..
that has occurred here. The whole world cannot show another hall such as
this, so tapestried with recollections." But in any case it is always
apparent that the thought is colored by a New World nurture. From this
freshness of view there proceeded one result, the searching,
unembarrassed, yet sympathetic and, as we may say, cordial criticism of
England in "Our Old Home." But it also gave rise to the second notable
quality, that exquisite apprehension of the real meaning of things
European, both institutions and popular manners and the varied products
of art. At times, Hawthorne seems to have been born for the one end of
adding this final grace of definition which he so deftly attaches to the
monuments of that older civilization. He brings a perception so keen and
an innate sympathy so true for everything beautiful or significant, that
the mere flowing out of this fine intellectual atmosphere upon the objects
before him invests them with a quality which we feel to be theirs, even
while we know that it could not have become _ours_ without his aid.
A breath of New England air touches the cathedral windows of the Old World,
and--I had almost said--bedims them with a film of evanescent frost-work;
yet, as that lingers, we suddenly discern through the veil a charm, a
legendary fascination in their deep-gemmed gorgeousness, which, although
we have felt it and read of it before, we never seized till now. I speak,
of course, from the American point of view; though in a great measure the
effect upon foreign readers may be similar.
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