were graphically depicted. In a few years the abolition party became strong enough to enter national politics. The feeling between the North and the South became more pronounced and irreconcilable. Finally attempted secession precipitated a civil war, which resulted in the abolition of slavery, and the cementing of our country into a homogeneous and indissoluble union.

201. Distinctive American Literature. With the First National Period our literature assumed, to some extent at least, a distinctively American character. New themes, requiring original treatment, were presented to the literary worker. In the East, Indian life had become sufficiently remote to admit of idealistic treatment. In Cooper's works the Indian is idealized as much as the mediæval knight in the novels of Scott. The picturesque elements in pioneer life were more clearly discerned. The wild life of the frontiersman began to appear in fiction, which, possessing the charm of novelty, was cordially received abroad. In the older parts of the country, tradition lent a legendary charm to various localities and different events. The legends of the Indians were found to possess poetical elements. From these sources Irving, Longfellow, Hawthorne, and Simms drew the materials for some of their most original and popular works.

202. Unitarian Controversy. In the first half of the century there were in New England two closely related movements that deserve mention for their important effect upon literature. The first was the Unitarian controversy. Though the Unitarian doctrine is old, and was held by a few New England churches in the eighteenth century, the controversy began in 1805, when Henry Ware, a learned Unitarian, was elected professor of divinity in Harvard College. The capture of this leading institution by the Unitarians naturally provoked a theological conflict.

The champions on the Unitarian side were Henry Ware, William Ellery Channing, and Andrews Norton; on the Trinitarian side, Leonard Woods, Moses Stuart, and Lyman Beecher. From 1815 to 1830 the discussion was the leading question of the time. Though conducted with great earnestness on both sides, the controversy was without that venomous character distinguished as odium theologicum. A large number of Congregational churches adopted the Unitarian belief. Emphasizing the moral duties rather than the doctrinal beliefs of Christianity, the Unitarians became very active in education, philanthropy, and reform. It is not too much to say that all the leading writers of New England felt the stimulating and liberalizing influence of the Unitarian movement.

203. Transcendental Movement. The other movement referred to belongs to the sphere of philosophy, though it also affected religious belief. It has been characterized as transcendentalism. In spite of the levity with which the movement has sometimes been treated, it was an earnest protest against a materialistic philosophy, which teaches that the senses are our only source of knowledge. It was a reaction against what is dull, prosaic, and hard in everyday life. The central thing in transcendentalism is the belief that the human mind has the power to attain truth independently of the senses and the understanding. Emerson, himself a leading transcendentalist, defines it as follows: "What is popularly called Transcendentalism among us is Idealism: Idealism as it appears in 1842. As thinkers, mankind have ever divided into two sects, Materialists and Idealists; the first class founding on experience, the second on consciousness; the first class beginning to think from the data of the senses, the second class perceive that the senses are not final, and say, the senses give us representations of things, but what are the things themselves, they

cannot tell. The materialist insists on facts, on history, on the force of circumstances and the animal wants of man; the idealist on the power of Thought and of Will, on inspiration, on miracle, on individual culture."

204. Origin and Effects. - This idealistic or transcendental philosophy did not originate in New England, though it received a special coloring and application there. It began in Germany with the writings of Kant, Fichte, and Schelling; it was transported to England by Coleridge and Carlyle, through whose works it first made its way to America. It abounded in profound and fertile thought. It was taken up by a remarkable group of men and women in Boston and Concord, among whom were Emerson, Alcott, Thoreau, Parker, and Margaret Fuller. Their organ (for every movement at that time had to have its periodical) was The Dial. Transcendentalism exerted an elevating influence upon New England thought, and gave to our literature one of its greatest writers in the person of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

205. Various Disturbing Problems. - Contemporary with the transcendental movement, all sorts of novelties and projects of reform kept New England in a state of ferment. Spiritualism, phrenology, and mesmerism attracted much attention. Temperance, woman's rights, and socialism were all discussed in public gatherings and in the press. Many of these schemes, which aimed at the regeneration of society, had the sympathy and encouragement of the transcendentalists. Some of their leading spirits participated in the Brook Farm experiment, which was based on the communistic teachings of Fourier. Though the experiment ended in failure, it gave the world Hawthorne's "Blithedale Romance," in which the author utilized the observations made during his residence in the famous phalanstery.

206. Group of Historians - Bancroft. - During this period New England produced a group of historians who have reflected credit upon American letters. To exhaustive research and judicial calmness, they have added the charm of literary grace. Bancroft's "History of the United States " in twelve volumes begins with Columbus and ends in 1789. The first volume appeared in 1834; and to the completion of the work he devoted a large part of his laborious life. The last volume did not appear till 1882. His style is elaborate and rhetorical, and the work abounds in eloquent passages.

207. Prescott. - Prescott is a historian of wide range. Though heavily handicapped by partial blindness, he was able, through ample means and indefatigable industry, to achieve great eminence. His chosen field was Spanish history; and he spared neither pains nor expense in accumulating large stores of material. His "History of Ferdinand and Isabella," which occupied him for eleven years, appeared in 1827. It was at once translated into five European languages, and established his reputation as the foremost historian of America.

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT

(1843), " Conquest of Peru (1847), and Philip the

Second" (1858) were received with equal favor. Apart from its thorough sifting of material and its judicial fair

ness, his work is characterized by grace and eloquence of style.

208. Motley. Motley deserves a place beside his illustrious contemporary historians. If less ornate in style, he is scarcely less interesting. Like Bancroft and Prescott, he was educated at Harvard. In 1849 he published a novel entitled "Merry Mount, a Romance of Massachusetts Colony." But the principal literary labors of his life were devoted to history. In 1855 he published his "Rise of the Dutch Republic," which had cost him ten years of toil. Its superior merit was at once recognized; and shortly afterwards it was translated into French under the supervision of Guizot, who wrote an introduction. Motley continued to cultivate the same field almost to the close of his life. His "History of the United Netherlands," the first part of which appeared in 1860, was completed eight years later. "The Life and Death of John of Barneveld," his last great historical work, was issued in 1874; and, like its predecessors, was received with great favor.

209. Literature and Public Service. It is deserving of notice that many of our American authors have been more than mere men of letters. They have been distinguished citizens as well, and have served their country in important positions at home and abroad. Bancroft was appointed Secretary of the Navy in 1845, and established the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Afterwards he served as United States minister to Great Britain, 1846-1849, to Russia in 1867, and to the German Empire, 1871-1874. Motley was appointed United States minister to Austria in 1861, where he remained for the next six years. He was made minister to England in 1869, from which mission, however, he was recalled the year following without apparent good reason. The distin