Part 2 (1/2)
By far the greatest of the Transcendental group and one of the ures in Aure, indeed, in many ways unique in all literature Born in Boston in 1803, the son of a Unitarian clergye and sickly fae, graduating with no especial honors, entered the ministry, and served as pastor of the Second Church of Boston until 1832 Then, finding hi at Concord, turned to lecturing, first on scientific subjects and then on rew steadily, and, especially in the generation younger than himself, he awakened the deepest enthusiasm
In 1836, the publication of a little voluave conclusive evidence of his talent, and, followed as it was by his ”Essays,” ”Representative Men,” and ”Conduct of Life,” established his reputation as seer, interpreter of nature, poet and ainst the assaults of ti or elusive He was at once attractive and repulsive--there was a certain line which no one crossed, a charmed circle in which he dwelt alone There was about him a certain coldness and detachment, a self-sufficiency, and a prudence which held hi himself unreservedly to any cause He lacked heart and temperament He was a homely, shrewd and cold-blooded Yankee, to put it plainly Yet, with all that, he was a serene and benignant figure, of an inspiring optimism, a fine patriotism, and profound intellect--a stimulator of the best in man Upon this basis, probably, his final claim to memory will rest
Another Transcendental eccentric with enius was Henry David Thoreau, and it is noteworthy that his fa his life, has flahter since his death This increase of reputation is no doubt due, in soree, to the ”return to nature,” which has recently been so pro for so noteworthy a ”poet-naturalist”; but it is also due in part to a growing recognition of the fact that as a writer of delightful, suggestive and inspiring prose he has had few equals
Thoreau is easily our most extraordinaryto work his way through Harvard, he spent so; but an innate love of nature and of freedom led him to seek some form of livelihood which would leave him as much his own master as it was possible for a poor man to be To earn money for any other purpose than to provide for one's bare necessities was to Thoreau a grievous waste of time, so it came about that for many years he was a sort of itinerant tinker, a doer of odd jobs Another characteristic, partly innate and party cultivated, was a distrust of society and a dislike of cities ”I find it as ever very unprofitable to have much to do with men,” he wrote; and finally, in pursuance of this idea, he built himself a little cabin on the shore of Walden pond, where he lived for some two years and a half
It was there that his best as done, for, at bottom, Thoreau was aeye man ever had ”Walden, or Life in the Woods,” and ”A Week on the Concord and Merriirl who is interested in the great outdoors, as every boy and girl ought to be, will enjoy reading theroup worthy of e Williaenius in any sense, but a writer of pleasant and a prose, an orator of no small ability, and one of the truest patriots who ever loved and labored for his country It is in this latter aspect, rather than as the author of ”Nile Notes” and ”The Potiphar Papers,” that Curtis is best ree extent, lost their appeal; but the work he did during the dark days of reconstruction and after entitles hirateful remembrance
It is scarcely possible to close a chapter upon A to at least one of the great editors who have done so much to mould American public opinion To Ja reference need be made; but Horace Greeley deserves more extended treatment
[Illustration: GREELEY]
Early in the last century, on a rocky little farm in New Haood neighbor, but a bad er--so bad that, in 1820, when his son Horace was nine years old, the farm was seized by the sheriff and sold for debt The proceeds of the sale did not pay the debt, and so, in order to escape arrest, for they imprisoned people for debt in those days, Zaccheus Greeley fled across the border into Vered toat odd jobs, in which, of course, the boy joined him whenever he could be of any use
He was a rather rereat fondness for books, and when he was eleven years old, he tried to get a position in a printing office, but was rejected because he was too young Four years later, he heard that a boy anted in an office at East Poultney, and he hastened to apply for the position He was a lank, ungainly and dull-appearing boy, and the owner of the office did not think he could ever learn to be a printer, but finally put hi that he was to receive nothing but his board and clothes for the first six months, and after that forty dollars a year additional
