{"id":"01KG6YH01W9GXP7SGN92YWVQMA","cid":"bafkreicmmxu5ksskya3uelq3prohdoa5bzx6v7jystz7e2ltkotzqyhwam","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1572,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 10","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":1515,"text":"fail, or seem to fail, then, in the words of my Carolina cousin, let\r\nus clap him on the shoulder and back him against all Europe for his\r\nsecond round. The truth is, that in one point of view this matter of\r\na national literature has come to pass with us, that in some sense we\r\nmust turn bullies, else the day is lost, or superiority so far beyond\r\nus, that we can hardly say it will ever be ours.\r\n\r\nAnd now, my countrymen, as an excellent author of your own flesh\r\nand blood,--an unimitating, and, perhaps, in his way, an inimitable\r\nman--whom better can I commend to you, in the first place, than\r\nNathaniel Hawthorne. He is one of the new, and far better generation of\r\nyour writers. The smell of young beeches and hemlocks is upon him; your\r\nown broad prairies are in his soul; and if you travel away inland into\r\nhis deep and noble nature, you will hear the far roar of his Niagara.\r\nGive not over to future generations the glad duty of acknowledging him\r\nfor what he is. Take that joy to yourself, in your own generation; and\r\nso shall he feel those grateful impulses on him, that may possibly\r\nprompt him to the full flower of some still greater achievement in\r\nyour eyes. And by confessing him you thereby confess others; you brace\r\nthe whole brotherhood. For genius, all over the world, stands hand in\r\nhand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round.\r\n\r\nIn treating of Hawthorne, or rather of Hawthorne in his writings (for\r\nI never saw the man; and in the chances of a quiet plantation life,\r\nremote from his haunts, perhaps never shall); in treating of his works,\r\nI say, I have thus far omitted all mention of his _Twice Told Tales_,\r\nand _Scarlet Letter_. Both are excellent, but full of such manifold,\r\nstrange, and diffusive beauties, that time would all but fail me to\r\npoint the half of them out. But there are things in those two books,\r\nwhich, had they been written in England a century ago, Nathaniel\r\nHawthorne had utterly displaced many of the bright names we now revere\r\non authority. But I am content to leave Hawthorne to himself, and to\r\nthe infallible finding of posterity; and however great may be the\r\npraise I have bestowed upon him, I feel that in so doing I have served\r\nand honored myself, than him. For, at bottom, great excellence is\r\npraise enough to itself; but the feeling of a sincere and appreciative\r\nlove and admiration towards it, this is relieved by utterance, and\r\nwarm, honest praise ever leaves a pleasant flavor in the mouth; and it\r\nis an honorable thing to confess to what is honorable in others.\r\n\r\nBut I cannot leave my subject yet. No man can read a fine author, and\r\nrelish him to his very bones while he reads, without subsequently\r\nfancying to himself some ideal image of the man and his mind. And if\r\nyou rightly look for it, you will almost always find that the author\r\nhimself has somewhere furnished you with his own picture. For poets\r\n(whether in prose or verse), being painters by nature, are like their\r\nbrethren of the pencil, the true portrait-painters, who, in the\r\nmultitude of likenesses to be sketched, do not invariably omit their\r\nown; and in all high instances, they paint them without any vanity,\r\nthough at times with a lurking something that would take several pages\r\nto properly define.\r\n\r\nI submit it, then, to those best acquainted with the man personally,\r\nwhether the following is not Nathaniel Hawthorne;--and to himself,\r\nwhether something involved in it does not express the temper of his\r\nmind,--that lasting temper of all true, candid men--a seeker, not a\r\nfinder yet:\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 10"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGJFFWM00TFQS297SSV","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YGZGHFR03ANW6C5JN3BR0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YH01NQNAV5E2M9QG0PQQK","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:46.940Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:53.076Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}