Ch. 5 - Hero as Man of Letters

[May 19, 1840.]
LECTURE V.
THE HERO AS MAN OF LETTERS. JOHNSON, ROUSSEAU, BURNS.



Hero-Gods, Prophets, Poets, Priests are forms of Heroism that belong to the
old ages, make their appearance in the remotest times; some of them have
ceased to be possible long since, and cannot any more show themselves in
this world. The Hero as _Man of Letters_, again, of which class we are to
speak to-day, is altogether a product of these new ages; and so long as the
wondrous art of _Writing_, or of Ready-writing which we call _Printing_,
subsists, he may be expected to continue, as one of the main forms of
Heroism for all future ages. He is, in various respects, a very singular
phenomenon.

He is new, I say; he has hardly lasted above a century in the world yet.
Never, till about a hundred years ago, was there seen any figure of a Great
Soul living apart in that anomalous manner; endeavoring to speak forth the
inspiration that was in him by Printed Books, and find place and
subsistence by what the world would please to give him for doing that.
Much had been sold and bought, and left to make its own bargain in the
market-place; but the inspired wisdom of a Heroic Soul never till then, in
that naked manner. He, with his copy-rights and copy-wrongs, in his
squalid garret, in his rusty coat; ruling (for this is what he does), from
his grave, after death, whole nations and generations who would, or would
not, give him bread while living,--is a rather curious spectacle! Few
shapes of Heroism can be more unexpected.

Alas, the Hero from of old has had to cramp himself into strange shapes:
the world knows not well at any time what to do with him, so foreign is his
aspect in the world! It seemed absurd to us, that men, in their rude
admiration, should take some wise great Odin for a god, and worship him as
such; some wise great Mahomet for one god-inspired, and religiously follow
his Law for twelve centuries: but that a wise great Johnson, a Burns, a
Rousseau, should be taken for some idle nondescript, extant in the world to
amuse idleness, and have a few coins and applauses thrown him, that he
might live thereby; _this_ perhaps, as before hinted, will one day seem a
still absurder phasis of things!--Meanwhile, since it is the spiritual
always that determines the material, this same Man-of-Letters Hero must be
regarded as our most important modern person. He, such as he may be, is
the soul of all. What he teaches, the whole world will do and make. The
world's manner of dealing with him is the most significant feature of the
world's general position. Looking well at his life, we may get a glance,
as deep as is readily possible for us, into the life of those singular
centuries which have produced him, in