How small were the best thoughts, poems, conclusions, except for
a certain invariable resemblance and uniform standard in the final
thoughts, theology, poems, &c., of all nations, all civilizations, all
centuries and times. Those precious legacies--accumulations! They come
to us from the far-off--from all eras, and all lands--from Egypt, and
India, and Greece, and Rome--and along through the middle and later
ages, in the grand monarchies of Europe--born under far different
institutes and conditions from ours--but out of the insight and
inspiration of the same old humanity--the same old heart and brain--the
same old countenance yearningly, pensively, looking forth. What we have
to do to-day is to receive them cheerfully, and to give them ensemble,
and a modern American and democratic physiognomy.