Chapter IV: The New England Group (4)

His announcement, "small fevers gratefully received," his humor in general, and his poetry especially, did not aid him in securing patients. His biographer says that Holmes learned at his cost as a doctor that the world had made up its mind "that he who writes rhymes must not write prescriptions, and he who makes jests should not escort people to their graves." He later warned his students that if they would succeed in any one calling they must not let the world find out that they were interested in anything else. From his own point of view, he wrote:--

"It's a vastly pleasing prospect, when you're screwing out a laugh,
That your very next year's income is diminished by a half,
And a little boy trips barefoot that your Pegasus may go,
And the baby's milk is watered that your Helicon may flow."

He was driven, like Emerson and Lowell, to supplement his modest income by what he called "lecture peddling." Although Holmes did not have the platform presence of these two contemporaries, he had the power of reaching his audiences and of quickly gaining their sympathy, so that he was very popular and could always get engagements.

His scientific training made him intolerant of any philosophical or religious creed which seemed to him to be based merely upon superstition or tradition. He was thoroughly alert, open-minded, and liberal upon all such questions. On subjects of politics, war, or the abolition of slavery, he was, on the other hand, strongly conservative. He had the aristocratic dread of change. He was distinctly the courtly gentleman, the gifted talker, and the social, genial, refined companion.

Holmes was a conscientious worker, but he characteristically treated his mental processes in a joking way, and wrote to a friend: "I like nine tenths of any matter I study, but I do not like to _lick the plate_. If I did, I suppose I should be more of a man of science and find my brain tired oftener than I do." Again he wrote, "my nature is to snatch at all the fruits of knowledge and take a good bite out of the sunny side--after that let in the pigs." Despite these statements, Holmes worked steadily every year at his medical lectures. He was very particular about the exactness and finish of all that he wrote, and he was neither careless nor slipshod in anything. His life, while filled with steady, hard work, was a placid one, full of love and friendships, and he passed into his eightieth year with a young heart. He died in 1894, at the age of eighty-five, and was buried in Mt. Auburn cemetery not far from Longfellow and Lowell.

POETRY.--In 1836 he published his first volume of verse. This contained his first widely known poem, _Old Ironsides_, a successful plea for saving the old battleship, _Constitution_, which had been ordered destroyed. With the exception of this poem and _The Last Leaf_, the volume is remarkable for little except the rollicking fun which we find in such favorites as _The Ballad of the Oysterman_ and _My Aunt_. This type of humor is shown in this simile from _The Ballad_:--

"Her hair drooped round her pallid cheeks, like seaweed on a clam," and in his description of his aunt:--

"Her waist is ampler than her life,
For life is but a span."

He continued to write verses until his death. Among the last poems which he wrote were memorials on the death of Lowell (1891) and Whittier (1892). As we search the three volumes of his verse, we find few serious poems of a high order. The best, and the one by which he himself wished to be remembered, is The _Chambered Nautilus_. No member of the New England group voiced higher ideals than we find in the noble closing stanza of this poem:--

"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!"

Probably _The Last Leaf_, which was such a favorite with Lincoln, would rank second. This poem is remarkable for preserving the reader's equilibrium between laughter and tears. Some lines from _The Voiceless_ are not likely to be soon forgotten:--

"A few can touch the magic string,
And noisy Fame is proud to win them:--
Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them!"

He wrote no more serious poem than _Homesick in Heaven_, certain stanzas of which appeal strongly to bereaved hearts. It is not easy to forget the song of the spirits who have recently come from earth, of the mother who was torn from her clinging babe, of the bride called away with the kiss of love still burning on her cheek, of the daughter taken from her blind and helpless father:--

"Children of earth, our half-weaned nature clings
To earth's fond memories, and her whispered name
Untunes our quivering lips, our saddened strings;
For there we loved, and where we love is home."

When Holmes went to Oxford in 1886, to receive an honorary degree, it is probable that, as in the case of Irving, the Oxford boys in the gallery voiced the popular verdict. As Holmes stepped on the platform, they called, "Did he come in the One-Hoss Shay?" This humorous poem, first known as _The Deacon's Masterpiece_, has been a universal favorite. _How the Old Hoss Won the Bet_ tells with rollicking humor what the parson's nag did at a race. _The Boys_, with its mingled humor and pathos, written for the thirtieth reunion of his class, is one of the best of the many poems which he was so frequently asked to compose for special celebrations. No other poet of his time could equal him in furnishing to order clever, apt, humorous verses for ever recurring occasions.

PROSE.--He was nearly fifty when he published his first famous prose work. He had named the _Atlantic Monthly_, and Lowell had agreed to edit it only on condition that Holmes would promise to be a contributor. In the first number appeared _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table._ Holmes had hit upon a style that exactly suited his temperament, and had invented a new prose form. His great conversational gift was now crystallized in these breakfast table talks, which the Autocrat all but monopolizes. However, the other characters at the table of this remarkable boarding house in Boston join in often enough to keep up the interest in their opinions, feelings, and relations to each other. The reader always wants to know the impression that the Autocrat's fine talk makes upon "the young man whom they call 'John.'" John sometimes puts his feelings into action, as when the Autocrat gives a typical illustration of his mixture of reasoning and humor, in explaining that there are always six persons present when two people are talking:--

"Three Johns.

