The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-02-28
WILMINGTON. n. G.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY %, 1899.
OBSERVANDA.

The literary men Of New England in
the past have held the foremost rank
in American letters. Whatever their
provincialism, their narrowness, their
self-glorification, their contempt OF
other Americans, and their satisfaction
with the Hub and their particular
section, they had artistic qualities and
inspiration, if not Of the highest, still
very respectable and influential. In
that able, scholarly weekly, the Lon
don Times's Literature" OF some
months ago, there was a very strong,
engaging paper upon Literature IN
America" There are some catching
things said in the essay. In discussing
the influence of "Puritanism" upon
American letters-in New England, OF
course-the writer, we take to be the
editor, Mr.. H. D. Trail, one of Eng
lands foremost living critics and lit
erary scholars, has this to say, in part,
upon the terrible theocracy" that
ragged so fiercely and sweepingly in
New England and upon the Puritan
ism," that dominated in Great Britain:
Puritanism has been, perhaps, the
strongest of all influences. In itself, 1t
must have been both terrible and ugly;
a blight upon the hearth, upon the soul,
and strengthened for it's effect by union
with democracy, by its insolaton from
all external influences from the chang-
ing and softening of the times. HaW-
1horne did not select the blacklist age
of Puritanism for the period of his
masterpiece. He is careful to inform
us that the wind Of the spirit blew still
more bitterly when the original imml-
grants had died out, and had been re-
placed by the more ferocious descen-
,dants of ferocious parents. But we
know what a picture of early New Eng
hand life he made for us in the Scarlet
Letter." and in this book, surely. he has
described a race Of demon Worship
pers. = And, no doubt, the inner
itance of a scrupulous, minutely in
quiring conscience has sustained Mr..
Howells Ca New Highlander by adop-
tion) in his resolve to let no circum-
stances escape, to summon every
spoken word to his account. In truth
that black accursed tree of ~Puritanism,
that blasted fatal bough that bore the
hanged Quaker and burnt the witch,
has 'blossomed white as the hand of
Moses" and has borne a good fruit.
1t sees the influence exerting itself
to some extent over Miss Wilkins, pos
sibly the most original Of living New
England novelists. While Puritan
ism" had sad and serious results in New
England, it was by no means all evil
and has left an impress for good upon
the American mind in many states and
in nearly every part of the union. W.
must refer further to he essay. The
author is much captivated by "Huck
Finn" Mark Twain's very lively n
original creation. He says 1.-The best
of all southern books we count the epic
of Huck Finn, the romance of the Mis-
sissippi, the admirable American con-
tribution to the literature of the plea
rescue" and adds at the close that zone
reads the adventures of Huck Finn
with something of the delight that the
Journeys of Don Quixote can impart.'
OF Poe he writes briefly, but says ad-
miringly:
cit has been, of course, impossible to
do more than touch upon the outskirts
of imaginative literature in America.
Poe has left behind him a cosmopoli-
tan reputation; even now, the citizens
of Lyons are offering a prize to any
one who will write in French such tales
as Poe invented, and we may be quite
sure of the immortality of the Gold
Bug" Again, in poetry, the author of
"To Helen" must stand eminent"