There is no luck in literary reputation. They who make up the
final verdict upon every book are not the partial and noisy readers of
the hour when it appears, but a court as of angels, a public not to be
bribed, not to be entreated and not to be overawed, decides upon every
man's title to fame. Only those books come down which deserve to last.
Gilt edges, vellum and morocco, and presentation-copies to all the
libraries will not preserve a book in circulation beyond its intrinsic
date. It must go with all Walpole's Noble and Royal Authors to its fate.
Blackmore, Kotzebue, or Pollok may endure for a night, but Moses and
Homer stand for ever. There are not in the world at any one time more
than a dozen persons who read and understand Plato,--never enough to
pay for an edition of his works; yet to every generation these come duly
down, for the sake of those few persons, as if God brought them in
his hand. "No book," said Bentley, "was ever written down by any but
itself." The permanence of all books is fixed by no effort, friendly or
hostile, but by their own specific gravity, or the intrinsic importance
of their contents to the constant mind of man. "Do not trouble yourself
too much about the light on your statue," said Michael Angelo to the
young sculptor; "the light of the public square will test its value."

In like manner the effect of every action is measured by the depth of
the sentiment from which it proceeds. The great man knew not that he was
great. It took a century or two for that fact to appear. What he did,
he did because he must; it was the most natural thing in the world, and
grew out of the circumstances of the moment. But now, every thing he
did, even to the lifting of his finger or the eating of bread, looks
large, all-related, and is called an institution.

These are the demonstrations in a few particulars of the genius of
nature; they show the direction of the stream. But the stream is blood;
every drop is alive. Truth has not single victories; all things are
its organs,--not only dust and stones, but errors and lies. The laws
of disease, physicians say, are as beautiful as the laws of health. Our
philosophy is affirmative and readily accepts the testimony of negative
facts, as every shadow points to the sun. By a divine necessity every
fact in nature is constrained to offer its testimony.

Human character evermore publishes itself. The most fugitive deed and
word, the mere air of doing a thing, the in