1. The real John; known only to his Maker.

2. John's ideal John; never the real one, and often very unlike him.

3. Thomas's ideal John; never the real John, nor John's John, but often
very unlike either.

"Three Thomases.

1. The real Thomas.

2. Thomas's ideal Thomas.

3. John's ideal Thomas."

"A certain basket of peaches, a rare vegetable, little known to boarding-houses, was on its way to me," says the Autocrat, "_via_ this unlettered Johannes. He appropriated the three that remained in the basket, remarking that there was just one apiece for him. I convinced him that his practical inference was hasty and illogical, but in the meantime he had eaten the peaches." When John enters the debates with his crushing logic of facts, he never fails to make a ten strike.

A few years after the _Autocrat_ series had been closed, Holmes wrote _The Professor at the Breakfast Table_; many years later _The Poet at the Breakfast Table_ appeared; and in the evening of life, he brought out _Over the Teacups_, in which he discoursed at the tea table in a similar vein, but not in quite the same fresh, buoyant, humorous way in which the Autocrat talked over his morning coffee. The decline in these books is gradual, although it is barely perceptible in the _Professor_. The _Autocrat_ is, however, the brightest, crispest, and most vigorous of the series, while _Over the Teacups_ is the calmest, as well as the soberest and most leisurely.

Holmes wrote three novels, _Elsie Venner_, _The Guardian Angel_, and _The Mortal Antipathy_, which have been called "medicated novels" because his medical knowledge is so apparent in them. These books also have a moral purpose, each in turn considering the question whether an individual is responsible for his acts. The first two of these novels are the strongest, and hold the attention to the end because of the interest aroused by the characters and by the descriptive scenes.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--Humor is the most characteristic quality of Holmes's writings. He indeed is the only member of the New England group who often wrote with the sole object of entertaining readers. Lowell also was a humorist, but he employed humor either in the cause of reform, as in The _Biglow Papers_, or in the field of knowledge, in endeavoring to make his literary criticisms more expressive and more certain to impress the mind of his readers.

Whenever Holmes wrote to entertain, he did not aim to be deep or to exercise the thinking powers of his readers. Much of his work skims the surface of things in an amusing and delightful way. Yet he was too much of a New Englander not to write some things in both poetry and prose with a deeper purpose than mere entertainment. _The Chambered Nautilus_, for instance, was so written, as were all of his novels. His genial humor is thus frequently blended with unlooked-for wisdom or pathos.

Whittier has been called provincial because he takes only the point of view of New England. The province of Holmes is still narrower, being mainly confined to Boston. He expresses in a humorous way his own feelings, as well as those of his fellow townsmen, when he says in _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table:_--

"Boston State House is the hub of the solar system. You couldn't pry that
out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation straightened out
for a crowbar."

Like Irving, Holmes was fond of eighteenth-century English writers, and much of his verse is modeled after the couplets of Pope. Holmes writes fluid and rippling prose, without a trace of effort. His meaning is never left to conjecture, but is stated in pure, exact English. He not only expresses his ideas perfectly, but he seems to achieve this result without premeditation. This apparent artlessness is a great charm. He has left America a new form of prose, which bears the stamp of pure literature, and which is distinguished not so much for philosophy and depth as for grace, versatility, refined humor, bright intellectual flashes, and artistic finish.

THE HISTORIANS

Three natives of Massachusetts and graduates of Harvard, William H. Prescott, John Lothrop Motley, and Francis Parkman, wrote history in such a way as to entitle it to be mentioned in our literature. We cannot class as literature those historical writings which are not enlivened with imagination, invested with at least an occasional poetic touch, and expressed in rare style. Unfortunately the very qualities that render history attractive as literature often tend to raise doubts about the scientific method and accuracy of the historian. For this reason few histories keep for a great length of time a place in literature, unless, like Irving's _Knickerbocker's History of New York_, they aim to give merely an imaginative interpretation of a past epoch. They may then, like Homer's _Iliad_, Shakespeare's _Macbeth_, and some of Irving's and Cooper's work, be, in Celtic phrase, "more historical than history itself." History of this latter type lives, and is a treasure in the literature of any nation.

WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT (1796-1859).--Like Washington Irving, Prescott was attracted by the romantic achievements of Spain during the years of her brilliant successes, and he wrote four histories upon Spanish subjects: a _History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella_ (1837), a _History of the Conquest of Mexico_ (1843), a _History of the Conquest of Peru_ (1847), and a _History of the Reign of Philip II_. (1855-1858), the last of which he did not live to complete.

