Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-03-01
AS TO LITERARY THOUGHT

AS TO LITERARY THOUGHT
Mr.. Sydney G.. Fisher has created
some stir by his article in the Forum
last month asserting that immigra-
ton had killed literature in America
and offering in proof of his hypothe-
sis, the fact that nearly all of our
great writer's were born in the period
OF forty-ise years between 1880 and
1925. The great immigration
which set in about the latter date,
he averred, destroyed the homogen>
city of the people and SO dried up
the springs Of literature.
Incidentally he claimed for New
England, and Massachusetts in par
ticular, the origin of nearly all OF
those giants in the world of letters.
Edgar Allen Foe, whom he included
in the list, was, 1t is true, born in
Boston, but his writings do not show
that he considered himself Boston
ian or even a New Highlander. In
fact, he is on record as having writ
ten disrespec fully of Boston Cons
mon and the Frog Pond itself, but
then he was an erratic genius in
every respect, even in that of being
a genius, as not all of his Iauded
contemporaries were.
Passing that, it is instructive to
note how man Of Massachusetts,
birth and lineage, who boasts descent
not only from John Adams but also
from Thomas Shepard and John
Cotton, Mr.. Charles Francis Adame,
regards the value Of nomegeneity as
factor il literary development. In
his book, Massachusetts. It's Histo.
rians and Its History" this repre-
sentative cf the best thought of the
old State says of Cotton Mather's
"Magnalia," that it is "the one single
literary landmark in century aud a
half Of colonial and provincial life
a geological relic of glacial period
"A period which in pure letters
produced, so far as Massachusetts
was concerned, absolutely nothing
else-not poem, nor an essay, nor
memoir, nor work of fancy or fcs
tion of which the world has not cared
to take note"
Again he says
From Cotton Mather to Nathaniel
Hawthorne is long stride, but in Massa
chusetts literature there is no intermediate
stepping.stone. The 'Magnalia' was pub
llshed in 1702, Twice Told Tales in 1887,
that year of profuse germination; and, be
tween the two, 80 different and yet both
distinct and unmistakable products of the
Massachusetts, mind the one boulder and
the other fower-between them thee is
-nothing!"
The Revolution, incomparably the
greatest political event in the hiss
tory of the world, did not evoke a
single poem worth reading, from
the minds which it should
have impressed had not tlose
minds been hardened beyond any
possibility of receiving an impres,
sion. Joel Barlow's nine-inch "Col-
umbiad" was poetry in comparison
with the doggeral of his contempt
rariea; but if writing poetry were a
capital offence, no jury of sane
critics would hesitate moment in
giving him a verdict of not guilty.
As to the major premise of Mr..
Fisher, it may be granted that nc
succeeding generation has produced
the equals of Poe, Lowell, Longfel-
low, Whittier and Holmes, for al
ready the fame of Bryant has sensi-
bly, waned and he cannot be in
cluded among the permanently
great; but the art of poetry itself has
declined rapidly in this commercial
age, when men of genius are nc
longer content to wait for the slow
and meagre rewards grudgingly be.
slowed on the bard. In the better
recognized domain of prose, how.
ever, we have writers like Aldrich
and Harte-to name only two among
many-who are fully the peers oi
Hawthorne both in fertility of im'
agination and perfection of style. L
is shockingly audacious to say so, o.
course; for both of those writers ar
gifted with exquisite humor, and
your true literary worshipper take
up a book, as he goes to the theatre
to.be edited, not to be amused. NeYe
theless the creator Of Hamlet wa
the parent ofFalstaff.
| Mr.. Adams has invented happ'
phrase to describe the lauditors o
the past in our history. He charac
terizes them as "filio pietistic" de
votees of "ancestor- worship" as ar
the Chinese. The sentiment whic
inspires them is laudable, With
due bounds, but when it leads to d.