The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-26 00:00:00

Art and Literature in America•

The history of mankind shows that great political and
soeial convulsions are followed by periods of extraordinary
intellectual development. The mental activity stimulated
at such times produces sooner or later great writers,
po,ets, statesmen, philosophers, and men distinguished for
remarkable qualities in other respects. The effect may
not appear immediately, and sometimes many years or a
generation may pass away before it is apparent ; but it is
seen in the end. National character the spirit of the age,
and many circumstances operate in quickening or retard-
ing the intellectual movement thus set in motion, just as
seed sown in a rich soil, and under a hot sun, will spring
up and produce fruit much sooner than in-a poorer soil and
colder climate. Still, by a fixed law of nature, the fruit
comes at last in one case as well as in the other. So we
may confidently expect that after our rebellion there wil
be an intellectual awakening and development correspond-
ing to the magnitude of the events and revolution we have
passed and are passing through.

The internal convulsions of Rome in the time of Julius
Omar and immediately after his death were succeeded by
that brilliant period known as the Augustan age. The
wars and heroes of Rome might be forgotten, but the in-
tellectual achievements in literature and art which fol-
lowed, and were the consequences of that revolutionary
period, will live for ever. It has been truly said that "the
poetic and dramatic wealth and magnificence of the era of
Elizabeth and James," in England, known as the Eliza-
bethan age, " came, for the most part, out of the passions
that had been stirred and the strength that had been ac-
quired in the mighty contests and convulsions which filled
in England and throughout Europe the middle of the six-
teenth century." From this mighty awakening period
arose, in unsurpassed splendour, such minds as those of
Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Bacon, Raleigh, Burton, and
others. Another "breaking up of old institutions and re-
edification of the State upon a new foundation and a new
principle" in the last sixty years of the seventeenth century
was followed by that galaxy of wits and fine writers of the
age of Queen Anne. Milton, Dryden, Hobbes, Newton,
and a host of other great minds rose out of this revolu-
tionary period. It is worthy of remark that this mental
renaissance commenced about the same time that the first
newspapers were published. It was the era, too, when
medical science, natural philosophy, mathematics, and
natural history were explored and shed light upon the
world. " The poetical dayspring that came with our own
century," and the extraordinary intellectual developments
in so many other respects, arose with and came out of, to
some extent, another revolution. The American Revo-
lution of 1776, and the French Revolution, fourteen
years afterward, upset the political ideas of the
world. French and German literature had been silently
preparing the public mind for these changes, and
when the sturdy colonists of America, from a pure love
of liberty, established a Republican form of Government.,
the speculative ideas of European writers of the eighteenth
century spread with great rapidity. The whole frame-
work of society was upheaved by the earthquake that
followed. Paris became the great central volcano. Wars
and revolutions agitated the whole civilised world. It
was the greatest revolution in the history of mankind, and
it is not yet ended. We see what effect it has produced
upon the age in literature, and particularly in the wonder-
ful progress that has been made in science and the mechani-
cal arts. We have not felt it so much directly as the
people of Europe, though it has exercised an influence
over us in some degree. The mental excitement caused
by the astonishing events that closed up the eighteenth
century and at the commencement of the nineteenth
had a powerful effect upon English literature. A distin-
guished author calls this the last of three " great sun•
bursts" of English literature. Then appeared Words-
worth, Coleridge, Scott, Moore, Byron, Shelley, Hunt,
Wilson, Charles Lamb, Sidney Smith, and a host of other
brilliant men. We refer to English history chiefly to
illnstrato our views ; but the history of France or of any
other great civilised nation might be taken for the same
purpose.
Reasoning from what has happened to other nations
we may expect a great revival of mental activity in this
country, as the natural consequence of our unprecedented
war and the extraordinary revolution we are passing
through. During what we may term the youthful period
of our existence the American mind has been occupied
chiefly in material matters, in developing the resources of
a virgin continent, in commerce, in manufactures, and
in the mechanical arts. In these we have made wonder-
ful progress. In inventions, and the application of them
to the necessities of life and the wants of the age, we
are not behind the foremost nation in the world, and
perhaps wo stand first. The same faculties and charac-
teristic mental energy when applied to literature and the
fine arts will give us a pro-eminence in these also.
The public mind of America is now passing through that
fermentation which precedes great achievements. We
think we see, however, the dawn just breaking of a new
and grand period of American literature and art. We
have reached the full stature and vigor of manhood in a
bound, so to speak, within a few years. With regard to
the fine arts, painting, and sculpture, we have only to go
to our public buildings and galleries, and to numerous
private collections, to see what strides we are making ;
and this is evidently but the beginning, for we see artists
springing up all around us. Although we cannot boast
of the literature of the day, which is the offspring of the
period antecedent to the war, there is certainly being de-
veloped a better style, as well as more vigour of thought.
The vast number of those who are turning their atten-
tion to literary pursuits, both men and women, shows
the mental activity and ambition of the time. The class
of writers, too, who are springing up just now are young
and fresh. Time, experience, competition, and proper
criticism will improve the defects that are naturally inci-