Chapter IV · (continued 3)

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.