guest from disparagement or cavil, would seem but tedious and
commonplace when addressed to those who know that his career has passed
beyond the ordeal of contemporaneous criticism, and that in the applause
of foreign nations it has found a foretaste of the judgment of
posterity. I feel as if every word that I have already said had too long
delayed the toast which I now propose: "A prosperous voyage, health and
long life, to our illustrious guest and countryman, Charles Dickens."

HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE

SPIRIT OF NEW ENGLAND LITERATURE

[Speech of Hamilton W. Mabie at the ninety-first annual dinner of the
New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1896. Henry
E. Howland, vice-President of the Society, presided and introduced the
speaker as follows: "There is no person better qualified to speak upon
any literary subject than the editor of a great paper. He scans the
whole horizon of literature, and his motto is: 'Where the bee sups
there sup I.' As a gentleman eminently fitted to speak upon the
literature of New England or any kindred subject, I have the pleasure
of introducing to you Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie, of 'The Outlook.'"]

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--When one has the army and navy
behind him, he is impelled to be brief. And when one has a subject which
needs no interpreter, when one has a theme the very recital of the
details of which recalls the most splendid chapter in our intellectual
history, one feels that any words would be impertinent. We are indebted
to New England, in the first place, for giving us a literature. I know
it has been questioned in Congress, why anybody should want a
literature; but if the spiritual rank of a people is to be determined by
depth and richness of life, and if the register of this life of a people
is its art, and especially its art in books, then no country is
reputable among the nobler countries unless it has produced a
literature; and we are, therefore, indebted to New England for
literature. Not the greatest we shall produce, but a literature
continuous from the first settlement of the colonies. It is a very
significant fact that the three men before the Revolution whom we may
call literary men were men born in New England--Benjamin Franklin, who
is too well known to all of you for comment; John Woolman, of whose work
Charles Lamb said: "Woolman's writings should be learned by heart;" and
that great theologian, who wrote in a stately