North American Review

The North American Review “[I]t is not possible to understand the social fabric properly until one has studied three or four of its component threads in detail.” — Hippolyte Taine MASTER INDEX HDT WHAT? INDEX NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW 1811 When during this year a 17-year-old named William Cullen Bryant sent his initial draft of a poem titled “Thanatopsis,” written as a rejection of the orthodox Calvinism of the Reverend Cummington in favor of Deism,1 to Richard Henry Dana, that editor feared a hoax and refused to print it. (A subsequent version of the poem would appear in 1817 in the North American Review.)2 1. But soon he would abandon this posture in favor of a Unitarian providentialism, as witness his “To a Waterfowl” (1815, revised 1818 and 1821). 2. This was, incidentally, the year of the death of Judge Francis Dana, this editor’s father — although I don’t know that that has anything to do with anything. HDT WHAT? INDEX NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW 1815 The North American Review was started in Boston under the editorship of William Tudor and would print his “Theology of the Hindoos as Taught by Ram Mohan Roy” as well as Theophilus Parson’s “Manners and Customs of India.” In 1817 it would pass into the control of a club of Boston gentlemen, who would make Jared Sparks chief editor, then Edward Tyrrell Channing, then in 1819 Edward Everett would assume the post. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW MASTER INDEX “HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE” BEING A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME (JUST AS THE PERSPECTIVE IN A PAINTING IS A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN SPACE), TO “LOOK AT THE COURSE OF HISTORY MORE GENERALLY” WOULD BE TO SACRIFICE PERSPECTIVE HDT WHAT? INDEX NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW ALTOGETHER. THIS IS FANTASY-LAND, YOU’RE FOOLING YOURSELF. THERE CANNOT BE ANY SUCH THINGIE, AS SUCH A PERSPECTIVE. North American Review “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW May: Harvard College’s Unitarians issued Volume 1 Number 1 of the North American Review: It was now time for me, therefore, to go and hold a little talk with the conservatives, the writers of the North American Review, the merchants, the politicians, the Cambridge men, and all those respectable old blockheads, who still, in this intangibility and mistiness of affairs, kept a death-grip on one or two ideas which had not come into vogue since yesterday-morning. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW MASTER INDEX YOUR GARDEN-VARIETY ACADEMIC HISTORIAN INVITES YOU TO CLIMB ABOARD A HOVERING TIME MACHINE TO SKIM IN METATIME BACK ACROSS THE GEOLOGY OF OUR PAST TIMESLICES, WHILE OFFERING UP A GARDEN VARIETY OF COGENT ASSESSMENTS OF OUR PROGRESSION. HDT WHAT? INDEX NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP! YOU SHOULD REFUSE THIS HELICOPTERISH OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORICAL PAST, FOR IN THE REAL WORLD THINGS HAPPEN ONLY AS THEY HAPPEN. WHAT THIS SORT WRITES AMOUNTS, LIKE MERE “SCIENCE FICTION,” MERELY TO “HISTORY FICTION”: IT’SNOT WORTH YOUR ATTENTION. North American Review “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW 1817 September: William Cullen Bryant’s 1811 poem “Thanatopsis,” written at the age of 17, finally appeared in print in the North American Review, but was not as yet assigned to any school child to memorize.3 THE YOUTUBE VERSION (The delay had been due entirely to editor Richard Henry Dana, Sr.’s fear that a plagiarism was being foisted upon him, based upon suspicion that no mere 17-year-old student could possibly have authored such a poem.) 3. This original poem contained only the present lines 17-66, and these the father Dr. Peter Bryant, something of a published poet himself, had patched it together out of various drafts the son “Cullen” had left behind in his father’s desk, and copied out in his own hand for submission (the editor at the Review would presume that everything in the father’s hand constituted one poem, when in fact they had not, four of the stanzas being in fact inferior and quite another poem). This Greek title “Thanatopsis” is something that was dreamed up by some editor or other at the Review. In 1821 the poet would tack on introductory and concluding lines, for THANATOPSIS AND OTHER POEMS, and until that late date the editor at the Review would remain persuaded that “Thanatopsis” had actually been written by the father rather than by the son. HDT WHAT? INDEX NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW “MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY North American Review “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW 1823 The Reverend Jared Sparks resigned from his position as the Unitarian minister of the First Independent Church to become owner/publisher/editor of the North American Review. