a statement that provokes wonder as to God's sensations at having such
amateurish works come out under his name. But this sort of humility is
really a protean manifestation of egotism, as is clear in the religious
states that bear resemblance to the poet's. This the Methodist
"experience meeting" abundantly illustrates, where endless loquacity is
considered justifiable, because the glory of one's experience is due,
not to one's self, but to the Almighty.

The minor American poets in the middle of the last century are often
found exhorting one another to humility, quite after the prayer-meeting
tradition. Bitter is their denunciation of the poet's arrogance:

A man that's proud--vile groveller in the dust,
Dependent on the mercy of his God
For every breath.
[Footnote: B. Saunders, _To Chatterton._]

Again they declare that the poet should be

Self-reading, not self-loving, they are twain,
[Footnote: Henry Timrod, _A Vision of Poesy._]

telling him,

Think not of thine own self,
[Footnote: Richard Gilder, _To the Poet._]

adding,