Whether or no the public will agree to the praise which you bestow on
me, there are at least five persons who think you the most sagacious
critic on earth, viz., my mother and two sisters, my old maiden aunt,
and finally the strongest believer of the whole five, my own self. If I
doubt the sincerity and correctness of any of my critics, it shall be of
those who censure me. Hard would be the lot of a poor scribbler, if he
may not have this privilege....
Very sincerely yours,
NATH. HAWTHORNE.
That "Evangeline" was written upon a theme suggested to Hawthorne (by a
friend who had heard it from a French Canadian [Footnote: See American
Note-Books, October 24,1839]) and by him made over to the poet, has
already been made public. Hawthorne wrote, on its appearance:----
"I have read 'Evangeline' with more pleasure than it would be decorous
to express. It cannot fail, I think, to prove the most triumphant of all
your successes."
Nevertheless, he gave vent to some of his admiration in a notice of the
work which he wrote for "The Salem Advertiser," a Democratic paper.
"The story of Evangeline and her lover," he there says, "is as poetical
as the fable of the Odyssey, besides that it comes to the heart as a
fact that has actually taken place in human life." He speaks of "its
pathos all illuminated with beauty,----so that the impression of the
poem is nowhere dismal nor despondent, and glows with the purest
sunshine where we might the least expect it, on the pauper's
death-bed.
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