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Volume 3 (1858-1859) (592 pages)
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Page: of 592
558 HUTCHINGS’ CALIFORNIA MAGAZINE.
Literature educating the world, are powerful engines to accelerate its advent?
Good taste, or the ability to appreciate
the intellectually beautiful, naturally inspires a repugnance for whatever is degraded. This aversion is a moral protector, almost as truly as fixed principles
of conduct. Vice seldom controls the
judgment, though it may the acts of men;
hence writers, as a general rule, give
preference to the purest and most delicate
expressions of thought. All experience
unavoidably a certain moulding of the
disposition from what they hear or read.
Where the nicest form for the purest ideal
is employed, the images conjured up in
the soul contribute to its better modification. Lamb says, with truth, that a man
may lose himself in another’s ideas, as
really and easily as in a neighbor’s
grounds,
That Literature only which is characterized by the purest morality, exerts a
wide and permanentinfluence. Mankind
are virtuous from ignorance even less frequently than they sin unwittingly. The
excellence of virtue, even as an ideal,
fails to be appreciated by a people unless
illustrated. ‘‘Bad books,” the excrements of depraved minds, leave merely
a superficial stain, easily washed out by
better influences. If read, they serve
only as a temporary dissipation for the
reader, who rarely preserves any remembrance of them. Works which tend to
cultivate those germs of the soul which
are of divine origin, alone acquire a lasting reputation and exert any wide influence. It is fortunate for society that immorality never acquires esteem. Those
immutable sentiments which enlighten
every age, are founded on Truth in its
widest significance. In searching for
manifestations of character, which shall
excite the sympathies of a reader, the
author explores the very arcana of virtue
and brings forth her richest treasures.
Virtue perfected, is the sublimest conception of intellect. Aspirations after superiority kindle the thoughts into a purer
flame, as it were by scintillations from
the Divine Perfection.
The pursuit of Letters diverts the attention of a people, in no small degree, from
foreign and civil dissensions, and at the
same time, contributes to the formation
of a well-directed popular ambition —
Where the intellectual predominates over
the brutal and selfish, more attention is
paid.to the arts and sciences. There is
no occasion, on the other hand, to fear a
degeneracy into cowardice. One peculiar
province of the writer is to perpetuate the
remembrance and characterize the nature
of noble deeds; thus keeping alive the
martial spirit, and at the same time,
checking its undue manifestation. <A
nation can thus appreciate, as well as reward, its real benefactors. When indifferent to literary pursuits, it becomes callous to grateful emotions. Great deeds,
embalmed in history and poetry, are a
people’s inheritance, and an example for
emulation. As Horace says:
“( Neque,
Si chartae sileant quod bene feceris,
Mercedem tuleris.”
Happiness, virtue, and incentives to
action, have thus been shown to be the
results of a prevalent Literature. That
true dignity of man, of which these are
the characteristics, can never be realized
under a despotical form of government.
A presumption is thus established that a
general diffusion of intelligence is fayorable to the founding and maintenance of
democratic institutions. Men who think
and reflect, sooner or later, solve the problem of self-emancipation. Free thought
leads to free deeds. Free minds make
free institutions. The education of the
masses is in no less degree a necessity as
well as pledge for the permanency of
liberty. The character of government,
and the conduct of legislators, is under
their immediate control.
The penis mightier than the sword.
God speed it! It shall usher in a moral,
intellectual and political millenium.