506 Letters from the United States of North America. [Max, 



of. I have an idea that novels are the most influential sort of literature 

 in the world — and why ? Because they are read, 1st, by people who 

 never read any thing else : 2d, by people tvhe7i they cannot read any 

 thing else, and tvhere they cannot read any thing else : 3d, by people 

 who never go to church, and are never within ear-shot of a sermon, 

 therefore ; and by people who never go to a theatre ; — at all times, too, 

 at all places, and, perhaps, to an extent forty times greater than any 

 other sort of literature in the world. I say further — and such is my 

 belief — that, to write a novel as good as might be written, requires more 

 talent, and a greater variety of talent, than is required for the produc- 

 tion of any other sort of literary ware ; and that, if a man were by nature 

 fitted to be a great dramatic writer (in tragedy, comedy, and farce), a great 

 epic poet — or a poet of any other sort or kind — a preacher — a painter — a 

 player an orator — or whatever you please more — he might findfull employ- 

 ment for every faculty, in the production of that much-underrated species 

 of literature, the novel, or story ; and that he could not find a like field for 

 such variety of power, in any other sort of literary production. \Vlio 

 will take up the glove with me ? — and yet, novels are now, and have 

 been for years, that kind of ware, upon which all the boys and girls, and 

 whipper-snappers, and beginners in literature, have made their beginning. 



But the novel-writers of America have another difficulty in the way, 

 and are in the habit of disregarding a truth, of quite as much value as 

 that already spoken of. They will copy, borrow, and steal — and so do 

 the poets of America. They talk of hedge-rows, peasants, cottagers, 

 yew-trees, larks, angling (as if a real native — a real American, was ever 

 yet able to catch a trout, by fair play), hawthorn bushes, nightingales, 

 &c. Now, such every-day machinery is of no value to a native American 

 tale ; it is worse — it is a real injury to it ; and so long as the poets, 

 novel-writers and play-writers of America, continue to clothe their 

 characters, and to make them talk after the style of characters which 

 they meet with in your English novels, plays, and poems, so long will 

 their works be of no value any where ; of no true value, either in 

 Europe or in America. And why ? Because they will be neither one 

 thing nor another ; neither American nor English. N.B. A heap of 

 these that are not American now, are, nevertheless, not English. If a 

 native writer would undertake to tell an agreeable story about America, 

 however, he should be put on his guard ; for if he were to tell it like 

 any body else, in the same trade, being a native, he would be called an 

 imitator ; and if he were to tell it like nobody else, being a native, they 

 would call him — God knows what. If he should make his people speak 

 as they do speak, in a part of his country, few novel readers would be 

 able to understand a large part of his dialogue ; and the Americans 

 themselves would deny the truth of the representation — deny it, more- 

 over, in good faith ; not having met with a page before, pei'haps, in the 

 whole course of their lives — a page in print ; while if he made them 

 speak as other people do, they would be no longer, or might be no longer 

 worth hearing ; for they would have, either no peculiarity, or no truth. 



By the way — a word or two before we part, of a custom which you 

 have heard something of, already — the custom of their fourth of July 

 speeches. I have heard one, and to tell you the truth, I never desire 

 to hear another, unless it be more ivorthy of the day and the cause. To 

 clear the passage, however, let me give you a very brief sketch of the 

 Yankee people, so that I may not have to run back hereafter, while 



