The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-12-20
WHITE RS POETRY.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2.

Where. in modern poetry Is anything
like this, from Naughan's poem the
Night"
Gods silent. searching fieht
When my Lords head Is nlled with dew, and all
His locks are wet with the c ear drops of night
His still. soft cai
His knocking time; the souls dumb watch,
When spirits their fair kindred catch.
Whittier is more impersonal. aud there
fore fails of the highest, the perfect EN-
bodiment OF his thought in living sym
bol; e. Y. in "Reveiation":
No picture to my aid call.
shape no image 10 my prayer;
] only know in Him Is an
Oflife. light, beauty, everywhere.
Eternal goodness here and there.
/ fear no more The clouded face
ot nature smiles; through ali her things
The moving OF the spirits wings,
And hear the song OF hope she sings
This is not poetry for everybody. not
even for every spirit ually minded person.
1t is too vague. impersonal, too much
mans abstractness, as opposed TO the
more fully embodied thought OF poets
who have voiced the eternal womanly,"
as Vaughan mas done in the piece just
quoted. These verses or Whittier seem TO
me only one grade removed from the half
Greek beauty Of the 'Vanishers." But this
effect of Whittier upon this or that per
son is no complete Ruage OF what he felt
and what he meant for himself. lie so
penetrates, DernedJeS tnc ndture dTOuuu
him with her own answering personality,
he so diffuses himself as it were in the
"Cosmic Nastness, that he Is not only
able TO breathe in the thin ether, but To
draw from IL the oxygen necessary for
spiritual health. But not all men can do
this. and especially ,,a not al women; men;
Whittier teaches some people, less by
direct methods of thought. by ideas. than
by the iorce of his personality, OF that
rare union of sensibiiity aud Will. which
lift him beyond the common sphere aud
give him place apart Whittier teaches
as he mountain teaches. the cataract,
the flower, "the benediction OF the air.
the inbrsathing OF the spirit OF God.
am speaking now, of course, only OF his
religious poetry, and not OF his poetry OF
reform.
Taking this religious poetry all in all,
Whittier's seems to me the most perfect
modern representative OF what Father
Southwell has crystallized into two lines:
IL is The sweetest note that man can sing.
When grace. in virtues key. tunes natures string.
Whittier has been styled the poet of
New England. IL Is juster to say the
poet OF those moral ideas which had their
home in New England, but have spread
TO other parts OF the country, dominating
certain classes in every part. But here II
Is necessary Co discriminate. What Is
meant when Whittier is called the poet
of New Engandi Probably different
people mean different things, and speak
from different points OF view, as has
been the case ever since seven cities
claimed the honor Of being the birthplace
of Homer. / should style Whittier In the
first place the poet OF Quakerism. next
the poet of the non-Puritau sects,
such as the Baptists, Catholics, etc, who
were prosecuted by the Puritans, and last
of all the poet of all New England aud OF
#aT fua
they have learned and accepted the con-
ception OF human life aud society, as
the Friends and Whittier held it, There
is, of course, an enormous background of
character, which embraces, in the maiu,
all New England. as representing COM
mon stock. common civic purposes and
institutions.
But this is all. When the spectator"
takes a more affecting than intelligeIt
farewell OF Whittier's shade, and pero-
rates with Peace to the Strong Old
Puritan" it strikes the falsest note in
the whole gamut. II would have been
less forced, though not less incorrect, TO
say, Peace To the grand old Catholic"
Whittier has oftener taken occasion to
emphasize his love OF GER ain manifesto
tions OF faith of Catholicism than he has
ever done for Puritanism. In fact,
though he loved certain individual Puri-
tan churches, yet IL he could be said TO
hate anything, he hated the Puritanic
spirit. Whittier, like Lessing, loved the
pursuit of truth as a principle better
than the possession OF 1t, be
cause he knew that all possession
of truth is partial w The Puri-
tan loved possession. Whittier, as
the champion OF the wronged, is the lone
descendant Of the English conmoner, the
main spring OF reform. The Puritan, on
the contrary, was would-be autocrat,
no simply an aristocrat. and this, too,
on tue field of morals and religion, those
whose zeal for God was cruelty to man" !"
Whittier says, in the introductory note
to the Pennsylvania Pilgrims: 1T must
be apparent 10 every careful observer of
the progress of American civilization,
thrt the two principal currents had their
sources in the entirely opposite direction
of the Puritan and Quaker colonies Il. g.,
In the settlements AT Massachusetts Bay
and in GermartJwn).
The reader OF the Pennsylvania Pill
grim may lind for himself the points in
which Whittier confesses that he Is
New Englander, and not Penn.
sylvanian. But these points touch
nothing vital, The background OF his
character, his circumstances, surround
ings, ETC., stamp him native of NeS
England. But while the height OF the
pyramid is measured by the base. the
base is not the height. Stedman find'
the Puritan and the Quaker of the earlier
peTlOu alike, tACepJ III buo uOCbriue VI
noa-resistance. But Stedman's prime OBJ
ject in this statement is TO administer a
rebuke, which duly appears in the mex
Sentence. They 0he Puritan anc
the Quaker) seem grounded IN the same
inflexl BILE ethics, and alike disposed u
supervise the ethics of all mankind.
This is clever, as all that Stedman says i,
clever, but makes nothing of course o
the difference bet Neen moral suasion anC
hanging or drowning the man who faili
to agree with you. IL is an indirect com
pllment TO Whittier when one acknowl
edges that his words strike harder thar
clubs DO. 1t is again good Henr!
Vau chan who says: Some syliables ar
swords"
But when Whittier is bitter, il is will
apurpose. II he speaks OF the Puritan
as
Saving as shrewd economists, their souls
And winter pork, with the least possible outlay
or salt and sanctity.
H. can be bitter too towards the unloveli
ness Of that Quakerism which compre
hended not yet the Office OF beauty. Ih
realistic picture In Among the Hills" o