Because readers liked what he wrote, Longfellow became the first American poet to earn fame and fortune in this way. Freedom of expression has opened the broad field of American education to writers of every kind for every reason. Some writers are remembered because they gave the world great books. It is to be doubted that all fame for writing has been gained in this way. Some writers may never have surfaced or survived had their work not been promoted and popularized by others, and sustained at tax payer expense, through public libraries and public education.
Honest people tend to judge fellow citizens by standards held for themselves.
When an intellectually honest person encounters vital Truth, he must decide what to do about it. For some among us, truth is what one wants it to be. Social designers in pursuit of Utopia without God, introduced a brand new concept of truth. The intellectual revolution it caused and the impact it had on man's concept of himself and the world were greater than those caused by the works of Copernicus, Newton, and the greatest physicists of more recent times. Charles Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, gained fame as a naturalist by writing Evolution, New and Old.