National Literature the Exponent of National Character [pp. 201-225]

Exponent of National Caracter.
on Sparta and Athens, by Lycurgus and Solon. And although we may not be able to. discern so clearly the influence
of any one commanding mind upon the character and destiny
of the Roman people, yet who can fail to see the collective
spirit of their early rulers, and the cherished traditions of their
early youth, reproduced and constantly active in their aggressive policy-in their stern military discipline-their unquenchable thirst of martial glory-their inhuman indifference to the
rights, the feelings and the interests of individuals, save as
connected with the collective majesty of the State, and conducive to its security and renown? All these influences we
discern in their proper representative, the Roman literature.
Their very language, harsh, abrupt, energetic, and decisive, is
evideitly the language of empire and of law. It is the language of a people, destined to be the military rulers of the
world. It is wholly destitute of the harmony, the flexibility,
the variety, the copiousness, and the sweetness of the Greek
tongue-as the literature which it embodied was wanting in the
originality-the untutored and inimitable grace-the imaginative richness-the philosophic subtlety-the unmeasured and
inexhaustible fulness, of that natural fountain of knowledge,
refinement, sensibility and power-the Hellenic mind.
Influences akin to these, if not identical with them, have
hitherto operated among ourselves, and imparted their peculiar
character to American literature. It has been reproached, and
not without the semblance, at least, of justice, with being too
decidedly practical in its character-too gross and utilitarian
in its tendencies-as having too little of the pure polish-the
high culture-which marks comparatively the literature of
England, and injuriously, perhaps, because in excess tending
to barrenness and effeminacy, the literature of several of the
older nations of Europe, as France, Italy and Spain. In a
word, our contributions to literature have been thought to
resemble our contributions to the World's Fair-to be more
remarkable for solid and sterling utility, than for curious workmanship and nice art.
While homely vigour, strong sense, and earnest purpose, are
qualities which have generally been accorded to our literature,
it has been thought to sustain a relation to the literature of
211
1852.]