We have now no great poets; and our poverty in this respect is not
compensated by the fact, that we once had them, and that we may, and do,
read their works. The movement has gone by; the charm is broken; the
bond of union, though not cancelled, is seriously weakened. Hence our
age, great as it is, and in nearly all respects greater than any the
world has yet seen, has, notwithstanding its large and generous
sentiments, its unexampled toleration, its love of liberty, and its
profuse and almost reckless charity, a certain material, unimaginative,
and unheroic character, which has made several observers tremble for the
future.... That something has been lost is unquestionable.
We have lost much of that imagination which, though in practical life it
often misleads, is, in speculative life, one of the highest of all
qualities, being suggestive as well as creative. Even practically we
should cherish it, because the commerce of the affections mainly depends
on it. It is, however, declining; while, at the same time, the
increasing refinement of society accustoms us more and more to suppress
our emotions, lest they be disagreeable to others. And as the play of
the emotions is the chief study of the poet, we see in this circumstance
another reason which makes it difficult to rival that great body of
poetry which our ancestors possessed. We quote the above from the second
volume of Mr. Buckle’s _History of Civilization_. We would add, that the
suppression of emotions to which the author refers is one great cause of
the difficulty of getting persons to speak the truth in the present day:
they are ever disguising their feelings, until hypocritical caution
becomes habit, and it requires a stronger light than the old cynic
possessed to find honest men. The low standard of commercial morality,
and the time-serving expediency which so greatly regulates the actions
of our rulers and those who make the laws, is traceable to this
over-refinement.
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