. The poets' New England. e impression that he was always greaterthan anything he had done. Every competent ob-server felt that his career would be a crescendo. Em-erson was fond of listening, but after a set-to he oftenmade a philosophical summary or scholium that wasbeautiful and memorable. The life of these men together, literary and social,gives us a delightful impression of mid-nineteenth-century New England. The more one studies it themore one feels its gracious and uplifting there were any jealousies or jars or smallnesses ofany kind among them they certainly do not come o
. The poets' New England. e impression that he was always greaterthan anything he had done. Every competent ob-server felt that his career would be a crescendo. Em-erson was fond of listening, but after a set-to he oftenmade a philosophical summary or scholium that wasbeautiful and memorable. The life of these men together, literary and social,gives us a delightful impression of mid-nineteenth-century New England. The more one studies it themore one feels its gracious and uplifting there were any jealousies or jars or smallnesses ofany kind among them they certainly do not come outin the records of their lives. They were as splendida group of men, intellectually and morally, as theworld has even seen; sufficiently original in genius andtemperament to make distinctive places for them-selves in English literature, and to bring into it thenote, in varying tones, of Democracy triumphant, notonly in pohtics, but in social life—the true meaning ofwhich is freedom to be just and honorable; to be help-. p M nPi<! THE POETS NEW ENGLAND 289 ful to and appreciative of all human efforts; to culti-vate ones own talents to the uttermost, with modestfaith in them and a recognition that all others may dothe same. What these men and their colleagues haveso well begun, it behooves younger generations tofollow. The chief element of a great literature isloyalty to lofty ideals. If this is present, as it was toan unusual degree in all these poets, there may beflaws discoverable in imaginative handling and tech-nique, but they concern us no more than a few ir-regularities of feature in one whose soul we love. THOUGHT:EMOTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL 291 As the birds come in the Spring,We know not from where;As the stars come at eveningFrom depths of the air; As the rain comes from, the the brook from the ground;As suddenly, low or of silence a sound; As the grape comes to the fruit to the tree;As the wind comes to the the tide to the sea;
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