WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

298. Genius and Charac

ter. Great genius is not always associated with exalted character. There is much in the life of Pope, of Burns, and of Byron that we cannot approve of. So far as their works reflect their moral obliquities, we are forced to make abatements in our praise. It is greatly to the credit of American Literature that its leading representatives have been men of excellent character. Dissolute genius has not flourished on our

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

soil. At the funeral of Bryant, it was truthfully said, "It is the glory of this man that his character outshone even his great talent and his large fame." In a poem "To Bryant on his Birthday,' Whittier beautifully said:

"We praise not now the poet's art,

The rounded beauty of his song;
Who weighs him from his life apart

Must do his nobler nature wrong."

299. Moral Element in Literature. The moral element in literature is of the highest importance. It is a French maxim often disregarded in France as elsewhere, that "Nothing is beau

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tiful but truth." It is certain that only truth is enduring. What-
ever is false is sure, sooner or later, to pass away. Bryant gave
beautiful expression to the same idea in the oft-quoted lines from
his poem,
The Battle-Field " :

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"Truth crushed to earth, shall rise again;

Th' eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes with pain,

And dies among his worshippers."

300. Truth in his Work. This truth is often forgotten or neglected by our men of letters. Whatever is false in any way, whether in fact, principle, sentiment, taste, cannot be permanent. This is the secret of the wrecks that strew the fields of literature. The enduring works of literature those that men are unwilling to let die—are helpful to humanity. No art, however exquisite, can win lasting currency for error. Judged by this principle, the works of Bryant are enduring. They are not only admirable in literary art, but they are true in thought, sentiment, and taste. It may be said of him, as was said of James Thomson, his works contain

"No line which, dying, he could wish to blot."

301. Ancestry. - William Cullen Bryant was born at Cummington, Mass., Nov. 3, 1794. He came of sound Puritan stock, counting among his ancestors the Priscilla and John Alden immortalized by another descendant and poet. His father was a kind, cultured, and refined physician, who took more than ordinary interest in the training of his gifted son. In his "Hymn to Death," the composition of which was interrupted by the decease of his father, the poet pays him a noble tribute:

As of an enemy's, whom they forgive
As all forgive the dead. Rest, therefore, thou
Whose early guidance trained my infant steps
Rest, in the bosom of God, till the brief sleep
Of death is over, and a happier life

Shall dawn to waken thine insensible dust.”

302. Early Precocity. - Bryant was a child of extraordinary precocity. At the age of sixteen months he knew all the letters of the alphabet. In the district school he distinguished himself as an almost infallible speller. He was prepared for college by the Rev. Moses Hallock of Plainfield. Of his Greek studies the poet says, "I began with the Greek alphabet, passed to the declensions and conjugations, which I committed to memory, and was put into the Gospel of St. John. In two calendar months from the time of beginning with the powers of the Greek alphabet, I had read every book in the New Testament." In October, 1810, when in his sixteenth year, he entered the Sophomore class at Williams College, where he spent only one session. Though a diligent student, he did not find college life, owing to its meagre comforts, entirely to his taste.

303. A Youthful Satire. Bryant showed a rhyming propensity at an early age. He eagerly devoured whatever poetry fell into his hands, and early cherished the ambition to become a poet. Among his early efforts was a political satire against Jefferson and his party, inspired by the Embargo Act, a measure that proved disastrous to many private interests in New England, and excited strong feeling against the President. Bryant's father was a prominent Federalist; and the young poet, not unnaturally, became a violent partisan. In "The Embargo," written when he was thirteen, he rather uncourteously demanded Jefferson's resignation:

"Go, wretch, resign the presidential chair,
Disclose thy secret measures, foul or fair.
Go search with curious eye for horned frogs
'Mid the wild wastes of Louisiana bogs."

This satire, which had quite a success at the time, the poet afterwards would have gladly forgotten; but, when he subsequently became a Democratic editor, the opposing press took care to see that he was occasionally reminded of it.

304. The Study of Law. - Having failed for lack of means in completing his college course, he decided to study law, and entered the office of Judge Howe at Worthington. He afterwards completed his legal studies under William Baylies at West Bridgewater. His heart was never fully in the study of law, and his retiring disposition did not promise a very brilliant career at the bar. Nevertheless, while in some measure indulging his fondness for poetry, he gave himself with commendable diligence to Blackstone and Coke. In a poetical effusion of the time, he recorded his experience as follows:

"O'er Coke's black letter,
Trimming the lamp at eve, 'tis mine to pore,
Well pleased to see the venerable sage
Unlock his treasured wealth of legal lore;
And I that loved to trace the woods before,
And climb the hills, a playmate of the breeze,
Have vowed to tune the rural lay no more,

Have bid my useless classics sleep at ease,

And left the race of bards to scribble, starve, and freeze."

305. Legal Career. He was admitted to the bar in 1815, and began practice at Plainfield; but, finding the outlook unpromising, he removed at the end of a year to Great Barrington. He met with a fair degree of success, but was deeply chagrined to find that law is not always synonymous with justice. He was far too conscientious to be careless and negligent; but, as we learn from a letter written at this period, his inclination was toward literature. "You ask," he writes to Mr. Baylies, his old teacher and friend, "whether I am pleased with my profession. Alas, sir, the muse was my first love; and the remains of that passion, which is not cooled out nor chilled into extinc

tion, will always, I fear, cause me to look coldly on the severe beauties of Themis. Yet I tame myself to its labors as well as I can, and have endeavored to discharge with punctuality and attention such of the duties of my profession as I am capable of performing."

306. Love of Nature. As was to be expected, nature and poetry were his refuge and comfort in the midst of the uncongenialities of his profession. His love of nature was scarcely less strong than that of Wordsworth. His portrayal of natural beauty is a prominent characteristic of his poetry. "I was always," he says, "from my earliest years, a delighted observer of external nature, the splendors of a winter daybreak over the wide wastes of snow seen from our windows, the glories of the autumnal woods, the gloomy approaches of a thunderstorm, and its departure amid sunshine and rainbows, the return of the spring with its flowers, and the first snowfall of winter. The poets fostered this taste in me; and though at that time I rarely heard such things spoken of, it was none the less cherished in my secret mind." In his poem, "Green River," he reveals the state of his mind at this period, though in a manner not very complimentary to his clients and associates at the bar:

307. "

"Though forced to drudge for the dregs of men,

And scrawl strange words with the barbarous pen,

And mingle among the jostling crowd

Where the sons of strife are subtle and loud,

I often come to this quiet place

To breathe the airs that ruffle thy face,

And gaze upon thee in silent dream;

For in thy lonely and lovely stream

An image of that calm life appears
That won my heart in my greener years."

Thanatopsis. The time had now come for a more general recognition of Bryant's poetic gifts. Genius is apt to be recognized sooner or later. In 1817 his father sent to the