LITERARY VALUES 



I 



LITEEAET VALUES 



r I "iHE day inevitably comes to every writer when 

 -*- he must take his place amid the silent throngs 

 of the past, when no new work from his pen can call 

 attention to him afresh, when the partiality of his 

 friends no longer counts, when his friends and ad- 

 mirers are themselves gathered to the same silent 

 throng, and the spirit of the day in which he wrote 

 has given place to the spirit of another and a differ- 

 ent day. How, oh, how will it fare with hirii then ? 

 How is it going to fare with Lowell and Longfellow 

 and Whittier and Emerson and all the rest of them ? 

 How has it fared with so many names in the past, 

 that were, in their own day, on all men's tongues ? 

 Of the names just mentioned, Whittier and Emerson 

 shared more in a particular movement of thought 

 and morals of the times in which they lived than 

 did the other two, and to that extent are they in 

 danger of dropping out and losing their vogue. 

 Both had a significance to their own day and genera- 



