Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli

[136] generally conceded to them; or to recognize what has been latterly called “the Sympathy of Religions.” Thanks to this general fact, that the best literature is transportable and carries the same weight everywhere, these American innovators, living in their little Boston and Cambridge and Concord, had for literary purposes a cosmopolitan training. This advantage would, however, have been of little worth to them unless combined with the consciousness that they were living in a new world and were part of a self-governing nation. As Petrarch gave an impulse to modern European literature when he thought himself reviving the study of the ancient, so the Transcendental movement in America, while actively introducing French and German authors to the American public, was really preparing the way for that public to demand a literature of its own.

The utterances of the “Dial” were often, from the very outset, tinged with the passing fashion of a period now gone by. The writers took an ideal view of things,--sometimes extravagantly ideal,--and this has not proved a permanent fashion. No matter; no fashion is permanent; and the ideal point of view is as sure to have its turn again, as is the world to roll round — as sure as the recurrence of Gainsborough hats and Queen Anne houses. But with this fleeting show there was achieved a substantial gain, which was not subject to fashion, and which, when won, was won forever. Behind all the catchwords, and even