The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-06-08
Address by Van Dyke That
Delighted Trinity
AN HOUR WITH THE POETS
English Literature Belongs to English
Speaking People.
ToT AMERICA HAS GIVEN SOME GEMS
And Sydney Smiths snesrng Question Has
Been Answered in the Works Of Cooper,
longfelIow, Hawthorne, Poe
and MANY Others,

and Many Others,
Especial to the News and Observer)
Durham, N. c.. June THE literary
address delivered by DR.. Henry Van Dyke
on Wednesday last is still the subject of
much comment. He produced a profound
impression on the great audience assem-
bled in the Craven Memorial Hall. I'm
fortunately DR.. Van Dyke did not have
the manuscript of his address, nor was
there a stenographer to take it down,
but your reporter has secured from DR..
Edwin Minis a report of the address,
based on notes taken during its delivery.
While the report is necessarily unsatis-
factory it will serve to give some idea
of the address to those who did not at
tend and will at the same time preserve
something of the spirit and the language
of the address for those who heard it.
No report can possibly do justice to the
many felicitous sayings of the speaker
and especially to the charm of his de-
livery.
After referring to the fact that he
travelled over five States in order to be
present he said: 81 am glad to be even
for a short while at the commencement
of Trinity College and to share with you
a sense of the hopefulness and vigor of
this growing institution. I propose to
speak to you upon the theme. "Litera-
ture and Life. AS l am a teacher of
literature and a practitioner of life 1
hope to show you the vital connections
between the two. Literature is my pro-
fession and life is my vocation. and it
is my belief that they have more to do
with each other than is generally thought.
A life without books is possible, may be
useful and even beautiful. but books
without life are vain things. Some men
who produce books are suited to nothing
else and the opinion of many people is
expressed in the remark of Dooley. In
speaking of certain characters he says
that as nothing else could be made of
them one became an author and the
other an authorize. Books by such men
are but artificial products, but books
that are the products of imaginative,
sympathetic and vital men are of i'm
mense value to the life of the world.
Authors are not algebraic symbols but
! real men. A library is not a museum of
fossils but garden of living plants, an
aviary of singing birds. The new library
at Trinity College will bring health and
strength, cheer and courage to the men
who shall work there. for living spirits
OF great men are enshrined in books.
FUTURE OF OUR LITERATURE
81 propose to confine myself to Eng
lish literature, by which l mean the
literature OF the English speaking race
whether in England or America | have
but little patience with the cry that one
so often hears for an American literature
as something entirely distinct from
| British literature; they spring from the
same root and manifest the same spirit.
Chaucer, Spencer, Shakespeare and Mil
ton belong to America as well as Eng
land; while Lowell, Emerson and Haw-
| thorne are the common heritage of the
two countries. Coleridge, Southey,
Wordsworth and Carlyle all thought at
one time of coming to America, while
Bryant, Lowell and other American
writer's were transplanted in this coun-
try. Irving did some of his best work
in England and Kipling seems to have
lost some of his power since he went
back to England, for he has written
nothing in recent years as good as the
Jungle books. Our traditions and aims
are the same and the strongest national
friendship in the world should be that
existing between England and America.
Let us then hear no more of the vocifer-
Gus call for Americanism in literature.
by which some people seem to mean a
rcd shirt, tall boots. and the 'barbaric
yawp. We might as we'll demand Ameri-
can bread. or American love. suppose
the fist would be pie and the second
Mormonism American literature will
not be barbaric or barbarous, but the
finest product Of people sifted from the
countries of the old world and brought
here to develop an atmosphere Of free
dom and Democracy-the finest develop
ment of the old human race More and
more we realize that ideals are the same
all around the world. and one of the
things NEST needed in literature is the
creation of an atmosphere of sympathy
and brotherhood. We have had in
America a literature of refinement of
artistic merit; Sydney Smiths sneering
question has been answered in the works
of Cooper. Longfellow, Hawthorne. Poe
and others.
HIGHEST OF THE ARTS.
Il shall limit myself to the English
literature of the nineteeth century. While
the achievements of the past century
were very great in those in science. in
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