CONCLUSION

We have said that the year 1892 closed an epoch in both England and America. We have also assumed that literature in English produced since 1892 is inferior to that produced in the period then finished. Such is not, however, the explanation of the choice of date to end our survey. This we can best give in the language of Matthew Arnold: "No man can trust himself to speak of his own time and his own contemporaries with the same sureness of judgment and the same proportion as of times and men gone by"; and in a book like this "we should avoid, as far as we can, all hindrances to sureness of judgment and proportion."

Professor Trent is inclined to put this limitation on criticism of most of the writers covered by our fourth chapter. "It is impossible," says he, "to treat otherwise than tentatively, and to a certain extent in impressionistic fashion authors who have seemed almost a part of our own generation." That this feeling is widespread among critics is shown by the frequency of the word "seems" in the esti mates of men as far removed from us as Longfellow and Emerson, or even Poe and Hawthorne. In this book we have attempted a minimum of critical judgment; and in cases where large differences of opinion are still found, have attempted a fair presentation of both sides.

Books of this character sometimes adopt another method of restricting the authors treated, drawing the line between the living and the dead. This method makes anything like judicial criticism even more difficult than does the choice of a year somewhat removed. If no living writers were treated in a history of English literature written in this year (1914), we should have to exclude Thomas Hardy and Kipling while including George Meredith and Swinburne. Yet the four were almost equally prominent in the literary

world twenty years ago. In American literature we should feel it necessary to discuss Eugene Field, Marion Crawford, Mark Twain, while we should be prohibited from discussing James Whitcomb Riley or William Dean Howells. Yet the two groups represent almost equally the spirit and tendencies of the past quarter of a century.

The failure to treat living or recent writers, and the expression of a belief that American literature since 1892 is inferior to what preceded, do not signify that we consider current literature without merit or the future as dark. Outside of the newspapers, the majority of people to-day may be said to limit their reading to the popular magazines. Of the contents of these publications the most notable portions are the short-stories, which in many cases reach a high degree of excellence. Going a step farther, we may say that the most successful of these short-stories usually set forth and interpret some characteristic bits of American life-a New England village, or a Western mining camp, or a fashionable section in a large city, or a remote and backward mountain community. A healthy humor is generally found in these stories. In the higher class of magazines critical articles of great merit constantly appear, showing thorough study and careful presentation of topics of great interest and of vital importance, in literature, history, economics, social science, biology — in fact, in every subject which an aggressive and progressive people find of probable use in their development. In the fields covered by our numerous and varied magazines, it seems likely that a vigorous native literature may arise, which will be able to hold its own even beside the great output of the half century centering about 1850.

SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF AUTHORS NOT TREATED IN

THE BODY OF THE HISTORY

Chapters I-II (1608-1809)

BRACKENRIDGE, HUGH HENRY (1748-1816). Born in Scotland. Came to Pennsylvania in youth. Lawyer, and for the last fifteen years of his life Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Chief work, Modern Chivalry, a burlesque novel. Died in Pennsylvania.

BYRD, WILLIAM (1674-1744). A native Virginian of wealth and position. Educated in England and on the Continent. Member of the commission that fixed the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina. Of his works, which he left in manuscript, the best is the History of the Dividing Line, an account of the commission's work. Died in Virginia.

COTTON, JOHN (1585-1652). Born in England. New England preacher, and author of fifty books. Very influential in his own day, but now chiefly remembered because of a controversy with Roger Williams, and because he was Cotton Mather's grandfather. Died in Boston.

SEWALL, SAMUEL (1652–1730). Born in England. Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, and sat in the witchcraft trials. His Diary is a valuable record of the life of the colony from 1673 to 1729. His Selling of Joseph is mentioned above (page 131). Being convinced of the error of his decisions in the witchcraft trials, he performed penance in public for many years. Died in Boston.

WILLIAMS, ROGER (about 1600-1683). Born in London. Apostle of religious toleration, and founder of Rhode Island. Died in Rhode Island.

Chapter III (1809-1865)

KENNEDY, JOHN PENDLETON (1795-1870). Born in Baltimore. Served in War of 1812. Member of Congress. Secretary of the Navy. Wrote novels, of which the best are Swallow Barn, a tale of colonial Virginia; and Horse-Shoe Robinson, a tale of Revolutionary days. Died in Newport, Rhode Island.

