I believe no satirist could breathe this air. If another Juvenal or Swift could rise up among us tomorrow, he would be hunted down.... If you have any knowledge of our literature, and can give me the name of any man, American born and bred, who has anatomised our follies as a people, and not as this or that party; and who has escaped the foulest and most brutal slander, the most inveterate hatred and intolerant pursuit; it will be a strange name in my ears, believe me.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I know of no studies so composing as those of the classical scholar. When we have sat down to them, life seems as still and serene... as if it were very far off, and I believe it is not habitually seen from any common platform so truly and unexaggerated as in the light of literature. In serene hours we contemplate the tour of the Greek and Latin authors with more pleasure than the traveler does the fairest scenery of Greece or Italy. Where shall we find a more refined society? That highway down from Homer and Hesiod to Horace and Juvenal is more attractive than the Appian. Reading the classics or conversing with those old Greeks and Latins in their surviving works, is like walking amid the stars and constellations, a high and by way serene to travel. Indeed, the true scholar will be not a little of an astronomer in his habits. Distracting cares will not be allowed to obstruct his field of vision, for the higher regions of literature, like astronomy, are above storm and darkness.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage, Till pitying Nature signs the last release,... And bids afflicted worth retire to peace.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Year chases year, decay pursues decay, Still drops some joy from with'ring life away;... New forms arise, and diff'rent views engage,LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When first the college rolls receive his name, The young enthusiast quilts his ease for fame;... Through all his veins the fever of renown Burns from the strong contagion of the gown;LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »