New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-02-09

Considerations OF interest in business are OF course
everything those of principle or art or pa'ri0''"
That we sympathize with this in degree we need not
say Yet it is curious fact that the present agle S
been brought about by but spite Of that hcTay
communication between the two countries o. whoh Sc
proportion of American writer's there Is In America no
feeling toward England but Jealousy And aga HERE
in England no feeling toward America but m
contempt And yet no other people are 80 PPe the
reception given in NewYork to oui beauties anu our
bars is perhaps the most touching ct h xtraord
nary sensitiveness OF the literary class mn neculiar
whether he write IN prose or society
lie Is not creature with thin epderins put ,th The
Ethout an epidermis at ALL and his contact VIII 'o
outer world is torment to himself and sti more 80 10
other people, for whatever practical mo,t i may
morc liberal endowment than common OF human vanity
the primary impulse that drove n, i,,red even
hinder the most favorable conditions; but Wheh the
egolst jostled In foreign COUNTY, oursc ~ write
and IL Is thrr that he becomes mischeyous MOI even III
his own country Nathaniel Hawthorne 10 uT dh
Tbe IsnGum directed attention TO the Scarlet letter
that ga We the first impulse TO his game Inn is own &
But nnucky for his English admirers Ifeslden5S ne
osed and shoudered good deal by British arnnry
though also he found congenial Trends. An orulnna'
American Consul would have laughed al thc new eAP
%na HmSrSans do with liking for England
Englishmen But Hawthorne went back TO %;chn
hints instituted false comparison between hngns s
ladies' and talow and was adiudged In TINS county, 10
he one OF the fretful OF books Precisely te same
mart has been played by English writer's ana ths Is WI"
as have said, the relations between III, LTsi'nU anu
America are different In real lie ana III DooAs
often Professor NichOl win say thing in that cpl ,6
reflect Here such instance out OF many
1.-The attitude assumed by the cary ~ @ who had
been taught by persecution how TO perSecute i al
or Emerson Professor Nchol is a thOrougngolns ~
and p 1VVel
notion he is mere lransatantlc shauo" roTessor
Yet with oil his sdmraton OF cbef merit his free
dom from provincial peevishness the great defect oi
american literature We do not of course use the WGrd
PROVINCIAL in Mr.. Matthew Arnolds sense mPHhI1
lack of culture; We are speakihg no" % sarvrness
which Scottish writers used to show when Chrisopuer
North was king and which PERHAPS Is now IS UttS
Hm6rosiae discussing American style II Is m
admiration of the best American writer's tS We St 70
none but it cannot be denied, we THINK, mat oWin5 70
the seconscousness of which we have spoken there Is
aho1t most of them a certain OF narrowness, an
. air OF country town" " | am an American; uon
t Wonder what YOU do think This Is the temper
which nvountarily discoses itself IN 700 many AIe
cxnains that deficiency in style from which their great
est writer's suffer, and which makes IL dhcui TO n"ee
nm American Milton Clarendon or ADDISON for
style is simply an expression OF temper; ana lhc
temper is small the style is small II me temper 81
America since at least she has come To the very nst
rank of great nations is more peeylsh than u was IN l1
DAYS of Washington Irving or IN the dfys OF the coo
wrers more ~ M prnvncai The noble urbanty of Wash
Irvne allies him TO the classic writers of Europe.
But much rarcr and much finer as Is the genius OF haW
thorne (and It is doubtful whether any prose %rlte o
our century was more richly endowed is this petty
fretfulness and consciousness OF province which
keeps him down. And inasmuch as Emerson was en-
trey free from this lie takes place among the gr'at
writer's OF our time though III the more material part OF
style he, like everyone else mutt give place 70 haW
thorne Thorcau, too, is free from TINS peevshncssi
hence as we said few weeks we cannot help rank
ing him high among Ameregn prose XIII pro,se vet NOT
higher than that delightful romanccT deserves 100
much has said of Coopers Indebtedness To- scott
r. DO Justice 10 Cooper one compare him with such
imitatOrs OF Scott g. T. r. James: ana thrh u De
comes obvious that Cooper was man Oh oi''ha genius
orba. Professor NIcho done justice to Mr. Lowell
that pcevishuess which We have been commenting
displays more than any other poem Of our tine tat
Lib national temper and simple faith in heroic virtue
in deeds above words-which every student OF Greek
poetry should consider the most precious tlhg ~ cfa
iure That the writer OF Hannibal ana rheims
tooes" whose own position among contemporary poets
rests mainly upon the very Qualities when gi., h NE 10
surpsing Nor has Professor Nichol done wei 10 quote
ceriain Structures upon this made years ago by
ceItoT ,sb noetstctures which were as hasy and
rash and ill-con.dered as were MT Lovers own cru
Gisms Upon p%nicsor Neho also quotes one Of the
duties of literary historian Is not to bring iorwaTl
but to keep well In the background those nt,l3 eplI
t0ns of Injustice and those passages OF anger wch are
arise now and then ps5"eGm M 9H
against the Harvard ode, Professor Nichol quotes this
quatrain:
We sit here in the Promised Land
That flows with Freedoms honey and mix;
But twas they won IL, sword Ia hand,
Making the nettle danger soft for MS a. SIX
with the execution Of the first feet Of the third
the Tatrain is musical "a IT can be- Perhaps nov,
ever the objection il 10 the fine csiOn hone" ana
milk for I'm matter OF cllsiOn and hiatus the con
temporary British ear Is very remarkable organ me
1fuGura Is last journal that VIII be charged WIN
making little of form IN poetry but hter an otu
temper Is more than poetic form, and while the form OF
the Harvard ode Though not 50 good ms u might PEI II
FAR better than II il the fashion Just now 10 consider H. It's
temper-apart from the occasional peeyish css we nave
commented upon-- noble and - HIGH It's language y
go. direct so masculine, and so firm that the reader
should have hut anid eye and ear Tor artistic detects
which in weaker work might be serious