PAULDING, JAMES KIRKE (1779-1860). Born in New York. Kinsman of Irving, and associated with him in early literary work. Secretary of the Navy under Van Buren. Wrote novels that enjoyed a certain amount of popularity in their day, but can hardly be said to have "survived." Died in New York.

PRESCOTT, WILLIAM HICKLING (1796-1859). Born in Salem, Massachusetts. His sight was almost destroyed by an accident while in college; but he found means to get hold of the information he needed for historical writing, and produced a great series of histories The Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, The Conquest of Mexico, The Conquest of Peru, The Reign of Philip II. Died

in Salem.

READ, THOMAS BUCHANAN (1822-1872). Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Led a wandering life—in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Boston, New York, Europe. Engaged in various occupations — tailor, cigar-maker, sculptor, sign and portrait painter, verse-maker. Remembered chiefly for a few lyrics, best-known of which is Sheridan's Ride. Died in New York City.

SIMMS, WILLIAM GILMORE (1806-1870). Born in Charleston, South Carolina. Generally called the most important man of letters in the South before the War. Wrote poems, novels, and journalistic work of various kinds, amounting in all to nearly one hundred volumes. His novels are better than his verse; and of them the best deal with Colonial and Revolutionary times in the South The Yemassee and The Partisan. Died in Charleston.

STOWE, HARRIET BEECHER (1811-1896). Born in Litchfield, Connecticut. Sister of the distinguished pulpit orator, Henry Ward Beecher. Made famous by a single story - Uncle Tom's Cabin, which aims to set forth the abuses of slavery. Later works, like The Minister's Wooing and Oldtown Folks, tales of New England life, entitled Mrs. Stowe to a higher place in literature than does the better known book. After the War she lived in Florida, and devoted herself to the cause of the Southern people, well knowing the unfitness of either the negro or the "carpet-bagger" to restore order out of the chaos left by the great conflict. Died in Hartford, Connecticut.

Taylor, BayaRD (1825-1878). Born at Kennett Square, Chester County, Pennsylvania. First became known as a writer by his

Views Afoot, an account of two years' travel in Europe. Wrote poems, well received, but little regarded to-day; and novels, which also have lost much of their early fame. His translation of Goethe's Faust, however, still holds a high place, and seems likely to constitute his chief claim to distinction. Of his poems the Bedouin Love Song is best known, partly, perhaps, for its musical setting by Pinsuti. The Story of Kennett is his best novel. Died in Germany, soon after reaching that country as United States Minister.

WILLIS, NATHANIEL PARKER (1806-1867). Born in Portland, Maine. An influential figure in his day, his career belongs rather to the history of New York City journalism, though he produced some successful specimens of what is now called "society verse." Died in New York.

Chapter IV (1865-1892) and After

ALCOTT, LOUISA MAY (1832-1888). Born in Philadelphia. Very successful writer of children's stories - Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Jack and Jill. Died in Boston.

ALDRICH, THOMAS BAILEY (1836-1907). Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Lived for some time in the South in boyhood, then a few years in New York City. From about 1860 Aldrich belonged to the Boston literary group. Editor Atlantic Monthly, 1881-1890. Wrote some poems, but is best known for his stories, of which the most famous are Marjorie Daw and The Story of a Bad Boy. Died in Boston.

ALLEN, JAMES LANE (1849). Born near Lexington, Kentucky. Novelist. Stories: A Kentucky Cardinal, Aftermath (sequel to the preceding), The Choir Invisible, The Reign of Law. Living in New York City.

BURROUGHS, JOHN (1837). Born in New York. Naturalist and literary essayist. Has published many collections of essays, such as Fresh Fields, Indoor Studies. Since 1874 he "has lived on a farm [West Park, near Poughkeepsie. New York], devoting his time to literature and fruit culture." His cottage bears the pictur esque name "Slabsides."

CABLE, GEORGE WASHINGTON (1844). Born in New Orleans. Served in the Confederate army. After the War entered journalism. Wrote stories of the Creoles of Louisiana, first collected in 1879 in