He was a careful, painstaking student. He learned the Spanish language, had copies made of all available manuscripts and records in Europe, and closely compared contemporary accounts so as to be certain of the accuracy of his facts. Then he presented them in an attractive form. His _Ferdinand and Isabella_ and the part he finished of _Philip II_. are accurate and authoritative to-day because the materials which he found for them are true. The two histories on the Spanish conquests in the New World are not absolutely correct in all their descriptions of the Aztecs and Incas before the arrival of the Spaniards. This is due to no carelessness on Prescott's part, but to the highly colored accounts upon which he had to depend for his facts, and to the lack of the archaeological surveys which have since been carried on in Mexico and Peru. These two histories of the daring exploits of a handful of adventurers in hostile lands are as thrilling and interesting as novels. We seem to be reading a tale from the _Arabian Nights_, as we follow Pizarro and see his capture of the Peruvian monarch in the very sight of his own army, and view the rich spoils in gold and silver and precious stones which were carried back to Spain. In relating the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, Prescott writes the history of still more daring adventures. His narrative is full of color, and he presents facts picturesquely.

JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY (1814-1877).--As naturally as the love of adventure sent Prescott to the daring exploits of the Spanish feats of arms, so the inborn zeal for civil and religious liberty and hatred of oppression led Motley to turn to the sturdy, patriotic Dutch in their successful struggle against the enslaving power of Spain. His histories are _The Rise of the Dutch Republic_ (1856), _The History of the United Netherlands_ (1860-1868), _The Life and Death of John of Barneveld_, _Advocate of Holland_ (1874).

The difference in temperament between Prescott and Motley is seen in the manner of presenting the character of Philip II. In so far as Prescott drew the picture of Philip II., it is traced with a mild, cool hand. Philip is shown as a tyrant, but he is impelled to his tyranny by motives of conscience. In Motley's _The Rise of the Dutch Republic_, this oppressor is an accursed scourge of a loyal people, the enemy of progress, of liberty, and of justice. Motley's feelings make his pages burn and flash with fiery denunciation, as well as with exalted praise.

_The Rise of the Dutch Republic_ is the recital of as heroic a struggle as a small but determined nation ever made against tremendous odds. Amid the swarm of men that crowd the pages of this work, William the Silent, of Orange, the central figure, stands every inch a hero, a leader worthy of his cause and of his people. Motley with an artist's skill shows how this great leader launched Holland on her victorious career. This history is a living story, faithful to facts, but it is written to convince the reader that "freedom of thought, of speech, and of life" are "blessings without which everything that this earth can afford is worthless."

In choosing to write of the struggle of Holland for her freedom, Motley was actuated by the same reason that prompted his forefathers to fight on Bunker Hill. He wanted to play at least a historian's part in presenting "the great spectacle which was to prove to Europe that principles and peoples still existed, and that a phlegmatic nation of merchants and manufacturers could defy the powers of the universe, and risk all their blood and treasure, generation after generation, in a sacred cause."

_The History of the United Netherlands_ continues this story after Holland, free and united, proved herself a power that could no longer remain unheeded in Europe. _The Life and Death of John of Barneveld_, which brings the history of Holland down to about 1623, was planned as an introduction to a final history of that great religious and political conflict, called the Thirty Years' War,--a history which Motley did not live to finish.

Although no historian has spent more time than Motley in searching the musty records and state archives of foreign lands for matter relating to Holland, it was impossible for a man of his temperament, convictions, and purpose to write a calm, dispassionate history. He is not the cool judge, but the earnest advocate, and yet he does not distort facts. He is just and can be coldly critical, even of his heroes, but he is always on one side, the side of liberty and justice, pleading their cause. His temperament gives warmth, eloquence, and dramatic passion to his style. Individual incidents and characters stand forth sharply defined. His subject seems remarkably well suited to him because his love of liberty was a sacred passion. With this feeling to fire his blood, the unflinching Hollander to furnish the story, and his eloquent style to present it worthily, Motley's _Rise of the Dutch Republic_ is a prose epic of Dutch liberty.

Francis Parkman (1823-1893)--The youngest and greatest of this group of historians was born of Puritan blood in Boston in 1823. Parkman's life from early childhood was a preparation for his future work, and when a mere lad at college, he had decided to write a history of the French and Indian War. He was a delicate child, and at the age of eight was sent to live with his grandfather, who owned at Medway, near Boston, a vast tract of woodland. The boy roamed at will through these forests, and began to amass that wood lore of which his histories hold such rich stores. At Harvard he overworked in the gymnasium with the mistaken purpose of strengthening himself for a life on the frontier.

In 1846, two years after graduation, he took his famous trip out west over the Oregon Trail, where he hunted buffalo on the plains, dragged his horse through the canyons to escape hostile Indians, lived in the camp of the warlike Dacota tribe, and learned by bitter experience the privations of primitive life.

His health was permanently impaired by the trip. He was threatened with absolute blindness, and was compelled to have all his notes read to him and to dictate his histories. For years he was forbidden literary work on account of insomnia and intense cerebral pain which threatened insanity, and on account of lameness he was long confined to a wheel chair. He rose above every obstacle, however, and with silent fortitude bore his sufferings, working whenever he could, if for only a bare half hour at a time.

His amazing activity during his trips, both in America and abroad, is shown in the Massachusetts Historical Society Library, which contains almost two hundred folio volumes, which he had experts copy from original sources. With few exceptions, he visited every spot which he described, and saw the life of nearly every tribe of Indians. His battle with ill health, his strength of character, and his energetic first-hand study of Indian and pioneer life are remarkable in the history of American men of letters. He died near Boston in 1893.

