William Cranston Lawton

The New England Poets: a Study of Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, Holmes William Cranston Lawton

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1898 Excerpt: ... Ill HAWTHORNE A Lonely Life There is a famous saying of Dr. Holmes', which unites the wit of the man and the physician's wisdom, to the effect that a child's education should begin a hundred years before his own birth. The artistic triumph of Hawthorne came, with a certain suddenness, when the " Scarlet Letter" appeared in 185o. The romancer was then already past middle age, and had been at times disposed to regard himself as hopelessly belated, and foredoomed to failure. Yet it is doubtless generally felt that that book stands alone, by its originality of form, artistic completeness, and deep insight into human nature, at the summit of our national literature. And not merely the solitary youth-time of the author himself, but the conditions of Salem society and his immediate ancestry through two centuries, 48 are clearly seen to have aided in perfecting this late-blooming, deep-hearted flower of imagination, that graces the sombre, crumbling wall of New England Puritanism. A partial consciousness of cause for gratitude to the past glimmers upon the pages of the famous introduction to the "Scarlet Letter." The frankness of such self-confession by Hawthorne is, to be sure, always elusive. He slips off merely an outer mask, while the artist, at least, if not the man, still conceals his real features only the more effectively. There is no suspicion of a smile, however, behind such sentences as these: "I seem to have a stronger claim to a residence here (i.e. in Salem)on account of this gravebearded, sable-cloaked, and steeple-crowned progenitor,--who came so early, with his Bible and his sword, and trode the unworn street with so stately a port.. ".. He was a soldier, legislator, judge; he was a ruler in the church; he had all the Puritanic traits, both good an...