howe in Kansas, Dr. Eggleston in Indiana, Julien Gordon in New York, all represent the same impulse; all recognize that all men are created equal in Jefferson's sense, because all recognien power drawing him on to Rome, so Howells has evidently felt a magnet drawing him on to New York, and it was not until he set up his canvas there that it had due proportions. My friend Mr. James Parton used to say that students must live in New England, where there were better libraries, but that loafers and men of genius should live in New York. To me personally it seems a high price to pay for the privileges either of genius or of loafing, but it is well that Howells has at last paid it
Tennessee (Tennessee, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
place is individual manhood, irrespective of social position. The heroes who successively conquered Europe in the hands of American authors were of low estate,—a backwoodsman, a pilot, a negro slave, a lamplighter; to which gallery Bret Harte added the gambler, and the authors of Democracy and the Bread-Winners flung in the politician. In all these figures social distinctions disappear: a man's a man for a‘ that. And so of our later writers, Miss Wilkins in New England, Miss Murfree in Tennessee, Mr. Cable in Louisiana, Mr. Howe in Kansas, Dr. Eggleston in Indiana, Julien Gordon in New York, all represent the same impulse; all recognize that all men are created equal in Jefferson's sense, because all recognize the essential and inalienable value of the individual man. It would be, of course, absurd to claim that America represents the whole of this tendency, for the tendency is a part of that wave of democratic feeling which is overflowing the world. But Dickens, who initiate
Emily Dickinson (search for this): chapter 2
s. We need to go to Europe to see the great galleries, to hear the music of Wagner, but the boy who reads Aeschylus and Horace and Shakespeare by his pine-knot fire has at his command the essence of all universities, so far as literary training goes. But were this otherwise, we must remember that libraries, galleries, and buildings are all secondary to that great human life of which they are only the secretions or appendages. My Madonnas—thus wrote to me that recluse woman of genius, Emily Dickinson —are the women who pass my house to their work, bearing Saviours in their arms. Words wait on thoughts, thoughts on life; and after these, technical training is an easy thing. The art of composition, wrote Thoreau, is as simple as the discharge of a bullet from a rifle, and its masterpieces imply an infinitely greater force behind them. What are the two unmistakable rifle-shots in American literature thus far? John Brown's speech in the court-room and Lincoln's Gettysburg address.
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