Because of their subject matter, Parkman's works are of unusual interest to Americans. When he returned from his pioneer western trip, he wrote a simple, straightforward account, which was in 1849 published in book form, under the title of _The California and Oregon Trail._ This book remains the most trustworthy, as well as the most entertaining, account of travel in the unsettled Northwest of that time. Indians, big game, and adventures enough to satisfy any reasonable boy may be found in this book.

His histories cover the period from the early French settlements in the New World to the victory of the English over the French and Indian allies. The titles of his separate works, given in their chronological order, are as follows :--

_The Pioneers of France in the New World_ (1865) describes the experiences of the early French sailors and explorers off the Newfoundland coast and along the St. Lawrence River.

_The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century_ (1867) tells of the work of the self-forgetting Jesuit Fathers in their mission of mercy and conversion among the Indians. Fifty pages of the _Introduction_ give an account of the religion, festivities, superstitions, burials, sacrifices, and military organization of the Indians.

_La Salle, or the Discovery of the Great West_ (1869), is the story of La Salle's heroic endeavors and sufferings while exploring the West and the Mississippi River.

_The Old Regime in Canada_ (1874) presents the internal conflicts and the social development of Canada in the seventeenth century.

_Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV_. (1877) continues the history of Canada as a French dependency, and paints in a lively manner Count Frontenac's character, his popularity with the Indians, and his methods of winning laurels for France.

_A Half Century of Conflict_ (1892) depicts the sharp encounter between the French and English for the possession of the country, and the terrible deeds of the Indians against their hated foes, the English.

_Montcalm and Wolfe_ (1884) paints the final scenes of the struggle between France and England, closing practically with the fall of Quebec.

_The History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac_ (1851) shows one more desperate attempt of a great Indian chief to combine the tribes of his people and drive out the English. The volume closes with the general smoking of the pipe of peace and the swearing of allegiance to England. The first forty-five pages describe the manners and customs of the Indian tribes east of the Mississippi.

The general title, _France and England in North America_, indicates the subject matter of all this historical work. The central theme of the whole series is the struggle between the French and English for this great American continent. The trackless forests, the Great Lakes, the untenanted shores of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi form an impressive background for the actors in this drama,--the Indians, traders, self-sacrificing priests, and the French and English contending for one of the greatest prizes of the world.

In his manner of presenting the different ideals and civilizations of England and France in this struggle, he shows keen analytical power and strong philosophical grasp. He is accurate in his details, and he summarizes the results of economic and religious forces in the strictly modern spirit. At the same time, these histories read like novels of adventure, so vivid and lively is the action. While scholars commend his reliability in dealing with facts, boys enjoy his vivid stories of heroism, sacrifice, religious enthusiasm, Indian craft, and military maneuvering. The one who begins with _The Conspiracy of Pontiac_, for instance, will be inclined to read more of Parkman.

In the first volumes the style is clear, nervous, and a trifle ornate. His facility in expression increased with his years, so that in _Montcalm and Wolfe_ he has a mellowness and dignity that place him beside the best American prose writers. Although Prescott's work is more full of color, he does not surpass Parkman in the presentation of graphic pictures, Parkman has neither the solemn grandeur of Prescott nor the rapid eloquence of Motley, but Parkman has unique merits of his own,--the freshness of the pine woods, the reality and vividness of an eyewitness, an elemental strength inherent in the primitive nature of his novel subject. He secured his material at first hand in a way that cannot be repeated. Parkman's prose presents in a simple, lucid, but vigorous manner the story of the overthrow of the French by the English in the struggle for a mighty continent. As a result of this contest, Puritan England left its lasting impress upon this new land.

ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE PERIOD

Most of the work of the great New England group of writers was done during the Victorian age--a time prolific of famous English authors. The greatest of the English writers were THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881), whose _Sartor Resartus_ and _Heroes and Hero Worship_ proved a stimulus to Emerson and to many other Americans; LORD MACAULAY (1800-1859), whose _Essays_ and _History of England_, remarkable for their clearness and interest, affected either directly or indirectly the prose style of numberless writers in the second half of the nineteenth century; JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900), the apostle of the beautiful and of more ideal social relations; MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888), the great analytical critic; CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870), whose novels of the lower class of English life are remarkable for vigor, optimism, humor, the power to caricature, and to charm the masses; WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (1811-1863), whose novels, like _Vanity Fair_, remain unsurpassed for keen satiric analysis of the upper classes; and GEORGE ELIOT (1819-1880), whose realistic stories of middle class life show a new art in tracing the growth and development of character instead of merely presenting it with the fixity of a portrait. To this list should be added CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882), whose _Origin of Species_ (1859) affected so much of the thought of the second half of the nineteenth century.

The two greatest poets of this time were ALFRED TENNYSON (1809-1892) and ROBERT BROWNING (1812-1889). Browning's greatest poetry aims to show the complex development of human souls, to make us understand that:--

"He fixed thee 'mid this dance
Of plastic circumstance."

[Footnote: _Rabbi Ben Ezra_.]

His influence on the American poets of this group was very slight. Whittier's comment on Browning's _Men and Women_ is amusing:--

"I have only dipped into it, here and there, but it is not exactly
comfortable reading. It seemed to me like a galvanic battery in full
play--its spasmodic utterances and intense passion make me feel as if I
had been taking a bath among electric eels."

