{"id":"01KG6YGZGHN7984YMGR6KY82MR","cid":"bafkreia2rubqyqx3euxp7jl2rsbsb2wj32fumad53vp6g4uurbn2kdnrfy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1429,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":1368,"text":"to the contrary course by circumstances, Hawthorne (either from\r\nsimple disinclination, or else from inaptitude) refrains from all\r\nthe popularizing noise and show of broad farce and blood-besmeared\r\ntragedy; content with the still, rich utterance of a great intellect in\r\nrepose, and which sends few thoughts into circulation, except they be\r\narterialized at his large warm lungs, and expanded in his honest heart.\r\n\r\nNor need you fix upon that blackness in him, if it suit you not. Nor,\r\nindeed, will all readers discern it; for it is, mostly, insinuated\r\nto those who may best understand it, and account for it; it is not\r\nobtruded upon every one alike.\r\n\r\nSome may start to read of Shakspeare and Hawthorne on the same page.\r\nThey may say, that if an illustration were needed, a lesser light might\r\nhave sufficed to elucidate this Hawthorne, this small man of yesterday.\r\nBut I am not willingly one of those who, as touching Shakspeare at\r\nleast, exemplify the maxim of Rochefoucauld, that \"we exalt the\r\nreputation of some, in order to depress that of others\";--who, to\r\nteach all noble-souled aspirants that there is no hope for them,\r\npronounce Shakspeare absolutely unapproachable. But Shakspeare has\r\nbeen approached. There are minds that have gone as far as Shakspeare\r\ninto the universe. And hardly a mortal man, who, at some time or\r\nother, has not felt as great thoughts in him as any you will find\r\nin Hamlet. We must not inferentially malign mankind for the sake\r\nof any one man, whoever he may be. This is too cheap a purchase of\r\ncontentment for conscious mediocrity to make. Besides, this absolute\r\nand unconditional adoration of Shakspeare has grown to be a part of\r\nour Anglo-Saxon superstitions. The Thirty-Nine Articles are now Forty.\r\nIntolerance has come to exist in this matter. You must believe in\r\nShakspeare's unapproachability, or quit the country. But what sort of a\r\nbelief is this for an American, a man who is bound to carry republican\r\nprogressiveness into Literature as well as into Life? Believe me, my\r\nfriends, that men, not very much inferior to Shakspeare are this day\r\nbeing born on the banks of the Ohio. And the day will come when you\r\nshall say, Who reads a book by an Englishman that is a modern? The\r\ngreat mistake seems to be, that even with those Americans who look\r\nforward to the coming of a great literary genius among us, they somehow\r\nfancy he will come in the costume of Queen Elizabeth's day; be a writer\r\nof dramas founded upon old English history or the tales of Boccaccio.\r\nWhereas, great geniuses are parts of the times, they themselves are\r\nthe times, and possess a corresponding coloring. It is of a piece with\r\nthe Jews, who, while their Shiloh was meekly walking in their streets,\r\nwere still praying for his magnificent coming; looking for him in a\r\nchariot, who was already among them on an ass. Nor must we forget that,\r\nin his own lifetime, Shakspeare was not Shakspeare, but only Master\r\nWilliam Shakspeare of the shrewd, thriving, business firm of Condell,\r\nShakspeare and Co., proprietors of the Globe Theatre in London; and by\r\na courtly author, of the name of Chettle, was looked at as an \"upstart\r\ncrow,\" beautified \"with other birds' feathers.\" For, mark it well,\r\nimitation is often the first charge brought against originality. Why\r\nthis is so, there is not space to set forth here. You must have plenty\r\nof sea-room to tell the Truth in; especially when it seems to have an\r\naspect of newness, as America did in 1492, though it was then just as\r\nold, 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","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGJFFWM00TFQS297SSV","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YGZGHZGZ9DBM6NJTTWHKW","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YGZGH0NMD20FSX8K0FWN4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:46.385Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:53.029Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}