. Quabbin; the story of a small town with outlooks upon Puritan life . author gaining hold of him, and whenhe comes to the end will confess to having a lamp inhis throat. The literary periodicals of this time (about 1840)were generally feeble and superficial. Some of themwere largely made up of articles borrowed fromBritish magazines ; and their original contributorswere poorly paid, when paid at all. Five dollars wasnot considered a contemptible sum to offer a writer;some of Hawthornes early tales brought him no looking over these magazines we get an impressionthat is both painful and
. Quabbin; the story of a small town with outlooks upon Puritan life . author gaining hold of him, and whenhe comes to the end will confess to having a lamp inhis throat. The literary periodicals of this time (about 1840)were generally feeble and superficial. Some of themwere largely made up of articles borrowed fromBritish magazines ; and their original contributorswere poorly paid, when paid at all. Five dollars wasnot considered a contemptible sum to offer a writer;some of Hawthornes early tales brought him no looking over these magazines we get an impressionthat is both painful and comic. Among the inapti-tudes and the crude attempts at fine writing, there areoccasional gems from poets who were just becomingknown ; but it is evident the number of cultivatedreaders was small, and the managers strove to attractthe public by means of fashion-plates, meretriciousengravings, and other devices. The progress of American literature, and of literarytaste among readers, was exceedingly slow, — almostimperceptible. Excepting the eminent preachers and. Playmates kv thk Haystack LITERATURE 51 the public orators, few literary men had any following,or any serious consideration. British authors heldthe field, and it was not supposed they would everhave successful American rivals. The history of thisdevelopment would take us far beyond the limits oftime and space proper for the story of Quabbin ; buteven fifty years ago the change was in progress, andthe faint streaks of dawn have since brightened into astill advancing day. Of the difficulties which sixty years ago stood inthe way of acquiring a fair knowledge of literature,enough has been said in former chapters. For theelder people of Quabbin the great authors were onlyluminous names, — mere points of light, distant andunknown, like stars. By stated reading-lessons, andby the efforts of a few enlightened schoolmasters, theyounger generation got some notion of the power ofthought and imagination, and the distinction
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