Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIII.—April, 1852.—Vol. IV.: NoneVarious
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIII.—April, 1852.—Vol. IV.: None
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
To illustrate the view we have endeavored to present, let us select some
particular date--say the 5th day of March, in the year of our Lord one
thousand seven hundred and seventy. What was the history of our own
country for that day? What the masses were doing would be the answer
which some of the new school would promptly make. But even could this be
ascertained it would not be history. On that day the three millions of
our land were engaged in the various avocations connected with their
ordinary life and ordinary interests. On that day, too, there was a
particular, and, perhaps, ascertainable state of agriculture, of the
mechanic arts, of education, &c., such as might furnish the ground of a
most valuable statistical essay. There were also, doubtless, thousands
of striking incidents every where transpiring. But none of these
constituted the then history of our country. This was all taking place
in one narrow street of one single city, away off in one remote corner
of our land. A quarrel had arisen between a few foreign soldiers and a
collection of exasperated citizens, in the course of which some few of
the latter were slain. In this event was centred, for the time, the
whole history of the English colonies in North America, and of what
afterward became the great American nation. Among all the acts and
states, and influences of that day, this alone was history, because it
alone, whether right or not, entered into the universal national memory.
It was _thought_ by all, _felt_ by all, and therefore became, for the
time in which it was so thought and felt, the one common history of all.
Again--on the 19th day of April, 1775, the one fact which afterward
formed the common thought and the common memory, was the battle of
Lexington. On the 4th of July, 1776, it was the Declaration of American
Independence. On the 23d day of September, 1780, there might have been
seen, in a secluded valley of the Hudson, three rustic militia men
busily examining the dress of a British officer. One of them is in the
act of taking a piece of paper from the prisoner's boot. This, in a most
emphatic sense, was American history for that day; may we not say the
history of Europe also, and of the world. And so in other departments. A
single man is standing before a company of statesmen and ecclesiastics.
It is Luther before the Diet of Worms. This is the one common thought
which represents that momentous period in the records of the Church. The
subject tempts us with further illustrations, but we call to mind that
our Drawer and Easy Chair are waiting impatiently for the delivery of
their contents. It is time, therefore, to exchange the prosings of the
Editor's Table for their more varied, and, as we trust the reader will
judge, more attractive materials.
Editor's Easy Chair.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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