But before turning to that chapter, we must look back to New
England once more and observe the blossoming-time of its ancient
commonwealths. During the thirty years preceding the Civil War
New England awoke to a new life of the spirit. So varied and rich
was her literary productiveness in this era that it still remains
her greatest period, and so completely did New England writers of
this epoch voice the ideals of the nation that the great majority
of Americans, even today, regard these New Englanders as the
truest literary exponents of the mind and soul of the United
States. We must take a look at them.
CHAPTER VI. THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS
To understand the literary leadership of New England during the
thirty years immediately preceding the Civil War it is necessary
to recall the characteristics of a somewhat isolated and peculiar
people. The mental and moral traits of the New England colonists,
already glanced at in an earlier chapter, had suffered little
essential modification in two hundred years. The original racial
stock was still dominant.
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