CHAPTER II.

SECTION I.

SKETCH OF AMERICAN LITERATURE SINCE 1815

THE reasons why American literature has, until within the last twenty-five or thirty years, been comparatively so scanty and generally inferior, are fully set forth by the North American Review for 1840, in the following manner: The period just referred to "has been one of much greater activity than any that preceded it. It was divided by only one generation from the time when the American States were, as to productions of the intellect, in the helpless and sluggish condition almost inseparable from a condition of colonial dependence, and they had established their political existence at a cost which it required the undivided attention of at least one generation to repair. The first business of the citizen, in his private walk, was to contrive to get rid of his debts, and to make some provision for his family; while his less selfish thoughts were employed in watching, and helping the experiment of a new government. First came great prosperity; a uniform currency; commercial confidence; profitable applications of inventive talent; vast demand for the products of an inexhaustible soil; the carrying trade of the world. Then followed terrible reverses: embargo; non-intercourse; war. The wheel of fortune was stopped with a crash, when its momentum was greatest; and it was not till after the peace of 1815 that things settled down into such a state, that a portion of the community could be spared for the laborious leisure of study, or even that individuals in active life, though of liberal tastes, could be expected to feel much inclination in themselves, or impulse from others, to the tasks of authorship.

"Under such circumstances, the question of our learned Edinburgh brethren, Who reads an American book? was really no more reasonable than it was courteous. It was not a thing to be fairly expected that America should have become a book-mart for the

world. And especially was it not to be expected so soon, when, if effected at all, it would necessarily be effected in the face of other, serious, and permanent disadvantages. A nation which produces genius and excitements for it, will sooner or later, no doubt, produce a literature also. But those early and lower efforts, which lead to the higher, must suffer great discouragements, when, in consequence of community of language, they are brought at once into comparison with the best productions of another highly-cultivated society; and when, from the same cause, there is an ample foreign supply, the excitements to literary labor (we speak not of those of a sordid kind, but of every kind whatever) must be materially diminished.

"Within the last few years, however, there is great difficulty found by our reviews in keeping up with the numerous issues of the American press. Even England has become a great market for our books, particularly our school books, many of which are rapidly supplanting those of English manufacture on the same subjects. With the exception of a few books published in England, children's books, also, by American authors, must be considered to possess superior value for their moral and intellectual adaptations to the young mind. In this department the Messrs. Abbot have gained a distinguished and just reputation.

"Next to books of education, devotional, biblical, and theological works of American origin, have perhaps, as a class, obtained the widest circulation in England. Professor Stuart, Dr. Hodge, Dr. Robinson, Professor Bush, Mr. Barnes, Mr. Norton, Dr. Noyes, Dr. Harris, Dr. Channing, and Dr. W. B. Sprague, have produced works that stand in high repute abroad, as well as at home. No living English: writer of philosophical and critical essays enjoys a popularity equal to the late Dr. Channing. As to specimens of forensic, deliberative, and demonstrative eloquence, there is no collection of works of any contemporary English orator which, for a combination of all the attributes of high oratory, logic, fullness of facts, richness of illustration, pathos, wit, and chasteness,

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and force of language, can sustain comparison with those of Mr. Webster and Mr. Everett. In law, the learned works of Judge Story and Chancellor Kent are in high repute in England. Our medical literature, particularly that of the school of Philadelphia, is deservedly eminent. In the department of mathematics, the commentary on the "Mechanique Celeste," by the late Dr. Bowditch, is, by universal consent, one of the great productions of the age; while the valua ble contributions to Natural Science, of Mr. Audubon, of Mr. Jay, of Professors Silliman, Godman, and Hare, of Dr. Bigelow, of Massachusetts, of Dr. Holbrook, of South Carolina, of Dr. Morton, author of the "Crania Americana," and of many others, show that in that important department the minds of our countrymen are neither inactive nor incapable. In the arduous, recondite, and rather thankless task of philological investigation, the labors of Webster, Duponceau, Patten, and Pickering, are to be ranked with those of the most distinguished scholars of the age.'

