Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-05-28
An English Opinion of DIR. Holmes.

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1t would be difficult and invldlous-and,
We are glad to think, therefore. that it is a
wholly unnecessary task to attempt to fix
DIR. Holme7' place IN the ranks Of American
men OF letters. That. on any reasonable esti-
mate of his claims, his place must be high
one is too clear, we think, for dispute. He
possesses what without disparagement to
transatlantic literature we may say is rare
characteristic among Is professOrs-the quail
lily of originality. TIE fact that but few of
her predecessors or contemporaries can lay
claim to this quality is no discre sit to them.
1t Is but natural that a literature exposed to
such powerful paternal influences as is this
young offshoOt from the venerable English tree
OF thought andlanguage shou for a long time
be Initiative, and initiative alone. When we
consider how masterfuliy great poet indi-
vldually affects all youthful poetic minds
within its range, we need not be surprised to
see the same phenomenon repeat itself on
nation i scale, and with its master and the
disciples represented respectively by whole
communities of men. The test, however. of
genius in the individual applies itself pretty
speedily with the advance of maturer years.
Ii there Is anything I'M the aspiring bard.
he will soon OutgrUw the influences which d d
his green, unknowiug youth engage" and
dare to be himself alone. If there is nothing
in him. the echo will remain an echo to the
end of his days,
And what is true Of the individual is true Of
the nation. When genuine litterateur is des-
tined to grow up among the descendant race.
1t will. as the term of separate national life
extends, begin-among the more vigorous in
tellects of the race, at any rate-to show signs
of emancipation from the influence of the
parent stock Such signs are not wanting in
the literature of America, and where they
are to be found they are marked enough to
afford IT the fairest promise of brilliant fu-
ture; but as yet it must be owned-it is
owned. indeed, by the best American critics
themselves-that these signs are compare
lively few in number. American writers of
distinct and undenable originality would not
take long, even if we combine poets with prose
writer's, to enumerate. Edgar Poe. Nathaniel
Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson
though the claim of the last
to originality has been questioned,
aud HIS debt 20 Carlyle for certain
qualities of thought. apart from the mode Of
expression, must be admitted-these would,
perhaps, almost exhaust the list of departed
American writer's who possess the distinction
to which we have referred. Pre-eminent
among still living ltterateurs stand the names
Of Mr.. Lowell and DIR. Holmes-men VITO
combine the culture of the Old World with the
| indefinable and IncOmmunicable spirit of the
| y W. Both alike are masters of our common
language, but each is to the tins of his finger
an American of the Americans. Men of such
| gifts are not produced every day IN any coun-
| try, but the originality, or rather the nation
/ ally, which be Ongs to them will. we doubt
! not, become more and more commonly diff
| fus d Characteristic of their successors when
| the time comes for the Younger OF them to
hand on the torch which they have 80 worthily
borne