Sketch Of The Philosophy Of American Literature

Author : Greenough White
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330138113
Total Pages : 88 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (381 download)

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Download or read book Sketch of the Philosophy of American Literature written by Greenough White and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-17 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Sketch of the Philosophy of American Literature The following outline is an attempt to prove the independent and organic development of American literature. The author has often heard persons otherwise well-informed speak apologetically, even contemptuously, of their country's literature, as a mere pallid reflection of literary fashions beyond the Atlantic. Were it such, there could be no more telling criticism of American intellect; no clearer proof could be afforded of a supposed degeneracy of the race when transplanted to American soil, and of the worthlessness of our civilization; for literature is an index of the worth of nations. But the apology is unnecessary, the sneer ignorant; the statement is not true and never has been. Bradford and Hooker, Edwards and Franklin, Channing, Emerson, and Hawthorne, Webster, Prescott, and Motley, were not intellectual parasites. It is easy to explain the origin of this misconception. The failure of the Protectorate put an end to the Puritan ideal in England, and in sharpest contrast with it were the habits of thought introduced by the restoration of the House of Stuart, - habits of late and gradual growth in New England, hardly perceptible, indeed, by the keenest scrutiny before the beginning of the eighteenth century. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.