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6o8
64 H. C. ANDERSEN
By seeking it! But he hath endeavoured, too, and
vvith goodly success, to show the near connection there
exists between the highest pursuits, the holiest, and
the lowliest. His works contain a theory, a theory it
were well that all mankind should study; and they go
still farther than mere theory, by pro ving that
hypo-thesis with triumphant success. His last chapter
con-tains the most decisive expression of it. Is not Poetry
in all things, but most in that which renders greater
the Being whom God created in his own likeness?
There have been men, and are still sueh, who press
humanity down to the level of the brute. Such men
ever look upon Intellect as a thing of naught, and
such men are the enemies of Andersen.
When old Æsop, or he that wrote his fables, gave
speech to animals, and raised them, did he not do so
to raise mankind still more? Think, then, that
Andersen doth likewise. When he makes the flowers tell
their sorrows to the moon, he follows only in the track
of Æsop, and with the same object, and with the same
success. This is the inward meaning of his seemingly
childish works. But childish works make the most,
because the earliest, impiession, and we look back
with pleasure upon the fairy stories, which conveyed
a moral faet and pleasing fancy to our youthful minds.
As the twig is bent, the tree will grow. No child, it
was long ago remarked, believes literally what it hears,
but is — God save the mark! — metaphysical enough
to perceive the veiled meaning of the apologue. Herein
lies the strength and everlasting support of writers
like Andersen.
But still, this is not all his mission. To sing Science,
the California of Poetry, is a part of it. No poet save
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