to be religiously preserved as a relic of the past, and reverenced as
the burial-place of a bygone breed of giants. It is a living organism,
ceaselessly busied, like any other organism, in the processes of
assimilation and excretion. It has before it, we may fairly hope, a
future still greater than its glorious past. And the greatness of that
future will largely depend on the harmonious interplay of spiritual
forces throughout the American Republic and the British Empire.


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote M: I do not mean that we are callous to American criticism, or
always take it in good part when it comes home to us. I think with
shame, for example, of the stupid insolence with which certain English
journalists used for years to treat Mr. W.D. Howells, merely because he
had expressed certain literary judgments from which they dissented. What
I do mean, and believe to be true, is that we are _habitually
unconscious_ of American criticism, while Americans may rather be said
to be _habitually over-conscious_ that the eyes of England and of the
world are on them. The existence of this habit of mind seems to me no
less evident than the fact that it is rapidly correcting itself.]

[Footnote N: I went to see Poe's grave in Baltimore, marked by a mean
and ugly monument, little more than a mere tombstone. It is surely time
that a worthy memorial should be raised, at his burial-place or
elsewhere, to this unique genius. England and the English-speaking world
would gladly contribute. For a masterly criticism and vindication of
Poe, let me refer the reader to Mr. John M. Robertson's _New Essays
towards a Critical Method_. London and New York, 1897.]