{"id":"01KG6YH01NT8VWCPHNCFRPJ8RA","cid":"bafkreibihpp7dso6noyyw26bs5lkiso3fqkzvjprcetpc5aubsipwlsfge","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1729,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 13","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":1666,"text":"frightened at this; for when Spenser was alive, he was thought of\r\nvery much as Hawthorne is now,--was generally accounted just such a\r\n\"gentle\" harmless man. It may be, that to common eyes, the sublimity\r\nof Hawthorne seems lost in his sweetness,--as perhaps in that same\r\n_Select Party_ of his; for whom he has builded so august a dome of\r\nsunset clouds, and served them on richer plate than Belshazzar when he\r\nbanqueted his lords in Babylon.\r\n\r\nBut my chief business now, is to point out a particular page in this\r\npiece, having reference to an honored guest, who under the name of the\r\nMaster Genius, but in the guise \"of a young man of poor attire, with no\r\ninsignia of rank or acknowledged eminence,\" is introduced to the Man of\r\nFancy, who is the giver of the feast. Now, the page having reference\r\nto this Master Genius, so happily expresses much of what I yesterday\r\nwrote, touching the coming of the literary Shiloh of America, that I\r\ncannot but be charmed by the coincidence; especially, when it shows\r\nsuch a parity of ideas, at least in this one point, between a man like\r\nHawthorne and a man like me.\r\n\r\nAnd here, let me throw out another conceit of mine touching this\r\nAmerican Shiloh, or Master Genius, as Hawthorne calls him. May it not\r\nbe, that this commanding mind has not been, is not, and never will be,\r\nindividually developed in any one man? And would it, indeed, appear so\r\nunreasonable to suppose, that this great fulness and overflowing may\r\nbe, or may be destined to be, shared by a plurality of men of genius?\r\nSurely, to take the very greatest example on record, Shakspeare cannot\r\nbe regarded as in himself the concretion of all the genius of his\r\ntime; nor as so immeasurably beyond Marlowe, Webster, Ford, Beaumont,\r\nJonson, that these great men can be said to share none of his power?\r\nFor one, I conceive that there were dramatists in Elizabeth's day,\r\nbetween whom and Shakspeare the distance was by no means great. Let\r\nany one, hitherto little acquainted with those neglected old authors,\r\nfor the first time read them thoroughly, or even read Charles Lamb's\r\n_Specimens_ of them, and he will be amazed at the wondrous ability of\r\nthose Anaks of men, and shocked at this renewed example of the fact,\r\nthat Fortune has more to do with fame than merit,--though, without\r\nmerit, lasting fame there can be none.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, it would argue too ill of my country were this maxim to\r\nhold good concerning Nathaniel Hawthorne, a man, who already, in some\r\nfew minds has shed \"such a light as never illuminates the earth save\r\nwhen a great heart burns as the household fire of a grand intellect.\"\r\n\r\nThe words are his,--in the _Select Party_; and they are a magnificent\r\nsetting to a coincident sentiment of my own, but ramblingly expressed\r\nyesterday, in reference to himself. Gainsay it who will, as I now\r\nwrite, I am Posterity speaking by proxy--and after times will make\r\nit more than good, when I declare, that the American, who up to the\r\npresent day has evinced, in literature, the largest brain with the\r\nlargest heart, that man is Nathaniel Hawthorne. Moreover, that whatever\r\nNathaniel Hawthorne may hereafter write, _Mosses from an Old Manse_\r\nwill be ultimately accounted his masterpiece. For there is a sure,\r\nthough secret sign in some works which proves the culmination of the\r\npowers (only the developable ones, however) that produced them. But I\r\nam by no means desirous of the glory of a prophet. I pray Heaven that\r\nHawthorne may yet prove me an impostor in this prediction. Especially,\r\nas I somehow cling to the strange fancy, that, in all men, hiddenly\r\nreside certain wondrous, occult properties--as in some plants and\r\nminerals--which by some happy but very rare accident (as bronze was\r\ndiscovered by the melting of the iron and brass at the burning of\r\nCorinth) may chance to be called forth here on earth; not entirely\r\nwaiting for their better discovery in the more congenial, blessed\r\natmosphere of heaven.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 13"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGJFFWM00TFQS297SSV","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH01NNQ6BY4BYT0QPGM8Y","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YH01NMNY0CXBJ5P0Z0001","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:46.933Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:53.157Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}