The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-06-01

surroundings, she writes, saying that
while his childhood and youth were
were passed first in Naples, then in
Spain, and finally in the Paris Of the
Restoration, amid all that might fifty
nourish the great poet Who came to
his own in 1899. Hawthorne's youth
INC early manhood, before the Brook
Farm experience, were passed, as he
himself tells us, in a country where
there were mo shadows. no antiquity,
no mystery, no picterSQue and gloomy
wrong, nor anything but a
place prosperity in broad and simple
daylight" in a town n a society
which had and could have nothing
or almost nothing-of those special
indictments and prOVOcations which,
in the case of his European contem-
poraries, We're always present.
Hawthorne was educated we'll and
most rightly endowed with natural
talents, even superb genius. He was
in no sense ar ignorant man, but was
we'll read in the books Of his own
cOuntrymen, as, the great foreign
authors French, German, English.
Mrs. Ward writes of him that he
was naturally Of fine literary capac-
ity and that che must have read the
European books of the moment, and
must have been stirred by the Euro
pean ideas and controversies then af-
fecting his craft. And indeed the
love of the past, the love OF nature,
curiosity, freedom, truth, daring
all these Romantic traits are HaW-
thOrne's."
Shakespeare was in the highest
sense a creator. His characters are
not only original in conception and
execution, but are unlike all others.
ancient or modern. AS TO female
characters it has been mostly adjudged
that he was their creator, IN the sense
that he added that class OF conceptions
to the rich realm Of the drama but
he was in an absolute sense their orig
i%natOrs, their producers, their crea-
tors. Thomas De Quincy, a strikingly
original English author, held that he
was in the highest sense the absolute
creator Of female characters" Turn
ing to the women in Greek tragedy
the famous heroines, he said that
these are fine marble groups, but
they are not the warm, breathing re-
alities Of Shakespeare; there is no
speculation in their cold marble eyes;
the breath of life is not in their nos
trils." Sir Walter Scott in one sense
was the creator of the modern hero
ines in fiction as he was the origina-
tor of the modern romance. Like
Shakespeare when supreme and most
iloEii oNoIC q ! olit CISNo tSu
in one whilst creative and ~levated
in his creation of characters. WAY
erly,' Guy Manning" The Anti
quarry and other most famous of his
magnifcent productions were both in
spring and creative, for they led some
of the others tC enter the field Of rO-
nance and emit What would
literature do without the creations of
the two masters, Shakespeare and
Scott, both great and supreme in their
raSnpaflNa FIELDS OF invention iha
greatest prize in Scott that his writ
ings are free from all dirt or sugges-
tons Of impurity. No n vas ever
soiled or seduced by reading Scott
for he Isl purity itself. There is no
filth or ~degeneracy in the great
~Scotchman. There is not q sentiment
or sentence in all Of SCOTS numerous
writings that savors Of vic and sug-
SeStS impurity. Said a Northern Wri-
ter long ago:
But 1T is as important hat fiction
should be Of a healthful character, anG
not enervate and poison the mind, as
it is that recreation should promote
the health and vigor Of the body
There is yet another class of these
writings that pander to the lowest pas
siOns Of our nature, and deal gently
with any violation of the canOns o.
chastity. There are others still, which
if they Go not condone. crime, invest
it with an heroic aspect especially al
Turing to the young"
Avoid corrupting, vicious books as
you would avoid sin and the devil
Flee from them for they soil. poison
vitiate and destroy.
I recall that several years ago il
was asserted hat Of twenty-eigh
States and Territories represented
then in Texas among the inhabitant.
there were in all 314,245. and that il
many other States and Territorie:
there We're a few emigrants to bt