The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1862: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1862: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
and reverenced him in RALPH WALDO EMERSON. Under his auspices,
the _Dial_, the organ of the new sect, was published, and the next year,
1841, the first collection of his writings appeared under the simple
caption _Essays_, followed by a second series in 1847.
Spite of the fragmentary Germano-pantheism of the new Philosophy, as set
forth in these volumes, that a grand advance had been made upon the old
modes of thought was proved by the dismay in the opposing ranks. The
outcry against Unitarianism was faint compared with the howls of horror
and defiance that greeted Transcendentalism. The very name was a synonym
for arrogance. The pride of its opponents was touched. Alarming indeed,
and transcendental beyond conception, were the outpourings of thought
that anointed the _Dial_ and these _Essays_. The very chrism of
mysticism trickled along their running-titles, and dripped fragrantly
from their pages. Not only new opinions, but new words and phrases,
puzzled the uninitiated. Among these were _subjective_ and _objective_,
and the concise, comprehensive Germanisms were assailed as sure evidence
of treason or insanity. He who used them was a marked man, and liable to
find on the first oyster-shell his sentence of exile from the assemblage
of the faithful. The name of Goethe was as terrible as the sacred 'Om'
of the Brahmins; it was whispered with 'bated breath, and was generally
believed to be diabolical _per se_. In short, everything bearing the
stamp of Germany was a bit of sweet, forbidden lore. Travels in that
fog-land by dull old fogies, and simple outlines of its Philosophy by
divines high in rank, were obtained by stealth, and read in secret by
college-boys, with as much zeal as the 'Kisses' of Johannes Secundus or
the Epigrams of Martial. Even Klopstock's 'Messiah' became gilded with a
sort of delightful impropriety.
Disapprobation and distrust had merged into abuse and persecution.
Orestes A. Brownson, then drifting with the strong tide of the liberals,
published in 1840 a sort of pantheistically ending novel, entitled
_Charles Elwood, or the Infidel Converted_. The Rev. Dr. Bright, at
present editor of the Baptist _Examiner_, was at that tune a bookseller
of the firm of Bennett & Bright, and publisher of the _Baptist
Register_. When _Charles Elwood_ appeared, he ordered the usual number
of copies; but, discovering the nature of the book, made a Servetus of
the 'lot' by burning them up in the back-yard of his store. A funeral
pyre worthy the admiration and awe it must have excited.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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