important a part of the character of the material universe. Music they regarded as profane. They assumed that all pleasant things were sinful because some sinful actions were manifestly pleasant. Their minds were continually in contact with one of the greatest of the world's literatures, the English translations of the Hebrew sacred books, but the God that was formed in their conception was a God of power and justice, inexorable and even vengeful. The narrative of the Gospels did not appeal to their consciousness as did that of the trials and victories of the chosen people, to whom they instinctively compared themselves. Their theological system was marked by an attempt at logical perfection, and the idea of duty was magnified to the exclusion of the idea of divine love. Even God's mercy and long-suffering were regarded as proceeding from indifference rather than from the essence of the divine nature. A literature which is the expression of these inadequate conceptions may possess vigor and essential truth, but must lack charm and universal interest and beauty of form. As time went on, the community became secularized and the control of affairs passed from the ministers to the lawyers. The claims of letters were recognized at the colleges of Yale and Harvard, and the practical questions of civil liberty were debated in a practical argumentative manner. A temperate eloquence and common sense marked the discussions of the "Federalist” and the papers written on the other side of the issues. Barlow, Dwight, and Trumbull reëcho the notes of the eighteenth-century English verse, which is a product of scholastic leisure hardly natural in a country where the leisure class was so limited in numbers. The interest of the early American literature is almost entirely historical. CHAPTER XII AMERICAN LITERATURE—THE NATIONAL PERIOD Historical ACCORDING to the census of 1800 the inhabitants of the United States numbered 5,308,483, of whom one fifth were negro slaves. The center of population was Sketch. within eighteen miles of Baltimore. Some 50,000 people had settled west of the Alleghanies, and communication was still as slow and irregular as it was a century earlier. Boston contained 25,000 inhabitants, New York nearly 60,000, and Philadelphia 70,000. The Constitution had been adopted, but the country was so large and ill compacted and sparsely settled that grave doubts were entertained as to the perpetuity of the Union. The rapid growth of the West did not begin till the opening of the Erie Canal (1825) and the invention of the steamboat and of the locomotive had made intercommunication easier. The Ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory (1787) opened vast areas of fertile land to settlement, and the Louisiana Purchase (1803) gave the Southwest a waterway to the Gulf of Mexico. Emigration from Ireland and Germany added greatly to our strength and numbers, and the era of rapid expansion set in early in the first quarter of the century. The War of 1812, though not particularly honorable to us on land, reflected credit on the naval arm of the service and tended to increase our national pride. The application of steam to internal navigation caused the rapid settlement of the region about the Great Lakes and the valley of the Mississippi. The war with Mexico (1848) added to our domain the imperial states of Texas and California. The discovery of gold in the latter, in 1849, attracted a host of adventurous and courageous settlers, and resulted in the rapid growth of a vigorous and prosperous community on the Pacific coast. In 1861 the antagonisms between the parties favoring and opposing the extension of negro slavery resulted in the Civil War, which happily ended in the reëstablishment of the Federal Union after the most bitter and bloody contest ever carried on in the history of the human race. A nation has grown up, great in numbers and wealth, and unequaled in productive capacity, and resting on a profound and passionate sentiment of patriotism. Although the tumultuous and exciting material progress of the century has engrossed the attention and absorbed the energy of many of the best minds of the time, literary expression has not been neglected. The antislavery struggle and the Civil War aroused men's deeper emotions, and gave rise to poetry, oratory, and fiction which will remain a permanent national possession. Educational institutions schools, colleges, and universities - have multiplied with increasing population. Though no preeminent literary genius has appeared in America, and though so new a country must necessarily lack the picturesque historical background of Italy, France, or England, and the vast amount of literary material afforded by the long struggle of civilization in its older homes, a literature has been produced which expresses not inadequately the life of the nation. Washington Irving was the first American to make literature a profession. American writers before him Washington were primarily theologians or statesmen; he not only regarded life from the literary point of view, but writing was his serious vocation, not an incident nor a means of promoting political or economic or 1783-1859. religious ends. His character, temperament, and tastes were those of the ideal literary man. He, therefore, is a "founder," and will remain so even if the spirit of the age departs farther from his gentle romanticism and genial humor than it has done already. Charles Brockden Brown undoubtedly possessed some of the elements of genius, but not in sufficient measure to entitle him to rank as the first of a line, nor has he left a distinct mark on American letters. Irving has done so. It might, indeed, be said that without Goldsmith, Irving would not be possible, which is true in the sense that without England and English civilization, America would not be possible. Irving belongs to the general school of Addison and Goldsmith; quiet, humorous "spectators of life and manners, gifted with the literary sense. But Irving is not less distinctly American because he belongs to a certain type or class. He is merely the first American of that class. He was born in a house on William Street, in the city of New York, then a town of some twenty-three thousand inhabitants, and still retaining distinct traces of its Netherlandish origin. His father was a Scotch emigrant engaged in mercantile business, and was a zealous patriot in the Revolution. He was, too, a sedate, God-fearing Presbyterian deacon, whose rigidity in the family discipline was tempered by the fine, impulsive, loving nature of his wife, an Englishwoman. Young Irving received almost no education, and showed no inclination for serious study. He entered a law office at the age of sixteen, but showed no aptitude for the profession. There was little, if any, literary atmosphere in New York, but the boy read what he could, and his genial, sunny disposition made him a general favorite in society. Before he was twenty-one an alarming pulmonary weakness made travel advisable, and he spent two years on the continent and in England. After his return his life was still a desultory one. He contributed some essays of a light, ephemeral character to various publications, and in 1809 he brought out his comic "Knickerbocker's History of New York," the first piece of sustained literary work produced on this side of the ocean. It had a great success and, although it is rather an extravagant burlesque and lacks entirely the force and universality of Swift's allegorical satires, it remains one of the world's masterpieces of humor. Irving lacked the drop of bitterness in his nature essential to the production of great satire, and his work is, therefore, harmless fun. Even the success of his first book was not enough to make him decide on his vocation, and in 1815 he went to England, on business connected with his brother's firm. The firm failed, and Irving found himself forced to rely on his pen for a livelihood. He brought out the "Sketch Book," "Bracebridge Hall," and the "Tales of a Traveler" between 1819 and 1824. His attractive personality made him a favorite not only in the literary circles of England, but with all with whom he came in contact. Persons so different as Moore, Byron, and Scott felt the charm of his genial, unaffected humor and were unanimous in praise of his work. Even the Quarterly and the Edinburgh said kind things of "Geoffrey Crayon," and the savage Carlyle writes, "I never saw Washington at all, but still have a mild esteem of the good man." In 1829 Irving went to Spain, and, living for the most |