The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-04-20

| hero cannot look down on the word or gesture u
a child Ii is rs great as they. The attraction
Of these manners is, that they belong 10 man
and are known 10 every man in virtue Of has be-
ing once child; beside that always there are
individuals who retain these characteristics.
person of childlike genius and Unborn energy
| Is still Greek, and reviyes our love oil the
muse Of HeIIas. A great boy, great girl, with
good sense. is a Greek Beautiful is the loyesof
Nature in the Phioctetes. But in reading those
fine apostrophes 10 sleep, 10 the stars, rocks
mountains. waves, ! feel time passing away AZ
an ebbing sea. | feel the eternity Of man, The
identity ofhis thought. The Greek had, i seems,
the same fellow beings as l. The sun and moon,
water and fire, met his heart precisely as they
meet mine. Then the Wanted distinction be-
tween Greek and English between Classic and
Romantic seems superficial and pedaniic. When
a thought of Plato becomes thought TO me
when truth that fred the soul Of Pindar fires
mine, time is no more. When feel that we
two meet in perception, that our two souls are
tinged with the same hue, and do, as Il were.
run into one, why should measure degrees oil
latitude, why should count Egyptian years
SELr-REILANcE.-Tru thyself every heart
vibrates TO that iron string Accept the place
the divine Providence has found for you; the
societies Of your contemporaries, the connexion
OF events. Great men have always done SO ana
| confdcd themselves child-like 10 the genius oil
their age, beiraying their perception that the
Eternal was stirring at their heart, working
through their hands, predominating in all their
| being. And we are now men, and must accept
| in the highest mind the same transcendent des-
tiny: and not pinched in a corner, not towards
fleeing before a revolution, but redeemers and
! bencfactors, pious asprants TO be noble clay
plastic under the Almighty effort, lut us advance
| on Chaos and the Dark.
What pretty oracles nature Yields us on this
text in the fact and behavior OF children, babes
and even brutes. That divided and rebel mind,
that distrust of sentiment because our arlth-
metc has computed the strength and means OPP
posed to our purpose; these have not. Their
mind being whole, their eye is as yet uncon-
quered, and when we look in their faces, we are
disconnected. Infancy conforms TO nobody all
conforms TO il, so that one babe commonly makes
| four or five out of the adults who prattle and
play to il. So God has armed youth and puber-
| ty and manhood no less with It's own piquancy
and charm, and made il enviable and gracious
| and its claims not to be put by, If it will stand
by itself Do not think the youth has no force
because he cannot speak to you and me. Hark!
in the next room, who spoke so clear and en-
| phatic Good Heavens! il is he il is that very
lump of bashfulness and phlegm which for weeks
has done nothing but eat when you were by,
that now rolls out these words like bell-strokes.
1t seems he knows how 10 speak TO his cotem-
poraries Bashful or bold, then, he will know
how to make us seniors unnecessary.
The Uses OF ADVERSELY The compensations
of calamity are made apparent to the under
standing also, after long intervals OF time. a
fever, mu,aton, cruel disappointment,
loss of wealth, loss Of friends, seems at the
moment unpaid loss, and unpayabe. But the
sure years reveal the peep remedial force that
| underlies all facts The death Of dear friend,
wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but
privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of
| guide or genius; for it commonly operates re-
violations in our way Of life, terminates an epoch
of infancy or of youth which was waiting TO be
closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or
household, or style of living, and allows the for
nation of new ones more friendly TO the growth
| of character. 1t permits or constrans the for
nation Of new acquaintance, and the rccep-
ton of new influences that prove OF the first
| importance to the next years; and the man or
| woman who would have remained sunny gar
den flower, with no room for It's roots and too
much sunshine for its head, by the falling oil the
walls and the neglect of the gardener, is made
the bantam of the forest, yielding shade and frpt
to wide neighborhoods of men.
THE WORM OF BooKs.-The effect Of any
writing on the public mind is mathematically
measurable by its depth Of thought. How much
water does il draw2 fit awaken you 10 think;
if it lift you from your feet with the great voice
of eloquence then the effect is TO be wide, slow,
permanent over the minds of men; if the pages
instruct you NOT, lney VIII ulc IKE MES III tiie
hour. The way TO speak and write what shall
not 90 out of fashion, is, to speak and write sin
cerely. The argument which has not power TO
reach my own practice, / may well doubt, will
fail to reach yours. But take Sidney's maxim:
g Look in thy heart, and write" He that writes
TO himself, writes to an eternal public. That
statement only is fit TO be made public which
you have come at in attempting TO satisfy your
own curiosity The writer who takes his sub
ject from his ear and not from his heart, should
know that he has lost much as he seems TO
have gained, and when the empty book has
gathered all its praise and half the people say,
-swhat poetry what genius = il still needs
fuel to make fire. That only profits which is
profitable. Life alone can impart life; and
though we should burst we can only be valued
as we make ourselves valuable. There is no
luck in literary reputation They who make up
the final verdict upon every book are not the
partial and noisy readers Of the hour when II
appears; but court as of angels, public not
to be brbed, not TO be entreated, and not 10 be
overawed, decides upon every mans title 10
fame. Only those books come down which de
serve to last All the gilt edges and vellum and
morocco, all the prescntation-copies TO all the
Libraries will not preserve book in circulation
beyond its intrinsic date. 1t must go with all
Wapole's Noble and Royal Authors TO its fate.
Blackmorc, Kotzebue, or Pollok may endure for
a night but Moses and Homer stand forever
There are not in the world at any one time
more than dozen persons who read and under
stand Plato ;-never enough 10 pay for an edi-
ton of his works yet to every generation these
come duly down, for the sake of these few per
sons as il God brought them in his hand. mo
book" said Bentley, "was ever written down
by any but itself" The permanence of all
books is fixed by effort friendly or hostile, but
by their own specific gravity, or the intrinsic
importance of their contents TO the constant
mind of man. do not trouble yourself too
much about the light on your statue" said Mi