; yet how serious the danger, depending entirely on them,
of the bloodless vein, the nerveless arm, the false application, at
second or third hand. We see that the real interest of this people of
ours in the theology, history, poetry, politics, and personal models
of the past, (the British islands, for instance, and indeed all the
past,) is not necessarily to mould ourselves or our literature upon
them, but to attain fuller, more definite comparisons, warnings, and
the insight to ourselves, our own present, and our own far grander,
different, future history, religion, social customs, &c. We see that
almost everything that has been written, sung, or stated, of old,
with reference to humanity under the feudal and oriental institutes,
religions, and for other lands, needs to be re-written, re-sung,
re-stated, in terms consistent with the institution of these States,
and to come in range and obedient uniformity with them.
We see, as in the universes of the material kosmos, after
meteorological, vegetable, and animal cycles, man at last arises, born
through them, to prove them, concentrate them, to turn upon them with
wonder and love--to command them, adorn them, and carry them upward
into superior realms--so, out of the series of the preceding social
and political universes, now arise these States. We see that while
many were supposing things establish'd and completed, really the
grandest things always remain; and discover that the work of the New
World is not ended, but only fairly begun.
Pages:
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427