the wierdest of earthly elements, the unconquerable iron subdued
by its only conqueror, the wheel and the ploughshare, the sword and
the steam-hammer, the arraying of armies and the whole legend of arms,
all these things are written, briefly indeed, but quite legibly,
on the visiting-card of Mr. Smith. Yet our novelists call their
hero "Aylmer Valence," which means nothing, or "Vernon Raymond,"
which means nothing, when it is in their power to give him
this sacred name of Smith--this name made of iron and flame.
It would be very natural if a certain hauteur, a certain carriage
of the head, a certain curl of the lip, distinguished every
one whose name is Smith. Perhaps it does; I trust so.
Whoever else are parvenus, the Smiths are not parvenus.
From the darkest dawn of history this clan has gone forth to battle;
its trophies are on every hand; its name is everywhere;
it is older than the nations, and its sign is the Hammer of Thor.
But as I also remarked, it is not quite the usual case.
It is common enough that common things should be poetical;
it is not so common that common names should be poetical.
In most cases it is the name that is the obstacle.
A great many people talk as if this claim of ours, that all things
are poetical, were a mere literary ingenuity, a play on words.
Precisely the contrary is true. It is the idea that some things are
not poetical which is literary, which is a mere product of words.
The word "signal-box" is unpoetical. But the thing signal-box is
not unpoetical; it is a place where men, in an agony of vigilance,
light blood-red and sea-green fires to keep other men from death.
That is the plain, genuine description of what it is; the prose only
comes in with what it is called. The word "pillar-box" is unpoetical.
But the thing pillar-box is not unpoetical; it is the place
to which friends and lovers commit their messages, conscious that