What is familiarly called the Lyceum Sys tem introduced an element of value constantly increasing in the higher education. It ought to be remembered that the Lyceum introduced Ralph Waldo Emerson to the people of America in a much shorter time perhaps than any pub lished writing would have done without its as sistance. Where the trustees and faculties of colleges would have refused to invite Mr. Emer son to speak, the students of college societies would gladly send him an invitation. Once heaid he was of course sure to be remembered. Not to speak of other lecturers who were in structing all the northern States, arousing curiosity as to subjects on which they hardly touched, Ralph Waldo Emerson when he took up the work of a prophet unlimited by the re strictions of the priesthood led the way in a revelation which has affected all the literature of his time, whether in America or in England. In the smaller New England circle, Margaret Fuller, afterward the Countess Ossoli, by "con versations° and published essays called the at tention of many young people to the wider realms of thought and especially to the more modern movements of philosophy and litera ture.
With the existence of a sufficient body of readers large circulations became possible for magazines. The first which succeeded pecuni arily were those which told the most stories, and it was on the basis of story telling that the Southern Literary Magazine, Graham's zine, the Godey's Ladies' Book-and the ton Miscellany of Literature and Fashion came into being, and by their success with the public created the literary magazine of to-day. When a Boston publisher could say in 1841, "We sell 1,000 copies every month to the Lowell fac tory girls," the word was spoken which showed that a sufficient supply of readers is necessary in the creation of a literature, and will in its time bring into being a sufficient number of writers. The Knickerbocker, the New Eng land Magazine and the Port-Folio had failed to enlist anything like the public support which waited on all decent magazine work after the public schools had created their army of readers. One and another ineffectual effort was made to turn away the current of the English magazines and to introduce an American circulation in its stead. It is interesting to see that the early numbers of Harper were written almost wholly by English writers and large editions of Frase?s Magazine, of the Dublin University Magazine and of Blackwood still made up the popular reading of the reading-rooms. But in 1857 the Atlantic Monthly was created with such writers as Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Holmes, Lowell and Longfellow among its very earliest contributors, and one may say, on its working staff. Lowell was an office editor of the Atlantic. Putnam's Maga zine, in New York, sprang full armed into existence. It introduced itself by an article which awakened curiosity, and perhaps one may say national pride, on the question, °Have we a Bourbon among us?* From that day to this magazine literature has held an important part in the work of the better literary men of America.
The short story had been invented in Eng land. The serial story, as Dickens and Thack eray had shown, gave admirable opportunities for feeling the public pulse. It is amusing to day to read that the publishers of the Anti slavery Standard doubted whether they should pay James Lowella year for his contribu tions to that journar contributions among which are some of the best poems which he ever wrote. This is only one among the many illustrations which peep out from the books of biography as to what Dr. Johnson or Goldsmith would have called the patronage of the readers of maga zines and their editors. The encouragement to authors was little but it was enough. In the year 1849-50 the people who read anti-slavery newspapers began to talk of the serial issues in which the story of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' was going forward in a newspaper called The Na tional Era. The Southern writers on the Civil War ascribe to that book the complete change in American politics and in the questions which led to the war which belongs to the middle of the century. In 1851 the story was published in book form and at once became known not simply in America but in England and in all the litera ture of the civilized world by means of transla tions. Its circulation in England, for instance, was the first circulation of a book on what was called popular prices. One edition of it ap peared in a newspaper issue at the cost of one penny a copy. Mrs. Stowe's supremacy as a writer of fiction established itself at once, and from that moment to this American literature can make the boast that it has furnished the book of which more copies have been printed than any other book which originated in the English language. It is a little curious that its only possible rival, if one considers simply the number of copies printed, is (Robinson Crusoe.> Mrs. Stowe's story is that of a fugitive slave; Defoe's story is that of a shipwrecked slave trader.
After the Civil War the men and women of America learned that for the criticism or for the education which belonged to this nation, they must study their own country. In truth the society of America is American society, the laws of America are American laws. Its prospects and hopes are those of a democracy. As the strata of its rocks and the growth of its trees are different from those of England, so are the foundations of the state and the customs of its administration. It is impossible here to consider in least detail the methods of different writers who have won the love and admiration of their countrymen in the years which have followed.