_Thoughts on Modern Literature_
There is no better illustration of the laws by which the world
is governed than Literature. There is no luck in it. It proceeds by
Fate. Every scripture is given by the inspiration of God. Every
composition proceeds out of a greater or less depth of thought, and
this is the measure of its effect. The highest class of books are
those which express the moral element; the next, works of
imagination; and the next, works of science; -- all dealing in
realities, -- what ought to be, what is, and what appears. These, in
proportion to the truth and beauty they involve, remain; the rest
perish. They proceed out of the silent living mind to be heard again
by the living mind. Of the best books it is hardest to write the
history. Those books which are for all time are written
indifferently at any time. For high genius is a day without night, a
Caspian Ocean which hath no tides. And yet is literature in some
sort a creature of time. Always the oracular soul is the source of
thought, but always the occasion is administered by the low
mediations of circumstance.
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