{"id":"01KG8AM94VGEKQ960MRBYC0Q49","cid":"bafkreiczcd6flbyvgleiryrhslrf5fxjrgq5kvltry65gp3ka7jydymtvm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4151,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.981Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 13","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":4093,"text":"unduly lauding foreign writers, and, at the same time, duly recognise\r\nthe meritorious writers that are our own; those writers who breathe that\r\nunshackled, democratic spirit of Christianity in all things, which now\r\ntakes the practical lead in this world, though at the same time led by\r\nourselves--us Americans. Let us boldly condemn all imitation, though it\r\ncomes to us graceful and fragrant as the morning; and foster all\r\noriginality, though at first it be crabbed and ugly as our own pine\r\nknots. And if any of our authors fail, or seem to fail, then, in the\r\nwords of my Carolina cousin, let us clap him on the shoulder and back\r\nhim against all Europe for his second round. The truth is, that in one\r\npoint of view this matter of a national literature has come to such a\r\npass with us, that in some sense we must turn bullies, else the day is\r\nlost, or superiority so far beyond us, that we can hardly say it will\r\never be ours.\r\n\r\nAnd now, my countrymen, as an excellent author of your own flesh and\r\nblood--an unimitating, and, perhaps, in his way, an inimitable man--whom\r\nbetter can I commend to you, in the first place, than Nathaniel\r\nHawthorne. He is one of the new, and far better generation of your\r\nwriters. The smell of young beeches and hemlocks is upon him; your own\r\nbroad prairies are in his soul; and if you travel away inland into his\r\ndeep and noble nature, you will hear the far roar of his Niagara. Give\r\nnot over to future generations the glad duty of acknowledging him for\r\nwhat he is. Take that joy to yourself, in your own generation; and so\r\nshall he feel those grateful impulses on him, that may possibly prompt\r\nhim to the full flower of some still greater achievement in your eyes.\r\nAnd by confessing him you thereby confess others; you brace the whole\r\nbrotherhood. For genius, all over the world, stands hand in hand, and\r\none shock of recognition runs the whole circle round.\r\n\r\nIn treating of Hawthorne, or rather of Hawthorne in his writings (for I\r\nnever saw the man; and in the chances of a quiet plantation life, remote\r\nfrom his haunts, perhaps never shall); in treating of his works, I say,\r\nI have thus far omitted all mention of his _Twice Told Tales_, and\r\n_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 the\r\ninfallible finding of posterity; and however great may be the praise I\r\nhave bestowed upon him, I feel that in so doing I have served and\r\nhonoured myself, rather 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 toward it, this is relieved by utterance, and warm,\r\nhonest praise ever leaves a pleasant flavour in the mouth; and it is an\r\nhonourable thing to confess to what is honourable 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 you\r\nrightly look for it, you will almost always find that the author himself\r\nhas somewhere furnished you with his own picture. For poets (whether in\r\nprose or verse), being painters by nature, are like their brethren of\r\nthe pencil, the true portrait-painters, who, in the multitude of\r\nlikenesses to be sketched, do not invariably omit their own; and in all\r\nhigh instances, they paint them without any vanity, though at times with\r\na lurking something that would take several pages to properly define.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 13"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJVQAZF49HK19VVYQ1DXW","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM951GFJ6E7J0FWXEKCES","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM94R06GJMHTNXACB5XN7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.899Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:38.530Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}