Daily Kennebec journal., 1874-10-12

| rank did much towards crushing V0ltair.
He was young man and witty but his ambi-
tion met with rebut. He, Of unknown de-
| scent as he was, happenrd to be dining with
a duke and fell into a conversation
with him and finally into argument
| not end here The duke feeling that his dig
nifty had been trihed with, thought to make the
| humble young man suffer for his insult The
young man was invited to dine again with the
| duke, but as he entered he was seized by
lackeys and horribly beaten. But goaded to
seek revenge he made himself an accomplish
eG swordsman and then challeged the duke to
fight duel, which was an insult. He was
doomed to be thrown into the bastile where
he remained six months, and at last fed to
England, never to recover from shame and
agony. Such was the state Of literature at
that time. Even in these days there are some
who suffer the same stngs as Voltaire expe
rienced.
Literature in republic escapes hereditary
degradation, and with it goes the idea of
transmitted genius, which must be counted an
evil. Genius can not be looked for in this
family and government in that. You may
count the great names of England and you
will not find them in direct line of transmit
ted genius the same is true of statesmen, of
military leaders, of painters and sculptors;
In fact you may 60 through the whole vocab-
ulary of great names and you will learn that
either their ancestors were not famous or they
were destitute of children if not destitute,
their posterity did not bear marks of great
ness. These facts show conclusively that God
himself can not tolerate such thing as trans
mitted genius.
Another advantage of literature in repub-
lie is that its representative is so much near
er the people. In short the literary man is
nodded by the people, and not the people by
the man of letters. We have examples in
Emerson and Whittier. The republic made
Emerson what he was. The whole of Whit
tiers poems are nodded in accordance with
New England customs. Whittier is more
New England than our rocks and hills. Lit
erary men must keep near the times The
material is more than the form.
And again, a greater simplicity Of manners
prevails here than in most Of the old coun-
tries. A literary man was and is put to more
expense in England than in America. This
talk which Englshmen make that we need
more leisure to cultivate literature is all nom
sense. We need not men of leisure but men
who will work. The ideal of literary man
is one who can bring forth such valuable
products that rostery " i'll see to its publishing.
The literary man does not need money, he
has the sources of wealth in his own being. .
lNeEe Is q lreef interchange OF tn0uGnl IN
republic than elsewhere. In England you
feel conscious of much qualification which
exists here only in a limited sense. Here the
state of things should be very much improved
if there was a yet freer interchange. Ii for
whole year republicans could be fed on demo-
cratic papers, and democrats on republican,
they would at the end of that time know much
more than now.
We naturally ask The question where does
language come from? 1t does not come from
literary men, they modify and finish Itdoes
not come from the college professor; he re-
ceives it as it comes to him and tries to i'm
press it on his students, but often signally
fails. Webster undertook to change the Eng
| lish language, but his work has so changed
that only seven words differ in our to i'm
| mense quartos (Webster's and Worcester's).
| Our language comes from the uneducated; /;
from the lumberman in his camp; from the
river driver; from the fisherman in his smack.
An uneducated man has vocabulary at hand
and he takes down word as he would
spade, uses it and casts it aside. This un
couth vigor, which is found among the low
er classes, is an advantage so far as it goes.
As language becomes cultivated it looses
much if its vigor with its uncouthness. In
| and thus we shall be saved from hereditary
! rank, honor shall have its due reward, and at
| last we shall see literature on the high plane
for which it is destined.
One week from Friday Rev. Henry Nor
gan will deliver his new and popular lecture
known as "Hidden Hand"