The boy soon showed an unusual aptitude for the business, and finally decided that the little village was too restricted a field for his talents With youth's sublied to get a position in a printing office there, and two years later, at the age of twenty-two, he and a partner established the first one-cent daily newspaper in the United States It was ahead of the times, however, and had to be abandoned after a few months
But he had discovered his peculiar field, and in 1840 he established another paper which he called the ”Log Cabin,” in which he supported Willia cabin and hard cider”
ca he established the New York ”Tribune,” which was destined to make him both rich and famous For more than thirty years he conducted the ”Tribune,”
it the most influential paper in the country He became the most powerful political writer in the United States, and in every village groups gathered regularly to receive their papers and to see what ”Old Horace” had to say He was to his readers a strong and vivid personality--they had faith in his intelligence and honesty, and they believed that he would say what he believed to be right, regardless of whose toes were pinched It was as different as possible to the anonymous journalism of to-day, when not one in a hundred of a newspaper's readers knows anything about the personality of the editor
We have already referred to the fact that, at the beginning of secession, Greeley doubted the right of the North to co states to remain in the Union Indeed, he counselled peaceful separation rather than war, as did many others, but he was later a staunch supporter of President Lincoln's policy
We have also spoken of the fact that, when Grant was re-noe section of the party, believing him incompetent, broke away from the party and named a candidate of their own The party they formed was called the Liberal Republican, and their candidate was Horace Greeley They ed to secure for him the support of the Democratic convention, which placed him at the head of the Democratic ticket, but they could not secure the support of the Deet that Greeley had been fighting thely defeated He had not expected such a result, his health had been undern, and before the rejoicing of the Republicans was over, Greeley himself lay dead
SUMMARY
IRVING, WAshi+NGTON Born at New York City, April 3, 1783; went abroad for health, 1804; returned to America, 1806; published ”Knickerbocker's History of New York,” 1809; attache of legation at Madrid, 1826-29; secretary of legation at London, 1829-32; minister to Spain, 1842-46; died at Sunnyside, near Tarrytown, New York, Noveton, New Jersey, September 15, 1789; entered Yale, 1802, but left after three years; ned his commission; published first novel, ”Precaution,” anonymously, 1820, and followed it with many others; died at Cooperstown, New York, September 14, 1851
HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL Born at Salee, 1825; served in Custom House at Boston, 1838-41; at Brook Farm, 1841; settled at Concord, Massachusetts, 1843; surveyor of the port of Salem, 1846-49; United States consul at Liverpool, 1853-57; published ”Twice-Told Tales,” 1837; ”Mosses from an Old Manse,” 1846; ”The Scarlet Letter,” 1850; ”The House of the Seven Gables,” 1851; and a number of other novels and collections of tales; died at Plymouth, New Hampshi+re, May 19, 1864
STOWE, HARRIET BEECHER Born at Litchfield, Connecticut, June 14, 1812; educated at Hartford, Connecticut; taught school there and at Cincinnati; published ”Uncle Tom's Cabin,” 1852; ”Dred,” 1856; and a number of other novels; died at Hartford, Connecticut, July 1, 1896
CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE Born at Florida, Missouri, November 30, 1835; apprenticed to printer, 1847; alternated betweenand newspaper work, until the publication of ”Innocents Abroad,” 1869, , Connecticut, April 22, 1910; published many collections of short stories and several novels
BANCROFT, GEORGE Born at Worcester, Massachusetts, October 3, 1800; graduated at Harvard, 1817; collector of the port of Boston, 1838-41; Deovernor of Massachusetts, 1844; secretary of the navy, 1845-46; minister to Great Britain, 1846-49; minister to Berlin, 1867-74; published first volume of his ”History of the United States,” 1834, last voluton, Jan 17, 1891
PRESCOTT, WILLIAM HICKLING Born at Salem, Massachusetts, May 4, 1796; published ”History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella,” 1838; ”Conquest of Mexico,” 1843; ”Conquest of Peru,” 1847; ”History of the Reign of Philip II,” 1858; died at Boston, January 28, 1859
MOTLEY, JOHN LOTHROP Born at Dorchester (now part of Boston), Massachusetts, April 15, 1814; graduated at Harvard, 1831; studied abroad, 1831-34; United States minister to Austria, 1861-67, and to Great Britain, 1869-70; published ”Rise of the Dutch Republic,” 1856; ”History of the United Netherlands,” 1868; ”Life and Death of John of Barneveld,” 1874; died in Dorset, England, May 29, 1877