The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-10-14
WASHINGTON, D. c.
,,,Yyrigkt secured according 10 iair1
For The National Era
HERMAN;
OR,
Young KING q ID
BY Z. FoXToE,
Author Of" Premices."
. CHAPTER Xi-Concluded

:, themselves good or harmless, in bad or
.a;c;oos vay. | do not see that the New
Testament forbids US to make Mammon serve
-. hut Il does tell rs that we cannot serve
God and Msmmon and we do serve Mammon.
Where 90 many bow down, perhaps the coun
,arpoise of the community may best be restored
hv sopne leaning backward. 1t ia the PRIV
lsse of young men situated like me, for instance,
9TH health, com petencs, and leisure, to be able
n do this-among a community, almost all OF
whom do, and most of whom must, work hard
f-money. to work as hard, but not for money
for something better than money-to carry out
literally the apostles direction, Let no man
seek bis own, but another's wealth, as we have
i in our rather intensified version. The more
literally we can carry out such precepts, the
better for US, it seems to me, each and all.
PERHAPS this, in its fullness, is one of those
nrscepts which not all men can receive, but
those to whom it is given but have very
deeply strong impression, that it is given at
least to me- In all my tastes, circumstances,
and condition, within and without, / see as it
we're the workings of the gloved hand of Provi.
dence, pointing and reckoning me to this line
Of ife"
Are you tired of my questions
"Never"
when Edward came in, was just going
70 AK you whether you did not think your love
Of art and literature showed that you might find
pleasure and pursuit in one of those direc-
lions ?"
Pleasure, no doubt. A pursuit such as
need Just now? doubt. Take care of the
duties, and the pleasures will take care Of them.
selves, believe will be the best rule for me,
while my habits for mature life are forming,
particularly after have spent all my past life
for myself"
"But not lost it, surely, Herman, for your
self or for others. You have been fitting your
self for usefulness, feeding and developing your
mind, sharpening your TOOLS"
Sharpening and pointing the weapon of
self indulgence, fear, against myself, among
the rest. However, let the dead past bury its
dead, ard LET me Act act in the living pres
ent' All men can act well. Few can write,
carve, or paint well. On our desth-beds, the
question which we shall ask with most anxiety,
Of those who would cheer and encourage us,
will be, not whether men praise us, but whether
Christ will. At the judgment-seat, the ques-
ton which we shall ask ourselves, and expect,
and prepare to answer with most solicitude, will
be, not what we have written, carved, or painted.
but what we have done. A fellow soul rescued
from Satan, is poem for ali angels reading"
"0h, Herman, indeed some paintings and
poems are deeds in the be. and noblest sense
Of the word Are they not ? You would call 1t
great ard good deed, I am sure, to preach some
sermons but did you ever hear a sermon
which did more to rescue your soul from
thoughtlessness and worldliness than Echeffer's
Dead Christ or Christus Remuneration p or
that helped to fill you with more religious
courage and heroism than Mr.. Langfellow's
Psalm OF Life. or more Christian trust than his
Resignation or than Mrs. Browning's Lines
on Cowper's Grave p"
True, love; have shifted 10y ground, / see,
and you have taken up your position on that
which started from. | surrender. III could,
day by day, paint such pictures, or write such
poems, should think that / was doing my
parl, and my appropriate part, for mankind; and
that had earned right, perhaps, under or.
binary circumstances, to gire the mere rem
hsnis OF my leisure to so called charities. The
preacher by profession may be too often left to
dance alone to his own piping, while even the
immediate bystanders content themselves with
listening or looking on ; but the great Chris
hsn author or artist is a trumpeter whose notes
are heard ever the civilized world. 1t can
hardly be, one would think, but that, among 80
many listeners, many will be found to m arch to
d. IL
low, Mrs. Browning, nor Scheffer. For paint.
ing and sculpture have 80 ne talent, bslieve-
Il don't mean to undervalue myself-but not a
spark of genius. Talent is very good for good
common everyday work in the world, but good
Tor nothing in the-studio"
But | enjoy some of your verses-perhaps
had better not say how much You do not
IKE battery. | do not like vanity
Because | wrote them, Psyche?"
les; because you wrote them-so."
ny verses. L have hoped myself, some.
unes, when l have heard you read them, that
tnere might be something in them. But it is
not every day, nor every week, nor month even.
mat l can write anything that even you or
should think worth reading and / am in q
most unpoetical mood just now One should
I'VE, and think, and feel, and suffer much, too
pefhsps-t God has appointed suffering for
nlm-oetore one should write much. If made
my plan OF life now to go into my room every
morning to write, it would soon change into my
gong there every morning to muse, Sand finally
70 read and doze "a mere literary dilettdnte
should empty into two or three compositions
He crude Accommodations Of my boyhood snC
!ouIh, nave nothing left, and write nothing, or
SUI worse, nonsense or namby.pamby fo
; ;nen VINO write at ali times because they will
'GS'eao OF sometimes because they must mus
Sien write falsely and feebly. Then, feelinf
e NAL had staked my all upon a cast, would o
.'en De enough to make my hand shake Ii
anxiety lest | should fail, l should lose th,
cannes and selfpossessou essential to higl
success. My life wants at least two strings /,
.S oo": believe that one may write the bet
Yer Tor having worked, and work the better fo
-a'ing written. AT any rate, to make one sin
sIe poem live, the life blood of lively livine
years should be drained into it."
foems are vampires, then; and that ia tn,
JASON why you are sometimes 80 pale whel
~ nave been writing. Write no more, then
ou puma, may give up poetry"
Nevgf, I'LL poetry gives up me, and that
.L VIII be only when life does-nor ever
pen, or should be unsatisfied with heaven
-. mink that the best poetry is often tina
ioHows up man in the midst of affairs
s"T forces him to write it, not that which b,
.onoWs up apart from affairs, and forces himsel
y write; 1t is the foam which rises from
WORKING life; the former is to the latter az tn
balnDowed wreaths of spray of Niagara to ,
SoSi OF sosp-suds, which q child puts up int
bubbles with his own breath through tobacco
p,Pe Few men are strong enough to write Z
purpose, who are not also strong enough +
work and wait"
And you think that your work is not, car
So' De, In the ministry 2" said Clara, recurrip
-onuiy to her first idea. sob, Herman, how
should love to hear you preachl"
l. 90 you shall, whenever you please" sal
nc, smlhng and so shall other people whe,