Tennyson through his artistic workmanship and poetry of nature exerted more influence. His Arthurian legends, especially _Sir Galahad_ (1842), seem to have suggested Lowell's _Vision of Sir Launfal_ (1848). The New England poets in general looked back to Burns, Wordsworth, Keats, and other members of the romantic school of poets. Lowell was a great admirer of Keats, and in early life, like Whittier, was an imitator of Burns.

LEADING HISTORICAL FACTS

As might be inferred from the literature of this period--from Whittier's early poems, Mrs. Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, Lowell's _The Biglow Papers_, and from emphatic statements in Emerson and Thoreau--the question of slavery was the most vital one of the time. From 1849, when California, recently settled by gold seekers, applied for admission as a state, with a constitution forbidding slavery, until the end of the Civil War in 1865, slavery was the irrepressible issue of the republic. The Fugitive Slave Law, which was passed in 1850 to secure the return of slaves from any part of the United States, was very unpopular at the North and did much to hasten the war, as did also the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case (1857), affirming that slaves were property, not persons, and could be moved the same as cattle from one state to another. Various compromise measures between the North and the South were vainly tried. When Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860, South Carolina led the South in seceding from the Union. In 1861 began the Civil War, which lasted four years and resulted in the restoration of the Union and the freeing of the slaves.

Before Holmes, the last member of this New England group, died in 1894, both North and South had more than regained the material prosperity which they had enjoyed before the war. The natural resources of the country were so great and the energy of her sons so remarkable that not only was the waste of property soon repaired, but a degree of prosperity was reached which would probably never have been possible without the war. More than one million human beings perished in the strife. Many of these were from the more cultured and intellectual classes on both sides. Centuries will not repair that waste of creative ability in either section. France, after the lapse of more than two hundred years, is still suffering from the loss of her Huguenots. It is impossible to compute what American literature has lost as a result of this war, not only from the double waste involved in turning the energies of men to destruction and subsequently to the necessary repairs, but also from the sacrifice of life of those who might have displayed genius with the pen or furnished an encouraging audience to the gifted ones who did not speak because there were none to hear.

The development of inventions during this period revolutionized the world's progress. Cities in various parts of the country had begun to communicate with each other by electricity, when Thoreau was living at Walden; when Emerson was writing the second series of his _Essays_; Longfellow, his lines about cares "folding their tents like the Arabs and as silently stealing away"; Lowell, his verses _To the Dandelion_; and Holmes, his complaint that his humor was diminishing his practice. By the time that Longfellow had finished _The Courtship of Miles Standish_, and Holmes _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_, messages had been cabled across the Atlantic. A comparison with an event of the preceding period will show the importance of this method of communication. The treaty of peace to end the last war with England was signed in Belgium, December 24, 1814. On January 8, 1815, the bloody battle of New Orleans was fought. News of this fight did not reach Washington until February 4. A week later information of the treaty of peace was received at New York. A new process of welding the world together had begun, and this welding was further strengthened by the invention of that modern miracle, the telephone, in 1876.

The result of the battle between the ironclads, the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_ (1862), led to a change in the navies of the entire world. Alaska was bought in 1867, and added an area more than two thirds as large as the United States comprised in 1783. The improvement and extension of education, the interest in social reform, the beginning of the decline of the "let alone doctrine," the shortening of the hours of labor, and the consequent increase in time for self-improvement,--are all especially important steps of progress in this period.

Authors could no longer complain of small audiences. At the outbreak of the Civil War the United States had a population of thirty-one millions, while the combined population of Great Britain and Ireland was then only twenty-nine millions. Before Holmes passed away in 1894 the population of 1860 had doubled. The passage of an international copyright law in 1891 at last freed American authors from the necessity of competing with pirated editions of foreign works.

SUMMARY

The great mid-nineteenth century group of New England writers included Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, who were often called the Concord group, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, Daniel Webster, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, Holmes, and the historians, Prescott, Motley, and Parkman.

The causes of this great literary awakening were in some measure akin to those which produced the Elizabethan age,--a "re-formation" of religious opinion and a renaissance, seen in a broader culture which did not neglect poetry, music, art, and the observation of beautiful things.

The philosophy known as transcendentalism left its impress on much of the work of this age. The transcendentalists believed that human mind could "transcend" or pass beyond experience and form a conclusion which was not based on the world of sense. They were intense idealists and individualists, who despised imitation and repetition, who were full of the ecstasy of discoveries in a glorious new world, who entered into a new companionship with nature, and who voiced in ways as different as _The Dial_ and Brook Farm their desire for an opportunity to live in all the faculties of the soul.

The fact that the thought of the age was specially modified by the question of slavery is shown in Webster's orations, Harriet Beecher Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, the poetry of Whittier and Lowell, and to a less degree in the work of Emerson, Thoreau, and Longfellow.