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'Washington Irving has, within the last thirty years, acquired a name, in his own elegant walk of literature, which throws into dim eclipse that of every English rival. The reputation of Cooper, of Miss Sedgwick, and of the author of the Letters from Palmyra,' is European. Kennedy, Bird, Fay, Mrs. Child, and some other writers of fiction, who have not yet gathered all their fame, have attracted favorable notice; and we get nothing better from across the water in the way of noveletta and delineation of society and manners, than the spirited and delicious sketches of Hawthorne and Mrs. Kirkland. Among books of travels, few have been so well received, of late years, as those of Lieutenant Slidell and Mr. Stephens."

SECTION II.

We shall take the liberty to draw from the Democratic Review for July, 1844, remarks upon the present state of American literature, and its relations to that of England at the present time.

"In some departments, we think American authors

of the present day may fairly claim an equal rank with their English rivals. In poetry, exclude the great name of Wordsworth, as the poet of a former era, and we challenge comparison between Dana, Bryant, Halleck, Holmes, Lowth, Willis, Street, and Longfellow, and the remaining best living poets. They are fairly met on their own ground, and in their own vein of delicacy, taste, fancy, speculation, humor, pathos, and descriptive power, to say nothing of a mastery of style, rhythm, and the finest poetical dialect. Then, too, in humor, we have referred to Irving; there is Paulding, a strong satirist; Wirt, a delicate wit; Willis, full of sparkling gayety. In all England, we know not the writers of late who could surpass these four writers in their respective styles (to say nothing of a host of clever magazine sketches besides)—Irving, Dana, Willis, and Hawthorne. Rip Van Winkle is the best attempt of Irving; all of Dana's romantic tales, as Paul Fellon, Edward and Mary, &c., are, we believe, without an equal in English contemporary literature. Willis, as a lighter writer, is the cleverest English and American author now living; and our prose poet, Hawthorne, can be paralleled only in Germany. We have three classic writers of history; we have produced the best popular moralists of the day. Our orators have, in many cases, pronounced orations perfectly admirable in their way, as those of Wirt, Ames, Webster, the Everetts. Since Canning's time, we know of no elegant pieces of political writing; no English models in oratory that read well. Our country abounds with clever writers in periodicals of all kinds. We are beginning to have curious scholarship and profound speculation. From Jonathan Edwards to the present race of transcendentalists, we have inquirers of all classes. A singular trait marks the writings of most of these; an artifical finish hardly to be expected in so new a literature. Indeed, there has been far too much imitation and copying. We have many writers who would have done well any where by themselves, who have yet been at the pains of modeling themselves on some great masters.

"We argue the gradual decline of English and American literature, not only from the number of merely clever writers and the general prevalence of imitation, but also from the love of periodical criticism, and the success with which it is cultivated. Criticism has always flourished in the absence of other kinds of genius; it is best when others are in decay or gone, and this seems to us one of the most remarkable of the signs of the times. From the great increase, too, of periodical literature, most of the minor kinds of writing are more cultivated than the longer and more imposing. We have few histories and long poems, but abundance of critiques of all kinds, political, literary, theological, and characteristic essays, on all subjects, of manners, morals, medicine, and mercantile policy; sketches of life and scenery; letters from abroad and at home, tales, short biographies, and every possible variety of the lesser orders of poetry.

"We apprehend that literature of this grade and character-short, to the point, interesting, will be the prevailing literature for a long time to come. The chief instruction of the people, their main intellectual resource of amusement, also, will be found in the periodical press. The infusion of popular feeling into our works of speculation; the great aims of reforming, enlightening, and, in a word, educating the people, and impressing the importance of the individual-this is one of the great problems of the age, perhaps the problem. To render man physically comfortable, and ta give him sufficient occupation, of whatever sort circumstances demand, is the primary duty of society; but, immediately next to that, to seek to elevate, and refine, deepen and expand the characters of all men, till they come to know, appreciate, and act upon the immutable principles of justice and humanity; to recognize one Father and Master above, and all brothers and equals below-this is the great lesson of life, the very object and end of being."