The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-12-10
DR.. PAGES MESSAGE
TO THE MAN
\ Plan for Developing the Country
and Making the Farmers a Strong
and Prosperous Class.

tor of the Worlds Work, before the
State Literary and Historical Asso-
citation, December 5, 1912.
Ladies and Gentlemen: Speaking Of
literature, | should like to call your
attention to a striking fact. The
historians of literature entertain uS
with explanations how it happened
You will read of the spacious times
of great Elizabeth, how it was an era
Of unprecedented Every
man dreamed dreams of great for
tunes and Of good fighting and Of
fountains Of youth beyond the seas.
I was q time of intellectual ferment.
And it was these unusual conditions
that produced Shakespeare. Any
body can see how a Shakespeare was
bound to come out of u life like this.
so, too, about the great Outburst Of
Roman literature in the time of Au-
SustuS. Rome was acknowledged the
mistress of the world. Such a state
Of political society was bound to pro-
duce great poets. Anybody can see
that.
a similar argument is made about
the Periclean era of Athens. You
couldn't have prevented a great liter
ature then If 0 had tried.
The great Russian noyelists Of the
last century are explained on a wholly
different basis. Mems activities were
SO suppressed in Russia that they had
to dream. There was nothing else to
DO. That, therefore, was an ideal soil
for great fiction.
Nothing has happened in literature
but it admits of an easy and obvious
eXplanatiOn-after the event. But
| have not found any historian who
fOretOld Il time of rich production.
Their explanations all work backward
and never forward. 1t would be a great
satisfaction to know just when or I'M
der just what conditions q great out
burst of itpCHtlrp will come in North
Carolina; for then we might prepare
for its coming and make sure that we
should recognize it when it comes. l
think that no people has ever reccS-
nized it's greatest literature when it
first appeared.
Now ! am going to have the audac-
ity to make such "a prediction. A
prophet is reasonably safe so long as
he omitS dates. l shall not give a
date, and l am sure that as a literary
prophet 1 cannot cut q more amusing
figure than most Of our old friends,
the historians Of literature.
How, then, may we go about Stimu-
lating literary production in North
Carolina? No doubt there are many
ways; but l am going to venture a
guess at two avs One is by care
of our land, and the other is by the
care Of our people. For l. suspect
that, after we have made all possible
explanations of literature, the coming
of q mar with the right kind OF eyes
in his head and the right kline OF
words on his tongue has something
to do with it.
AS for the care Of the land-We
have long wearied ourselves and the
rest of the world by Boosting of QuT
particular slope Of earth from our
mountains to our sea- But it is one
thing to boast about it and quite an
other thing to appreciate it and pro-
perly to care for it. You have, OF
course, observed that men who were
born here and have gone away and
wandered over many lands and lived
long elsewhere and come back again
you have, Of course, observed how the
beauty of the land smiteS them afresh
[ should like to add my own expert
enCe to this general experiences; fol
every time that l have come c
here from any part OF the United
States or from any foreign land, the
tonic Of our air and the blue OF GU
sky and the slope Of our hills and the
quiet richness Of our lOwlands ever
TO the ocean thrust themselves a1resf
upon me. 1t is a good land to llvt
In and, when one must die, a gooc
land to die in. AS men grow Older
(you will agree with me-, we become
more sensitive to a landscape, TO {
climate, to a sunset, to the azure
heavens, to the smell Of the earth. ano
to the bloom and perfume OF Our TOT
ests and fields. Really to feel n t(
know that Nature gave us every rio
of her bounty-this is one thing
really to appreciate this priceless ant
Incompatible gift Of God.
But it Is quite another thing prop
crly to care for it and to make plans
for saving and wisely using 1t, no
only during our lifetime, but for al
time to come, for men and women vii
be here millions Of years after we ar
forgotten. Literature? Here is
hint. Describe our beneficient land a.
1t Is now. If you do that we'll enough
you will have readers after every MAJ
now living is forgotten.
To care for our land properly IN
wolves a wise and far-seeing policy
national. State, county, n individual