human
With us, the spirit of the age is clamorous for utility,--for visible, tangible utility,--for bare, brawny, muscular utility. We would be roused to action by the voice of the populace, and the sounds of the crowded mart, and not 'lulled to sleep in shady idleness with poet's pastimes.' We are swallowed up in schemes for gain, and engrossed with contrivances for bodily enjoyments, as if this particle of dust were immortal,--as if the soul needed no aliment, and the mind no raiment. We glory in the extent of our territory, in our rapidly increasing population, in our agricultural privileges, and our commercial advantages.... We boast of the increase and extent of our physical strength, the sound of populous cities, breaking the silence and solitude of our Western territories,--plantations conquered from the forest, and gardens springing up in the wilderness. Yet the true glory of a nation consists not in the extent of its territory, the pomp of its forests, the majesty of its rivers, the height of its mountains and the beauty of its sky; but in the extent of its mental power,--the majesty of its intellect,--the height and depth and purity of its moral nature.... True greatness is the greatness of the mind;--the true glory of a nation is moral and intellectual preëminence.
gpt
Not he alone, the poet boldly goes on,
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To those of them who may honor us by reading our article, we would whisper this request,--that they should be more original, and withal more national. It seems every way important, that now, whilst we are forming our literature, we should make it as original, characteristic, and national as possible. To effect this, it is not necessary that the war-whoop should ring in every line, and every page be rife with scalps, tomahawks, and wampum. Shade of Tecumseh forbid!--The whole secret lies in Sidney's maxim,--'Look in thy heart and write.'
gpt
yet no literature can be national in the highest sense unless it
human
This he illustrates by calling attention to certain local peculiarities of English poetry as compared with that of the southern nations of Europe. He gives examples to show that the English poets excel their rivals in their descriptions of morning and evening, this being due, he thinks, to their longer twilights in both directions. On the other hand, the greater dreaminess and more abundant figurative language of southern nations are qualities which he attributes to their soft, voluptuous climate, where the body lies at ease and suffers the dream fancy
gpt
Upward speeds the morning lark To its silver cloud.
human
The true glory of a nation --this is his final attitude--
gpt
thus distinctly foreshadowing the title of his friend Charles Sumner's later oration,
human
The True Grandeur of Nations.