The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-10-21
Chr wdtt-..Mffg.
An frequent rrts.t. to American

An Eloquent Tn1te 70
From E. p.whppe's new volume, Character and
Characteristic Men,
Ii would, indeed be grotesque libel on
some ten millions of educated people to de-
clare that American literature represented
more than attraction of American intelligence.
That intelligence has received q practical
direction, aud is expressed, not in lliiads ana
4Eneids, not 10 Principals, and Cartoons, bat
in Commerce, in Manufactures, in the liberal
professions, in the mechanic arts, IN the arts
oil government and legislation, ID Gil 'hose
fields of labor where men graphic directy
with nature or with social problems winch
perplex his practical activity. To- describe
the miracles which American energy has
wrought in these departments, would be to
invade a domain sacred to caucus speeches
aud all kinds of starred-and>strIpedb raGado,
and perhaps they speak for themselves with
far more emphasis than orators can speak Tor
them, having Thoroughbred, as Carlyle would
say, America, her mark, over whole con
tinent; but it il not generally admitted that
mind-analytical, assimilative, constructive,
creative minds as much implied In these
practical directions of intelligence as III alb
stract science and the fine arts so that, II q
sudden upward ideal turn were given TO the
national sentiment, the intellectual energy
culatiug markets. ami creating capital, and
rush into epics, lyrics and pastorals, would
make Wall street stare and totter, and our
present generation of poets strange them>
selves with their own lines. Indeed, obser-
walton, reason and Imagination are powers
which do not lose their nature in their appii-
cation to widely different objects. Thus Sir
William Hamilton, the acutest analyst OF
Aristotle mental processes, declares that
abstruse and seemingly Juiceless metaphysi'
cian TO have had as great an IMAGINATION as
Homer; and though we are prone to associate
imagination with some elevation OF sentiment,
Shakespeare has given more OF it to lago,
and Goethe has give more of il to Mephisto~
pheles, than Nature gave to Bishop Heber,
the purest of Engand's minor poets. APP
plying this principle to business, we shall Ind
much to disturb the self content of second
rate hierdfeurs and sdrdns. who are accus>
toned to congratulate themselves that, i'll
others have the money, they at least have the
brains, If we should sharply scrutlnize the
mental processes of hrst rate merchant. Is
it observation you demand2 Behold with
what keen accuracy he percelves and dis
eliminates facts. Is IT understanding? Look
at the long trains of reasoning--the conelu
sion OF each argument forming the premise
of the next--bv which he moves, step by
step. n an induction OH whose soundness he
risks character and fortune. Is it wiz
Mark him when a financial hurricane sweeps
over the money market, and observe how
firm IS his grasp OF principles, and how IN
telligently his cold eyes survey the future,
while eroakers all around him are selling and
sacrificing Their property IN paroSysms OF
imbecile apprehension. Is il imagination2
See how to him, in his dingy counting house,
the past becomes present, and the distant
near; his mind speeding from st. Peters
burg to London, from Smyrna to Calcutta,
onwings which mock the swittness OF steamers
aud telegraph or bridging over the spaces
which divide sensible realities from ideal
possibilities. see how he blends in one eon-
sisteut idea and purpose stray thoughts and
separate facts, whose hidden analogies the
eve alone Of Imagination could divine. Is il:
in short, general force and refinement. Of
mind Behold how comprehensive and how
cautious is his glance over that sensitive,
quivering, ever shifting sea of commercial
phenomena-so wide AS to belt the globe,
and so intimately connected that a jar in any
part sends thrill through the whole-and
note with what subtle certainty OF insight he
peaetrates beneath the seeming arnachy. and
clutches the slippery and elusive, but unvary-
ing. laws There Is, indeed, a commercial
genius, as well as = poetical and metaphysical
genius-the faculties the same, the senti-
meuts and the direction different. Wealth
NAV be, ii YOU please, often insolent and un>
feeling: may scorn, as visionary things more
important than wealth but still 1t Is less
frequently Numbered into than artists and
philosophers are inclined TO believe.