We have found that Emerson's aim, shown in his _Essays_ and all his prose work, is the moral development of the individual, the acquisition of self-reliance, character, spirituality. Some of his nature poetry ranks with the best produced in America. Thoreau, the poet-naturalist, shows how to find enchantment in the world of nature. Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the great romance writers of the world, has given the Puritan almost as great a place in literature as in history. In his short stories and romances, this great artist paints little except the trial and moral development of human souls in a world where the Ten Commandments are supreme.

Longfellow taught the English-speaking world to love simple poetry. He mastered the difficult art of making the commonplace seem attractive and of speaking to the great common heart. His ability to tell in verse stories like _Evangeline_ and _Hiawatha_ remains unsurpassed among our singers. Whittier was the great antislavery poet of the North. Like Longfellow, he spoke simply but more intensely to that overwhelming majority whose lives stand most in need of poetry. His _Snow-Bound_ makes us feel the moral greatness of simple New England life. The versatile Lowell has written exquisite nature poetry in his lyrics and _Vision of Sir Launfal_ and _The Biglow Papers_. He has produced America's best humorous verse in _The Biglow Papers_ and _A Fable for Critics_. He is a great critic, and his prose criticism in _Among My Books_ and the related volumes is stimulating and interesting. His political prose, of which the best specimen is _Democracy_, is remarkable for its high ideals. Holmes is especially distinguished for his humor in such poems as _The Deacon's Masterpiece, or the Wonderful One-Hoss Shay_ and for the pleasant philosophy and humor in such artistic prose as _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_. He is the only member of this group who often wrote merely to entertain, but his _Chambered Nautilus_ shows that he also had a more serious aim.

When we come to the historians, we find that Prescott wrote of the romantic achievements of Spain in the days of her glory; Motley, of the struggles of the Dutch Republic to keep religious and civil liberty from disappearing from this earth; Parkman, of the contest of the English against the French and Indians to decide whether the institutions and literature of North America should be French or English.

This New England literature is most remarkable for its moral quality, its gospel of self-reliance, its high ideals, its call to the soul to build itself more stately mansions.

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

HISTORICAL

For contemporary English history consult the histories mentioned on p. 60. The chapter on Victorian literature in the author's _History of English Literature_ gives the trend of literary movements on the other side of the Atlantic during this period.

Contemporary American history may be traced in the general works listed on p. 61, or in Woodrow Wilson's _Division and Reunion_.

LITERARY

GENERAL WORKS

In addition to the works of Richardson, Wendell, and Trent (p. 61), the following may be consulted:--

Nichol's _American Literature_.

Churton Collins's _The Poets and Poetry of America_.

Vincent's _American Literary Masters_.

Stedman's _Poets of America_.

Onderdonk's _History of American Verse_.

Lawton's _The New England Poets_.

Erskine's _Leading American Novelists_. (Mrs. Stowe, Hawthorne.)

Brownell's _American Prose Masters_. (Especially Emerson and Lowell.)

Howells's _Literary Friends and Acquaintance_. (Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes.)

SPECIAL WORKS

Frothingham's _Transcendentalism in New England_.

Dowden's _Studies in Literature_. (Transcendentalism.)

Swift's _Brook Farm_.

Fields's _The Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe_.

Lodge's _Daniel Webster_.

Woodberry's _Ralph Waldo Emerson_.

Holmes's _Ralph Waldo Emerson_.

Garnett's _Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson_.

Sanborn's _Ralph Waldo Emerson_.

Cabot's _A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson_, 2 vols.

E. W. Emerson's _Emerson in Concord_.

Lowell's _Emerson the Lecturer_, in _Works_, Vol. I.

Woodbury's _Talks with Ralph Waldo Emerson_.

Sanborn's _Henry David Thoreau_.

Salt's _Life of Henry David Thoreau_.

Channing's _Thoreau, The Poet Naturalist_.

Marble's _Thoreau_, _His Home_, _Friends_, and _Books_.

James Russell Lowell's _Thoreau_, in _Works_, Vol. I.

Burroughs's _Indoor Studies_, Chap. 1., _Henry D. Thoreau_.

Woodberry's _Nathaniel Hawthorne_.

Henry James's _Hawthorne_.

Conway's _Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne_.

Fields's _Nathaniel Hawthorne_.

Julian Hawthorne's _Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife_.

George Parsons Lathrop's _A Study of Hawthorne_.

Bridge's _Personal Recollections of Nathaniel Hawthorne_.

Rose Hawthorne Lathrop's _Memories of Hawthorne_.

Julian Hawthorne's _Hawthorne and his Circle_.

Gates's _Studies and Appreciations_. (Hawthorne.)

Canby's _The Short Story in English_, Chap. XII. (Hawthorne.)

Samuel Longfellow's _Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with Extracts from his Journals and Correspondence_, 3 vols.

Higginson's _Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_.

Carpenter's _Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_.

Robertson's _Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_.

Carpenter's _John Greenleaf Whittier_.

Higginson's _John Greenleaf Whittier_.

Perry's _John Greenleaf Whittier_.

Pickard's _Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier_, 2 vols.

Pickard's _Whittier-Land_.

Greenslet's _James Russell Lowell, his Life and Work_.

Hale's _James Russell Lowell_. (_Beacon Biographies_.)

Scudder's _James Russell Lowell, A Biography_, 2 vols.

Hale's _James Russell Lowell and his Friends_.

