Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1857-10-21
Literature for the South.

NA~ @ot &# 4
We rejoice at any and every attempt to
build up and advance a genuine, healthy Sou
Mern Literature "a love for Letters, for Poe
try, for Education-that will advance civil
zation and true refinement, hallowed by high
toned morality and a deep reverence for reli-
gion. The literature of the Northern portion
of our C~onfederacy has become so blended
withobnoxious matter, poisonous andinsulting
to our people, that We may not rely upon that
quarter for mental aliment; while that of the
old world is equally as reprehensible on ac-
count of its il-disguised rationalism and inf
deity.
The Newberry Sun says:
1.-THE man who hath not music in bis soul,
And is not moved with concord of sweet
sounds,
Is fit for treason, stratagem and spois,"
Is the language of one who had, perhaps,
as deep an insight into human nature as any
one man who ever lived. And this is true of
letters generally. Our life was given to us
for something more than the qualification of
the mere physical man. We live for some
: thing else than the accumulation of wealth,
! the building of Railroads and steam ships,
apa the e~rectien Of magnificent palaces. Al
though cotton is King, we should not worship
it with a devotion so liberal, and a reverence
SO humble, as to close our eyes and hearts to
Of every thing else in Gods universe. There is
a a noble and a better life. "He, who looks
% through natures God" sees a beauty more
= -
ed by one who looks with only a cold specu-
: lating eye upon the goods of this world. The
a. soul of man, unless it seeks that food which
Ia is appropriate to its own proper nourishment,
loses, by degrees, the divine image and sinks
into a mere s~ensuous clod, filed only with
animal instincts and desires. The purer and
better feelings of mans nature must be cul
tiyated he must learn that wealth is not tho
all in all of life, that there is another world
than this, that the universe is filed with th'
:. inspiring presence of Deity T; and that he i
os the child of the universe, at whose creation
God labored, and for whose benefit the SUI
and stars were made.
:, Letters, Poetry, Painting and Music urnis'
:. proper mental stimulus and food, beside
that which is derived from a contemplate
UGH 60 ~
these things? Have we no Literature wo,
oh' thy of the name? Have we no Poets, VIII
have heard, with interior sense, the mornin
p stars singing together? 1t may be that "
ity, have few GREAT writer's AMONGST rs here at Il
; u South our n~ovelists may not take rank wit
olce Scott, or Dickens our Poets with Byron
le i Milton our historians with Prescott or M
NESS cauly our Philosophers with Agazis or Far
n dy but our people are a reading people
II TO Their libraries are enriched with the wor
of those who can never die. There is no la
en- guage on earth richer than ours in bool
ouid, whose tendency is to give the mine a stro
and and healthy moral tone. And it may be
that the writer's of the South will take ra
this as among the noblest of the, world. 'W
was reads an American book" was a quest
once t~auntingly asked by the English, imp
ing that there were no American books W
llder thy of reading. That time has passed,
, and we have now an American literature, VIII
many is not despicable by any means, thoughye
rance its tender infancy.
attic, Are we of the South destitute of the Ct
ready tive power? Is the spirit of Romance de-
salnst Is there no appreciation of the beautiful,
majestic, the sublime in our composition
terest We believe that the genius Of the South
rough yet arise in majesty and beauty, and ms
condi- many, many of her sons and daughters '
public grace, with strength and sweetness equa
; and that of any cline or land. Let us not
sever pair.