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW MASTER INDEX NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT North American Review “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW September 27, Saturday: … We of Massachusetts boast a good deal of what we do for the education of our people–of our district-school system–& yet our district schools are as it were but infant schools–& we have no system for the education of the great mass who are grown up.– I have yet to learn that one cent is spent by this town–this political community called Concord directly to educate the great mass of its inhabitants who have long since left the district school.– for the Lyceum–important as it is comparatively–though absolutely trifling is supported by individuals– There are certain refining & civilizing influences as works of art–journals– & books & scientific instruments–which this community is amply rich enough to purchase which would educate this village–elevate its tone of thought, & if it alone improved these opportunities easily make it the centre of civilization in the known world–put us on a level as to opportunities at once with London & Arcadia–and secure us a culture at once superior to both– Yet we spend 16000 dollars on a Town House a hall for our political meetings mainly–and nothing to educate ourselves who are grown up. Pray is there nothing in the market–no advantages–no intellectual food worth buying? Have Paris & London & New York & Boston nothing to dispose of which this Village might buy & appropriate to its own use. Might not this great villager adorn his villa with a few pictures & statues–enrich himself with a choice library as available without being cumbrous as any in the world–with scientific instruments for such as have a taste to use them. Yet we are contented to be countrified– to be provincial. I am astonished to find that in this 19th century–in this land of free schools–we spend absolutely nothing as a town on our own education cultivation civilization. Each town like each individual has its own character–some more some less cultivated. I know many towns so mean spirited & benighted that it would be a disgrace to belong to them. I believe that some of our New England villages within 30 miles of Boston are as boorish & barbarous communities as there are on the face of the earth–and how much superior are the best of them? If London has any refinement any information to sell why should we not buy it? Would not the town of Carlisle do well to spend 16000 dollars on its own education at once–if it could only find a schoolmaster for itself– It has one man as I hear who takes the North-American Review –that will never Civilize them I fear– Why should not the town itself take the London & Edinburg Reviews–& put itself in communication with whatever sources of light & intelligence there are in the world? HDT WHAT? INDEX NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW Yet Carlisle is very little behind Concord in these respects– I do not know but it spends its proportional part on education. How happens it that the only libraries which the towns possess are the District school libraries–books for children only–or for readers who must needs be written down to– Why should they not have a library, if not so extensive yet of the same stamp & more select than the British museum? It is not that the town cannot well afford to buy these things–but it is unaspiring & ignorant of its own wants. It sells milk, but it only builds larger barns with the money which it gets for its milk. Undoubtedly every New England village is as able to surround itself with as many civilizing influences of this kind the members of the English nobility–& here there need be no peasantry. If the London Times is the best news-paper in the world why does not the village of Concord take it that its inhabitants may read it–& not the 2nd best. If the south sea explorers have at length got their story ready–& Congress has neglected to make it accessible to the people–why does not Concord purchase one for its grown up children. HDT WHAT? INDEX NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW The Reverend Professor Francis Bowen’s articles responding to Waldo Emerson’s Divinity School Address were collected into a book, CRITICAL ESSAYS ON A FEW SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.4 It was now time for me, therefore, to go and hold a little talk with the conservatives, the writers of the North American Review, the merchants, the politicians, the Cambridge men, and all those respectable old blockheads, who still, in this intangibility and mistiness of affairs, kept a death-grip on one or two ideas which had not come into vogue since yesterday-morning.

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