and Americans abroad gave him a better acquaintance with that outer world which he had long and vainly yearned to know. In 1860 came out his final great book. If one were to theorize in advance about it the chances would be all in favor of its being closer to life, more intimately familiar with the ways of the world, and more genial and cosmopolitan in tone than his earlier writings. But the strange fact is that The Marble Faun, which developed out of his experience at Rome, while different in many ways from his first two romances, and while in one sense his most complete expression of life, is, nevertheless, more vague, mysterious, and remote than any of his previous works. It is the same old study of the individual and the community. But where he had "formerly set forth the history of sin in the heart, taking the evil for granted, and reflecting upon it as a thing given; he now looked backward and is engaged with the genesis of sin in a natural man, the coming of sin into the world of nature." Donatello plays the rôle occupied in the earlier stories by Zenobia and Hepzibah and Hester. Innocent and guileless at the start of the book, he is relentlessly drawn into the current of human affairs, until finally, stained and besmirched through his intercourse with other men, he becomes guilty of sin and aware of its consequences. Hawthorne attempted to account for the presence of evil in human life, and his conclusion is embodied in the experience of Donatello, who is made into a living soul as the result of his crime.

Hawthorne as a Spiritual Leader.-Throughout his works Hawthorne thus developed a philosophy which is quite his own, yet quite in harmony with the prevailing ideas of his day. He showed a high and abounding respect for the dignity of the individual man, and a conviction that each member of the community should be permitted to think his own thoughts and live his own life. In contrast to his contemporaries in the field of fiction, Dickens or Reade or Kingsley or even Trollope, Hawthorne displayed little interest in the handling of concrete social problems. The Present of Hawthorne is a picturesque background; the church, even in depraved form, furnishes him simply with an occasion for a suggestive revery. The approach of the

Civil War does not overshadow the pages of his fiction. With the concrete social reformer Hawthorne had nothing in common. Moreover, he is almost equally far away, although in a different fashion, from Thackeray and George Eliot and Meredith. Read his pages as you will, you will find little in the way of definite advice to individuals as to how to act under any given set of conditions. Hawthorne was a spiritual leader; to provoke action was not his task; but deeply conscious that the majority of people fail to think for themselves and fail to sympathize with those who do, Hawthorne attempted to lead people into a wider and more satisfied spiritual life. So, like Thoreau, Hawthorne looked upon society from his own point of view, and pleaded for individual freedom and individual courage. So, like Emerson, he recognized the double problem of living true to himself and performing his part in the midst of the social group. But to a greater extent than either of them, he had the artistic gift which made it possible for him to put into almost perfect literary form the essays, sketches, and stories which were the expressions of his deepest life.

REVIEW OUTLINE.-Summarize the reasons for the failure of any permanent schools of literature founded on the work of Irving, Cooper, and Bryant.

Define Transcendentalism. In what way was this philosophy evidently a reaction against the eighteenth-century habits of thought as developed by Benjamin Franklin in America? To what Englishman did Franklin correspond in his point of view? Give reasons for the fertility of New England soil for the sowing of such philosophy. What are the three fundamental elements in life in which the Transcendentalists believed? What is the relation between the three?

Give the chief facts in Emerson's career up to his return from his trip abroad. What were his three notable essays in 1836-1837 and 1838 and what was the common element in them all? Cite the passage in which Emerson reconciles his desire for solitude and his need of society. In what respect was the New England Lyceum through which Emerson addressed the public a notable institution in his day? In what lay his chief influence as a lecturer?

Thoreau was a disciple and follower of Emerson and yet was too individual to be a copy. In what respect did he differ in his attitude toward the life of the community? In what respect did he surpass Emerson in his feeling for and knowledge of nature?

What were some of the organized ways in which the Transcendental group gave evidence of their earnestness? Mention the relation of Amos Bronson Alcott to one of them, of George Ripley to another, and of Margaret Fuller to a third.

Mention the experiences of Hawthorne's boyhood, college days, and subsequent years after his return to Salem. What negative fact in his life did he first record and then struggle against? Mention his three successive attempts to overcome what he felt to be a defect in himself as a citizen. What fundamental fact in his previous experience appears in his great romances? Mention the first three of these in turn with brief analyses. What in general was the effect throughout his life of certain of the friendships which he made in college? What was the effect of these upon his life abroad from 1853 to 1860? What is there notable in the fact that his last great romance was not markedly different in fact and experience from those written before his years in Liverpool and Rome? In what respect is Hawthorne comparable with Emerson and Thoreau in their attitude toward individual freedom, and in their attitude toward organized reform?

READING GUIDE.-Readings from Emerson should include first of all "Nature," "The American Scholar," "The Divinity School Address," and "Society and Solitude." These may be supplemented by "Compensation," "Self-Reliance," "Friendship," and "Character," and by the following poems: "The River," "Written at Naples," "Written at Rome," "The Problem," "Fable," "Hamatreya," "Brahma." The best short biographies are E. W. Emerson's "Emerson in Concord" and George E. Woodberry's (English Men of Letters series). Among the good critical passages are C. F. Richardson's "American Literature," I, IX and II, V; E. C. Stedman's "Poets of America"; Whitman's "Specimen Days," April 16, 1881.

Readings from Thoreau should include the first fourth of "Walden," together with a few of the essays which make up the rest of the book. Readings from Hawthorne should include from "Twice Told Tales," "The Great Carbuncle," "The Snow Image," "The Great Stone

Face"; from the four long romances, "The House of the Seven Gables." The best short biography is by George E. Woodberry (American Men of Letters series). Other good studies from his life are Rose Hawthorne Lathrop's "Memories of Hawthorne" and Bridge's "Recollections of Hawthorne."

For a study of the Concord group in general, the best books are O. B. Frothingham's "Transcendentalism in New England," H. C. Goddard's "Studies in New England Transcendentalism," and Lindsey Swift's "Brook Farm." Lowell's essays on "Thoreau" and on " Emerson the Lecturer" are sympathetic and interesting.

CHAPTER IV

THE POPULAR SPOKESMEN OF THE MID-CENTURY

I. INTRODUCTION

The Prophet versus The Spokesman.-As between the poet philosophers, often called the Concord group, and the popular spokesmen who centred more about Boston and Cambridge, there are certain points of clear contrast. The former concerned themselves almost exclusively with the nature and improvement of the individual; the latter were laboring with the nation as a whole, and attempting to uplift or reform its institutions. The New England prophets cried down existing evils and pointed to their certain consequences; the spokesmen looked for causes and did their best to remove them. A further distinction can be made with reference to the contrasted form of their messages. It is not the function of the prophet to please: his message is disturbing and almost certain to be unpopular. His cause is desperate, and his audience, if they listen at all, will listen only under protest. The prophet, therefore, speaks with high seriousness, and embellishes his discourse with parable and suggestive allusion. He challenges attention; he stimulates thought, and leaves his readers or his hearers to their own best devices, not applying the moral of what he has said or written. But the spokesman has a different task. He is attempting to move men to immediate action. He must be heard, he must be understood, and that at once. His work, therefore, has certain characteristics that appeal to the popular mind. In form it is symmetrical and familiar; in content easy to understand at a glance; the narrative scheme is frequently used, and in most cases the moral is definitely applied.