Concord Is At Present To Be Noted As The Residence Of Mr. Emerson
And Of Mr. Hawthorne, Two Of Those Many Men Of Letters Of Whose
Presence Boston And Its Neighborhood Have Reason To Be Proud.
Of
Mr. Emerson I have already spoken.
The author of the "Scarlet
Letter" I regard as certainly the first of American novelists. I
know what men will say of Mr. Cooper, - and I also am an admirer of
Cooper's novels. But I cannot think that Mr. Cooper's powers were
equal to those of Mr. Hawthorne, though his mode of thought may
have been more genial, and his choice of subjects more attractive
in their day. In point of imagination, which, after all, is the
novelist's greatest gift, I hardly know any living author who can
he accounted superior to Mr. Hawthorne.
Very much has, undoubtedly, been done in Boston to carry out that
theory of Colonel Newcome's - Emollit mores, by which the Colonel
meant to signify his opinion that a competent knowledge of reading,
writing, and arithmetic, with a taste for enjoying those
accomplishments, goes very far toward the making of a man, and will
by no means mar a gentleman. In Boston nearly every man, woman,
and child has had his or her manners so far softened; and though
they may still occasionally be somewhat rough to the outer touch,
the inward effect is plainly visible. With us, especially among
our agricultural population, the absence of that inner softening is
as visible.
I went to see a public library in the city, which, if not founded
by Mr. Bates, whose name is so well known in London as connected
with the house of Messrs.
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