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[265] doubtless more difficult subject, which the infinite possibilities of war or other The Collecnational complication make harder tive Forestill. No such forecast can ever cast. go very far for a nation which has not yet clearly worked out its own destiny, does not even comprehend itself, has not decided whether it is to be a self-governing republic from end to end, or a benevolent despotism to govern whole outlying races and generations. The last generation made the discovery that American literature has a quality and a flavor of its own; and it is not likely to discredit that discovery merely because literature itself, in the leading nations of the world, has just now held back a little to make room for commerce. The temporary disappearance of Emersons and Hawthornes in America is not more marked than that of Tennysons and Brownings in England, or of Goethes and Schillers in Germany. During the interval when great books have not multiplied, the great fortunes which are to buy books will have been accumulating; perhaps the next race of authors will be a little better fed than those who have passed off the stage; and yet it may be found that their work will

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