The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-09
The Enlightenment of the South.

questions, but that in those States an
enforced monotonous uniformity OF
opinion deadens the intellectual life Of
the people. Let us look, therefore, at two
organs of Southern opinion of the more
serious and philosophical cast and see
what we discover.
The most important of the organs Of
such Southern thought is the Sewanee
Review, which issues from the University
Of the South, situated at Sewanee in
Tennessee. This institution is under
Protestant Episcopal direction. Three
years before the civil war it was founded
by Bishop LEoNIDAs POLK Of Louisiana,
the Southern Bishop who, having been
educated at West Point, exchanged the
mitre for the sword and as General OF
the Confederate Army fought with car
nal weapons for the cause of secession,
in which he was a profound believer, and
was killed at Pine Mountain in Georgia
in 1864 1t might be expected, therefore,
that the bitterness Of the war would re-
main peculiarly strong in the college
founded by the Bishop-General In
stead, the Sewdnee Repiew, representing
the tone of thought and feeling in the
University Of the South, deals with ques-
tons growing out of the war with COM
plete judicial calmness and great en-
lghtenment of spirit.
This review, now in the eleventh year
of its publication, has always been made
up mainly of contributions from South
ern men. Their discussions are OF
purely literary subjects more espe-
cially, but social and political questions
also are handled in a spirit of remarkable
independence. For example, Prof. w.
P. TRENT, its original editor, offended
some extreme Southern prejudices by
pointing out the evils Of slavery and the
feudal system of society to which it gave
rise; but now Prof. HENNEMAN, the pres
ent editor, in SUMMING up the reviews
ten years OF history, says that one of tho
great lessons taught by it has been the
right to think clearly and correctly, and
then to say what was thought y; that ac-
cordingly it has helped foster indie
pendence" The Seuanee Review is now
and always has been free from a dwarf
ing spirit OF sectionalism, and it is an
exponent of the national idea in all its
breadth and fulness.
Another and much newer Southern
review OF Importance is the South At
lantic Quarterly, published at the seat Of
Trinity College, an institution under
Methodist auspices at Durham, N. c.,
so well known as a great centre Of the
tobacco manufacturing industry. Its
editor, Prof JOHN SPENCER BAssETT,
holds the chair of history and political
science in the college, and in the number
for July the most striking Of the papers
are by him and by other members Of that
faculty.
A discussion Of The Reform Move
mem in New England, by DR.. EDWIN
MINIS, professor Of English literature
In the college, will surprise people at the
North who are ignorant of the breadth Of
liberality among educated minds of the
South. The paper treats of the remark
able moral and religious development of
New England beginning with 1880, and
incidentally Of the growth Of the anti
slavery and the abolition movement.
Those are memories which might be ex-
peoted to arouse only the bitterness OF
aversion in a Southern heart, but DR..
MINIS deals with the period with generous
appreciation Of the awakened moral
sense which distinguished it. We shall
not attempt to do more than Indicate the
spirit Of this Southern writer by making
a few brief extracts from his paper, taken
at random:
-D,rerent as wero CLAIMING. PARKER. HoRACH
MANN, EMHRsos and LOWELL they were all fellow
workers IN the same cause.-the enlightenment and
the spiritual development of the American people"
-poEs attack upon the New England writer's was
directed primarily against what he called the heresy
Of tho ddactlc' Undoubtedly tho chief llmita-
ton OF these men certain tendency toward
rsaltur ar. the means Of intoxicating moral Ideas;
yet because they were filled so much with
moral ideas because they TO such an extent the
voices OF their advancing age, because they looked
on their art as the means oInspIrng men with their
own visions of beauty and truth. they have place
IN tn. life of America such az POE who worshlpped
IN the temple of beauty alone. dreaming dreams
M mortal ever dared dream before can never
have"
"A New Engl and nbolltIonlst was for a long time
the most hated OF all men, and the average South
erncr has not yet brought himself TO the point OF
reading with calm and composure, to say nothing OF
enjoyment or rapture the anti slavery poems Of tho
New England abolltlonlsts, This point OF
view represents what was perfectly natural ante
bellum feeling with regard to the anti slavery lead
srs and poets 1t should not. believe, be the opn
aon of those who 1.-Two to day In the full privileges and
possibilities that have come with the passing away
Of slavery-a time when Northern mon have re-
vcrsed many Of their opinions OF those who for
o,rly we're considered rebels and moral degcn
crates"
.When these men are seen from the light OF their
own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT that Is the only way that
the genuine student approaches such study
the point OF view even OF the extreme abotionlSt,
can readily be understood. II Is not fair to say
that the anti slavery movement was conspiracy
rotten I'D by a body OF fanatics against Southern
property and social life. The tendency toward
the abolition Of slavery was world movement;
the passion for freedom and equality had been a
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