James Russell Lowell's _Letters_, edited by Charles Eliot Norton.

Morse's _Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes_, 2 vols.

Haweis's _American Humorists_.

Ticknor's _Life of William Hickling Prescott_.

Ogden's _William Hickling Prescott_.

Peck's _William Hickling Prescott_.

Holmes's _John Lothrop Motley, A Memoir_.

Curtis's _The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley_.

Sedgwick's _Francis Parkman_.

Farnham's _A Life of Francis Parkman_.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Since the works of the authors of the New England group are nearly always accessible, it is not usually necessary to specify editions or the exact place where the readings may be found. Those who prefer to use books of selections will find that Page's _The Chief American Poets_, 713 pp., contains nearly all of the poems recommended for reading. Prose selections may be found in Carpenter's _American Prose_, and still more extended selections in Stedman and Hutchinson's _Library of American Literature_.

TRANSCENDENTALISM AND THE DIAL.--Read Emerson's lecture on _The Transcendentalist_, published in the volume called _Nature, Addresses, and Lectures_. _The Dial_ is very rare and difficult to obtain outside of a large library. George Willis Cooke has collected in one volume under the title, _The Poets of Transcendentalism, An Anthology_ (1903), 341 pp., some of the best of the poems published in _The Dial_, as well as much transcendental verse that appeared elsewhere.

SLAVERY AND ORATORY.--Selections from _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ may be found in Carpenter, 312-322; S. & H., VII., 132-144. Webster's _Reply to Hayne_ is given in Johnston's _American Orations_, Vol. I., 248-302. There are excellent selections from Webster in Carpenter, 105-118, and S. & H., IV., 462-469. Selections from the other orators mentioned may be found in Johnston and S. & H.

EMERSON.--Read from the volume, _Nature, Addresses, and Lectures_, the chapters called _Nature_, _Beauty_, _Idealism_, and the "literary declaration of independence" in his lecture, _The American Scholar_. From the various other volumes of his _Essays_, read _Self-Reliance_, _Friendship_, _Character_, _Civilization_.

From his nature poetry, read _To Ellen at the South_, _The Rhodora_, _Each and All_, _The Humble-Bee_, _Woodnotes_, _The Snow-Storm_. For a poetical exposition of his philosophy, read _The Problem_, _The Sphinx_, and _Brahma_.

THOREAU.--If possible, read all of _Walden_; if not, Chaps. I., _Economy_, IV., _Sounds_, and XV., _Winter Animals_ (Riverside Literature Series). From the volume called _Excursions_, read the essay _Wild Apples_. Many will be interested to read here and there from his _Notes on New England Birds_ and from the four volumes, compiled from his _Journal_, describing the seasons.

HAWTHORNE.--At least one of each of the different types of his short stories should be read. His power in impressing allegorical or symbolic truth may be seen in _The Snow Image_ or _The Great Stone Face_. As a specimen of his New England historical tales, read one or more of the following: _The Gentle Boy_, _The Maypole of Merry Mount_, _Lady Eleanore's Mantle_, or even the fantastic _Young Goodman Brown_, which presents the Puritan idea of witchcraft. For an example of his sketches or narrative essays, read _The Old Manse_ (the first paper in _Mosses from an Old Manse_) or the _Introduction_ to _The Scarlet Letter_.

_The Scarlet Letter_ may be left for mature age, but _The House of the Seven Gables_ should be read by all.

From his books for children, _The Golden Touch (Wonder Book)_ at least should be read, no matter how old the reader.

LONGFELLOW.--His best narrative poem is _Hiawatha_, and its strongest part is _The Famine_, beginning:--

"Oh, the long and dreary Winter!"

The opening lines of _Evangeline_ should be read for both the beauty of the poetry and the novelty of the meter. The first four sections of _The Courtship of Miles Standish_ should be read for its pictures of the early days of the first Pilgrim settlement. His best ballads are _The Wreck of the Hesperus, The Skeleton in Armor, Paul Revere's Ride,_ and _The Birds of Killingworth._ For specimens of his simple lyrics, which have had such a wide appeal, read _A Psalm of Life, The Ladder of St. Augustine, The Rainy Day, The Day is Done, Daybreak, Resignation, Maidenhood, My Lost Youth._

WHITTIER.--Read the whole of _Snow-Bound,_ and for specimens of his shorter lyrics, _Ichabod_, _The Lost Occasion_, _My Playmate_, _Telling the Bees_, _The Barefoot Boy_, _In School Days_, _My Triumph_, _An Autograph,_ and _The Eternal Goodness._ His best ballads are _Maud Muller, Skipper Ireson's Ride,_ and _Cassandra Southwick._

LOWELL.--From among his shorter lyrical poems, read _Our Love is not a Fading Earthly Flower, To the Dandelion, The Present Crisis, The First Snow-Fall, After the Burial, For an Autograph, Prelude to Part I. of The Vision of Sir Launfal._ From _The Biglow Papers,_ read _What Mr. Robinson Thinks_ (No. III., _First Series_), _The Courtin'_ (_Introduction_ to _Second Series_), _Sunthin' in the Pastoral Line_ (No. VI., _Second Series_). From _A Fable for Critics,_ read the lines on Cooper, Poe, and Irving.

