168 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the instruction and delight of the world, that we could not afford to 

 see it banished, even though a more efficient teacher should occupy its 

 place. Nor can such a fate now in reality overtake it. Even should 

 the number of its votaries ever be diminished, or should it ever fall 

 into hands too feeble to sustain it, we would still have access to the 

 ancient well-springs of its power, whose waters, though incapable of 

 extension, can yet never run dry. It is a consolation to know that, 

 though it may be impossible to add anything of sterling value to what 

 has already been written, the great works of literary genius, treasured 

 up in so many different languages, can never be taken away from us, 

 and that their influence survives the manifold changes that happen to 

 society in so many other respects. 



Now, if it be true that complaint of Labruyere that " we are 

 come into the world too late to produce anything new, that nature and 

 life are preoccupied, and that description and sentiment have been 

 long exhausted " ; if it be true that literary labor, in times past, has 

 spent itself in producing those wonderful creations which, by the com- 

 mon consent of mankind, stand as the highest models of composition 

 and the highest types of literary excellence, then we must conclude 

 that literature has reached its climax and fulfilled its mission, and that 

 consequently there is no reason to regret its decadence. Better em- 

 ploy the measure of strength and talent with which we are endowed 

 in exploring new lands and cultivating new soils than waste them in 

 a field that is already gleaned of its harvests and exhausted of its fer- 

 tility. To such a gloomy view of the present condition and future 

 prospects of literature many men of sound judgment are unwilling to 

 subscribe. And yet it seems to me, if they carefully consider the sub- 

 ject, especially in connection with the new direction which has been 

 given of late years to the studies and aspirations of the noblest minds, 

 they must see good reason for modifying their judgment. Let us ex- 

 amine it for a few moments with respect to two of the departments of 

 letters that are regarded among scholars at least with the highest es- 

 teem and veneration of any I mean poetry and history. 



Those who are most familiar with the poetry of different countries, 

 and of ancient and modern times, must admit the remarkable resem- 

 blance and repetition to be found in it. Under the garb perhaps of a 

 new diction, in one poet, will be found lurking the identical idea ex- 

 pressed by another. As Emerson says : " The originals are not ori- 

 ginal. There is imitation, model and suggestion, to the very arch- 

 angels, if we knew their history. The first book tyrannizes over the 

 second. Read Tasso, and you think of Virgil ; read Virgil, and you 

 think of Homer ; and Milton forces you to reflect how narrow are the 

 limits of human invention." And as Dry den somewhere says about 

 the modern poets, " You may track them in the snow of the ancients." 

 Even the imagery and what is called the " machinery " of poetry repeat 

 themselves in different ages, in the pages of different writers. The 



