Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v3.djvu/134

ii6 Later Essayists been fully appreciated) ; and indeed, one recalls how Lowell, as editor of The Atlantic Monthly, objected to a paragraph of Thoreau's wherein the pines were made to tower into a higher heaven than might be reached by the souls of lesser men. Curtis we cannot imagine thus adopting the theologian's views. What man of you all [writes Curtis in his paper on Autumn Days] what man of you all is as true and noble for a man as the oak upon yon hill-top for an oak? The oak obeys every law, regularly increases and develops, stretches its shady arms of blessing, proudly wears its leafy coronel, and drops abundant acorns for future oaks as faithful ; but who of you all does not violate the law of your life? And a little further on: "A stately elm is the archbishop of my green diocese. In full canonicals he stands sublime. His flowing robes fill the blithe air with sacred grace." It is in sentences like these that Curtis takes firm place beside Thoreau, both of them ambassadors bringing messages from the world of nature to the world of men — and beside John Muir (1838- 1914), who, though bom in Scotland, was thoroughly natural- ized in America, as inventive as any Yankee, and a passionate foster -son of the western mountains. To sit in judgment on the authors whose lives outran that of Curtis — men whose hospitality was extended to so many younger writers, and whose personal inspiration has quickened unforgettable hours — is no easy task; and far more grateful it would be to saunter in informal essay fashion along the paths of past days, placing wreaths of affectionate reverence in homes where Norton, Higginson, Stedman dwell no more. But we are here concerned less with the charm of men in their social intercourse than with the printed pages which are to suc- ceeding generations their sole direct heritage — direct heritage because who shall gauge those influences which, emanating from personalities like Norton's and Stedman 's, come to flower long after the hand that cast the initial seed has withered in the grave? The bibUographer of Charles Eliot Norton (1827- 1908) finds comparatively little to record that is of importance to the American essay. A study of Dante ; notes of travel and study in Italy; some papers published in The Atlantic Monthly; and, later in life, historical studies concerning church building in the Middle Ages, — these indicate to some extent the trend of