Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-04-22

this is deserved, is unquestionably true. Blu
reasoning from particulars to generals, is
false kind of logic, and the whole class are
not amenable to censure, because some aci
the part of reprobates. But here is cas-
of ipure, unauthorized, inexcusably
wrecked two lives, probably beyont
retrieval. The Albany Euening Jour
nal tells She story thus: Charles F
Hopkins, a Hamilton senior, and one of tn,
most promising students of the university
had been preaching for the Second Baptis
church for some time, and attracted large
audiences by his eloquence. In June hi
was to have assumed the pastorate of tn,
church. When the audience gathered las
Sunday they were suddenly startled to see
President Maynard, of Hamilton, enter the
pulpit, and to hear him read letter from
yonng Hopkins, stating that he was 9
wreck, mentally and physically, and bid
ding his congregation an affectionate fare
we'll. Then it all came out. Hopkins
had been married for two years to
% WHOS0 pdT6uIs
opposed him because he had neither fame
nor fortune. The mother in law even
circulated slanderous stories about him,
which compromised him for time at the
university, and as we'll tried to estrange the
daughter from him. The poor girls rea-
son at last gave way under this perpetual
worrying, and she was taken to an asylum
The woman, it is charged, prosecuted Hop
kins all the more reientlessly, and tried to
thwart every move for good which he
made. The young wife returned home
last week, but Hopkins was turned away
from the door by the mother-in- law.
That has shattered his mind, too, and
he has given up his calling and disap-
peared, nobody knows whittier. Hopkins
had said nothing about his marriage to
his Troy church, among whose young
women he was popular. Hence an addi-
tional tear is shed by the congregation,
who complain with meek ingenuousness
that he received greetings of familiarity
which would have been withheld had it
been known that he was married."
VINO are American men of letters? In
the list of those who have passed away
may be noted Longfellow, Bryant, Emer-
son, Motley, Prescott, Hawthorne, Irving,
Cooper, Poe and the like. A
man of letters is one with whom
literature is profession and a success,
and whose place and fame in history are
fixed and secure. Among Englishmen,
MacauIay, Wadsworth, Byron, Shelley,
Keats, and numerous others rank as mod
ern men of letters. Who,measured by this
standard, are our living American men
of letters? 1t is difficult to assign many
names to the list, whose position would
not be challenged, and, rightly, by some.
Lowell may be one, Whittier another, Ban
croft the historian, and perhaps DIR.
Holmes, the witty poet. But
how many others may be added to the
list we should not like to assume the re-
sponsibility of asserting. Some claim w.
D. Howells to be one. But that is an j II
direct assumption. A more shallow pre-
tender, less original aspirant to literary
fame is not now strutting his brief hour
upon the literary boards. Much of our
current American literature is vapid, and
many if not most of our So
called literary ephemeral writers
whose productions will scarcely survive
their generation. How much does the
great public know of, or care for Park
man, Stoddard, Bret Hart, Paul III. Hague
Higginson, Lothrop, Stedman, EggIeston,
and u small army of less prominent
writer's. Their magazine articles amuse
f or the moment, their volumes, if they at
tain to a volume, entertain for an idle
hour, aud are forgotten, and never sur
vive to a second reading. VIII Carleton,
Mark Twain, Josh Billings, are
humOrists, like the now nearly
obsolete Artemus Ward, rather than wits.
Their quaint exaggerations are adapted to
the ephemeral reading of railroad travel,
rather than to place in solid libraries,
and will soon pass away like an April
shower. America may boast of her great
strides in literature, and of her no end of
book making, but how little will
the literary ephemera of the cur
rent hour serve to illustrate the learned
progress, and literary refinement of the
present generation? What pre-eminent
name now among our leading authors
shall we record after Emerson, LongfelIow,
Hawthorne, Irving and Poe? So far as
most of the productions of many clever
writer are concerned, the plaudits of to-
day will be followed by the oblivion of to-
morrow.
GREAT BRITAIN is just now rejoicing in
the improvement, if not perfection, of a
great photographed work called the I'm
perial Dictionary" 1t is published in
four volumes-has nearly 5000 pages,
three columns to page-contains 10000
entries, and nearly 1000 illustrations.
This new candidate for public favor has
recently arrived in this country, as if to
contest the field occupied by Webster and
Worcester unabridged. 1t must be ad-
mitted that it possesses one feature that
places it far in advance of Webster
and Worcester, and that is, it is
published in four easily handled volumes,