The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1881-08-26

Inc INDIVIDUAL mlgnt ana worm OF
the thinker depends upon quiet and se-
resity. The best thought has been
evolved from minds free from carking
care and the grinding despotism of petty
circumstances. Upon individual celeb
rity depends tho might of nations lit
erature. The worlds greatest authors
have been enumerated inside Of hun
dred numbers the great authors of any
one nation can be told upon the i'm
gers, The names Of Shakespeare, Chan
cer,' Milton. Pope, and Wordsworth rep
resent England's greatness in the Held Of
poetry.
In sunny Italy, with her myriad paint.
ers, sculptors, and architects, the htera-
ture of the country is confined to only
O few great names-Dante, one of the
worlds greatest poets, Boccaccio, Pc
tarch, Michael Angelo, and Raphael
the latter ones merely sonnesteers.
Spain had her Calderon, Ceramics, and
Lope de Vega, although the latter was
only monstrously prolific trifer In the
world of letters. Little Portugal has
only her one poet, Camoens. Germany,
the fatherland Of thought, has but q few
bright geniuses whose names viii survive
thousand years-Goethe, Schiller, Less
ing, Richter-and France none at all OF
that dignity, not excepting Racine, Ra-
belais, Voltaire, and Hugo
Our own country, it may be said In all
humility, has not produced one author
of such classic prowess that he may vie
with any OF the authors above men,
toned. Even Emerson and Longfellow
will not be permitted to live in the A.
chives of fame unit their celebrity has
been canonized by the verdict Of futur-
ity. AS yet they can be placed on no
higher plane than Tennyson and Car
lyle. Time only will tel the truth about
them.
In Greece, the mother Of all nations
in literature, the school of all later am
billions, there are five famous names of
the first magnitude, Homes, Eschylus,
Plutarch, Plato, Demosthenes in Rome
as many more, Horace, Virgil, Caesar,
Cicero, and Juvenal. They have given
humanity assurance OF its greatness |;
they are now Us hostages OF humanity
in the realm OF perpetuity. Their breth-
rem of lower degree are gradually, sink
ing out Of sight in the limbo of obliv-
ion. Those nations which failed to pro
duoe any distinguishing lights in lit.
eratare, will in time come to be consitl-
cred merely barbarous, or at best. medi-
OGRE.
The Middle Ages have been called the
Dark Ages darkness, ignorance, and
superstition are said'to have prevailed.
Tie monks were said to have slept their
lives away the whole period has been
depicted as if it were ahideous nightmare.
This is mistaken impression. Ii the
reader will but consider ours as q new
world, quite apart from the old classic
word-iust. as the world that began with
Noah was different from the world that
began with Adam-he will see new
light dawning on this glorious Renais-
sance Of thought-the spring-time of a
new era in literature. The times OF tho
German and English Reformations, and
the French and American revolutions
may then be compared to the summer
time following, with fierce and fiery
heats; and our own degenerate, or
rather mature day, is the autumn Of this
great era of thought; we are now in the
sere and yellow leaf, as regards litera-
ture, and the occasional pre-Raphaelite
glints of color, against soberer back
ground, are only the gorgeous dyes and
tlnts of early autumn, presaging blight.
-kokOnlo Ind Tribune.