32 HEREDITY. 



assemblages J>f men may be addressed. I look 

 toward the sunset fcr the Parnassus of the future. 

 The chief notes of the American harp may yet be 

 struck in sight of the Pacific. As dwellers in a 

 land which Hegel loved to call the continent of the 

 future, we may well patronize that which is distinc- 

 tively national. 



If we have ever had a national lyrist laureate, has 

 that poet not been he whose spirit, like a flame of 

 Hebrew fire, moved before us in the dark days of the 

 anti-slavery contest, and more effectively, I think, 

 than any other one poetic light, guided us across the 

 sands and through the waters to the promised land? 

 [Applause.] There are three circles of leaders of 

 thought : those who are in the universities, and teach 

 what has already been established; cultivated men 

 outside the universities, and who are pioneers often ; 

 and then, above these two ranks, we have the 

 prophets, or those singers who are near the Throne. 

 If on this continent the poet is to be pointed out 

 who more deeply than any other has caught the 

 tone of the Court in things ethical, — I will not 

 say in those sesthetical, for in those, too, the Court 

 has a fashion of its own which it is a merit to copy, 

 — that poet is John Greenleaf Whittier. Germany 

 thinks he has the deepest heart among American 

 singers, and compares his religious lyrics to Luther's. 

 It was once my fortune to hear Whittier say, " How 

 uncouth much of my literary work is, compared with 

 that of the great poet of the Charles ! I have never 

 been able to satisfy myself in art. It was often 