The five of Lowell's greater literary essays mentioned on page 254 show his critical powers at their best. The student who wishes shorter selections may choose those paragraphs which please him and any thoughts from the political essay _Democracy_ which he thinks his neighbor should know.

HOLMES.--Read The _Deacon's Masterpiece, or the Wonderful One-Hoss Shay_, _The Ballad of the Oysterman_, _The Boys_, _The Last Leaf,_ and _The Chambered Nautilus._ From _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,_ the student may select any pages that he thinks his friends would enjoy hearing.

THE HISTORIANS.--Selections from Prescott, Motley, and Parkman may be found in Carpenters _American Prose_.

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

POETRY.--Compare Emerson's _Woodnotes_ with Bryant's _Thanatopsis_ and _A Forest Hymn_. Make a comparison of these three poems of motion: _The Evening Wind_ (Bryant), _The Humble-Bee_ (Emerson), and _Daybreak_ (Longfellow), and give reasons for your preference. Compare in like manner _The Snow-Storm_ (Emerson), the first sixty-five lines of _Snow-Bound_ (Whittier), and _The First Snow-Fall_ (Lowell). To which of these three simple lyrics of nature would you award the palm: _To the Fringed Gentian_ (Bryant), _The Rhodora_ (Emerson), _To the Dandelion_ (Lowell)? After making your choice of these three poems, compare it with these two English lyrics of the same class: _To a Mountain Daisy_ (Burns), _Daffodils_ (Wordsworth, the poem beginning "I wandered lonely as a cloud"), and again decide which poem pleases you most.

Compare the humor of these two short poems describing a wooing: _The Courtin'_ (Lowell), _The Ballad of the Oysterman_ (Holmes). Discuss the ideals of these four poems: _A Psalm of Life_ (Longfellow), _For an Autograph_ (Lowell), _An Autograph_ (Whittier), _The Chambered Nautilus_ (Holmes).

What difference in the mental characteristics of the authors do these two retrospective poems show: _My Lost Youth_ (Longfellow), _Memories_ (Whittier)? For a more complete answer to this question, compare the girls in these two poems: _Maidenhood_ (Longfellow):--

"Maiden, with the meek, brown eyes,
In whose orbs a shadow lies,"

and _In School Days_ (Whittier), beginning with the lines where he says of the winter sun long ago:--

"It touched the tangled golden curls,
And brown eyes full of grieving."

Matthew Arnold, that severe English critic, called one of these poems perfect of its kind, and Oliver Wendell Holmes cried over one of them. The student who reads these carefully is entitled to rely on his own judgment, without verifying which poem Arnold and Holmes had in mind.

Compare Longfellow's ballads: _The Skeleton in Armor_, _The Birds of Killingworth_, and _The Wreck of the Hesperus_, with Whittier's _Skipper Ireson's Ride_, _Cassandra Southwick_, and _Maud Muller_.

Compare Whittier's _Snow-Bound_ with Burns's _Cotter's Saturday Night_. In Whittier's poem, what group of lines descriptive of (_a_) nature, and (_b_) of inmates of the household pleases you most?

What parts of _Hiawatha_ do you consider the best? What might be omitted without great damage to the poem?

In _The Courtship of Miles Standish_, which incidents or pictures of the life of the Pilgrims appeal most strongly to you?

What was the underlying purpose in writing _The Biglow Papers_ and _One-Hoss Shay_? Do we to-day read them chiefly for this purpose or for other reasons? In what does the humor of each consist?

PROSE.--Why is it said that Mrs. Stowe showed a knowledge of psychological values? What were the chief causes of the influence of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_?

What are Webster's chief characteristics? Why does he retain his preeminence among American orators?

What transcendental qualities does Emerson's prose show? From any of his _Essays_ select thoughts which justify Tyndall's (p. 192) statement about Emerson's stimulating power. What passages show him to be a great moral teacher?

What was Thoreau's object in going to Walden? Of what is he the interpreter? What was his mission? What passages in _Walden_ please you most? What is the reason for such a steady increase in Thoreau's popularity?

Point out the allegory or symbolism in any of Hawthorne's tales. Which of his short stories do you like best? What is Hawthorne's special aim in _The Snow Image_ and _The Gentle Boy_? What qualities give special charm to sketches like _The Old Manse_ and the _Introduction_ to _The Scarlet Letter_? What is the underlying motive to be worked out in _The House of the Seven Gables_? Why is it said that the Ten Commandments reign supreme in Hawthorne's world of fiction? Was he a classicist or a romanticist (p. 219)? What qualities do you notice in his style?

In Lowell's critical essays, what unusual turns of thought do you find to challenge your attention? Does he employ humor in his serious criticism?

What most impresses you in reading selections from _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_, the humor, sprightliness, and variety of the thought, or the style? What especially satisfactory pages have you found?

Make a comparison (_a_) of the picturesqueness and color, (_b_) of the energy of presentation, (_c_) of the power to develop interest, and (_d_) of the style, shown in the selections which you have chosen from Prescott, Motley, and Parkman. Compare their style with that of Macaulay in his _History of England_.