A man may say _I_, and never
refer to himself as an individual; and a man may recite passages of
his life with no feeling of egotism. Nor need a man have a vicious
subjectiveness because he deals in abstract propositions.
But the criterion, which discriminates these two habits in the
poet's mind, is the tendency of his composition; namely, whether it
leads us to nature, or to the person of the writer. The great always
introduce us to facts; small men introduce us always to themselves.
The great man, even whilst he relates a private fact personal to him,
is really leading us away from him to an universal experience. His
own affection is in nature, in _What is_, and, of course, all his
communication leads outward to it, starting from whatsoever point.
The great never with their own consent become a load on the minds
they instruct. The more they draw us to them, the farther from them
or more independent of them we are, because they have brought us to
the knowledge of somewhat deeper than both them and us. The great
never hinder us; for, as the Jews had a custom of laying their beds
north and south, founded on an opinion that the path of God was east
and west, and they would not desecrate by the infirmities of sleep
the Divine circuits, so the activity of the good is coincident with
the axle of the world, with the sun and moon, with the course of the
rivers and of the winds, with the stream of laborers in the street,
and with all the activity and well being of the race.
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