{"id":"01KG6YGZGH0NMD20FSX8K0FWN4","cid":"bafkreigbuwm5ddamnocqjjy3lvumd7n6tuzi44nn6nbv2p7windfttse54","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1475,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 8","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":1421,"text":"old, and perhaps older than Asia, only those sagacious philosophers,\r\nthe common sailors, had never seen it before, swearing it was all water\r\nand moonshine there.\r\n\r\nNow I do not say that Nathaniel of Salem is a greater man than William\r\nof Avon, or as great. But the difference between the two men is by no\r\nmeans immeasurable. Not a very great deal more, and Nathaniel were\r\nverily William.\r\n\r\nThis, too, I mean, that if Shakspeare has not been equalled, give the\r\nworld time, and he is sure to be surpassed in one hemisphere or the\r\nother. Nor will it at all do to say that the world is getting grey and\r\ngrizzled now, and has lost that fresh charm which she wore of old, and\r\nby virtue of which the great poets of past times made themselves what\r\nwe esteem them to be. Not so. The world is as young to-day as when it\r\nwas created; and this Vermont morning dew is as wet to my feet, as\r\nEden's dew to Adam's. Nor has nature been all over ransacked by our\r\nprogenitors, so that no new charms and mysteries remain for this latter\r\ngeneration to find. Far from it. The trillionth part has not yet been\r\nsaid; and all that has been said, but multiplies the avenues to what\r\nremains to be said. It is not so much paucity as superabundance of\r\nmaterial that seems to incapacitate modern authors.\r\n\r\nLet America, then, prize and cherish her writers; yea, let her glorify\r\nthem. They are not so many in number as to exhaust her goodwill. And\r\nwhile she has good kith and kin of her own, to take to her bosom, let\r\nher not lavish her embraces upon the household of an alien. For believe\r\nit or not, England after all, is in many things an alien to us. China\r\nhas more bonds of real love for us than she. But even were there no\r\nstrong literary individualities among us, as there are some dozens\r\nat least, nevertheless, let America first praise mediocrity even,\r\nin her children, before she praises (for everywhere, merit demands\r\nacknowledgment from every one) the best excellence in the children\r\nof any other land. Let her own authors, I say, have the priority of\r\nappreciation. I was much pleased with a hot-headed Carolina cousin of\r\nmine, who once said,--\"If there were no other American to stand by, in\r\nliterature, why, then, I would stand by Pop Emmons and his _Fredoniad_,\r\nand till a better epic came along, swear it was not very far behind the\r\n_Iliad_.\" Take away the words, and in spirit he was sound.\r\n\r\nNot that American genius needs patronage in order to expand. For that\r\nexplosive sort of stuff will expand though screwed up in a vice, and\r\nburst it, though it were triple steel. It is for the nation's sake,\r\nand not for her authors' sake, that I would have America be heedful of\r\nthe increasing greatness among her writers. For how great the shame,\r\nif other nations should be before her, in crowning her heroes of the\r\npen! But this is almost the case now. American authors have received\r\nmore just and discriminating praise (however loftily and ridiculously\r\ngiven, in certain cases) even from some Englishmen, than from their own\r\ncountrymen. There are hardly five critics in America; and several of\r\nthem are asleep. As for patronage, it is the American author who now\r\npatronizes his country, and not his country him. And if at times some\r\namong them appeal to the people for more recognition, it is not always\r\nwith selfish motives, but patriotic ones.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 8"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGJFFWM00TFQS297SSV","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YGZGHN7984YMGR6KY82MR","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YGZGHFR03ANW6C5JN3BR0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:46.385Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:53.066Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}