John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[503] former. In this he seemed to be a true philosopher, who regarded human actions as the direct consequences of influences and conditions over which the individual had but little control. And nobody seemed to realize more fully than he that in our public affairs philosophy and the higher education play but an inferior part in comparison with the primal instincts and interests of every-day life. He hoped and worked for the higher ideals and the nobler virtues of human nature, but recognized the fact that they were not always nor often the controlling influence in human affairs. He was always found on their side, and yet never quite overwhelmed because they were sometimes forced to give place to baser considerations.

Dana's appreciation of the higher phases of art in other directions than literature was peculiarly quick and sure. Music at his home, of which there was much for many years, was mainly classical, but this did not exclude a liberal and appreciative sympathy for what was beautiful in other schools. His taste in music was much the same as in poetry. This was well shown by the monument erected, perhaps unconsciously on his part, to his own insight and appreciation of the poetical in English literature, as set forth in the Household Book of Poetry. That compilation has been already mentioned as the model and precursor of many others intended like it to embody and illustrate the breadth and elevation of the poetic sentiment of the English-speaking people, and nothing could bear better testimony to the originality, the literary skill, and the thorough acquaintance of Dana with the poetry of our language than the contents and arrangement of that book. The selection, the classification, and the merit of the poems are not only admirable, but show an appreciation of art in poetry that no other compiler has ever attained.

For the artistic expression of imagination as found in