Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-05-26
ENUMBER 2e5.

was not exterior-it was the subjective, the
thoughtful, the creative. The fact that he
was Consul, that he was member Of the
Brook Farm Association, that he was twice
the recipient Of the favors of that eminent
historian, Mr.. Bancroft, are all nothing
They are credit, not to him, but to those
who conferred the tayors, because they
genius. We remember well hearing an
elderly lady tell the surprise with which
the people of Salem greeted book from
that peculiar. undemonstrative, do-nothing
Young man, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Salem
had not vet discovered the diamond; It Law
rolling in the dust at their feet. But he
came out, and, though slow in letting man.
kind know of the better part of him, he
made his mark deep, and strong, and high,
when he made it. Itis q little angular, but
this recluse. who seemed to avoid men and
the great, busy world about him; who
seemed to make friendship only with ma
ture-knew men most thoroughly. BY an
intuition that belongs to genius only, he
went straight to the springs Of action In his
Judgment Of human nature; and what he
built up, as character creations, were con-
sistent, natural, logical characters; strong,
and isolated, and distinct the outline. He
turned, after all, to man for his real interest.
He did not spend all his days In dissecting
GRANGE, because he loved nature and her sol-
itude. Though he was friend of Emerson
and of Thoreau, and with them read the
sermons in stones, and spent full many long
hours in that occupation, those sermons
from the stones only aided him to understand
man, the centre around which his genius
revolved. In his line, no man In England,
nor in America, has created more powerful
characters; has made more distinctive marks
s.1.
place him at the head of the writers of ro-
nance in this country. He was not of the
style of Cooper, and had not the same fer
tility of genius; but he had far more depth
of thought and power of expression. His
place in American literature is by the side
of Irving. There was the same elaboration,
the same ease. the same completeness of lit
erary execution in the works of each.-
Irving had the wider range, but Haw-
thOrne had the greater concentration;
Irving had the greater tenderness,
and pathos, but Hawthorne the greater
power to stir the stormy passions
Long after the st. Vitus school of to-day,
and its great lights are forgotten only as
abortions in literature these two men will
be read and admired. The charm of their
style is too great to let them die. Litera-
ture with them was a serious business, and
they brought good judgment to direct the
efforts of superior genius and ripe cul-
ture. We cannot help naming them to-
gether. We put their books on the same
shelf, one for the calmer mood, one for the
stormier; one to please and soothe; and one
to draw the angel or the demon in us, and
set them to their labor. We hoped for some
years more OF labor for Hawthorne, but he
Is taken. We shall be thankful for what he
has left behind him. There is no stain or
dishonor on all he did. His books will be-
come 'Great Stone Face" upon which the
longer, until the lineaments of fbenevolence,
and goodness, and power, shall grow into
their characters, and make them the nobler
for the vision of the Superior which his
genius has placed before them.