Print (PDF) - On this page / på denna sida - New York, Ninth Street, Thursday, November 15
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academy, called Rutgers Institute from the name of
the founder, and here I saw four hundred and sixty
young girls, and some excellent arrangements for
their instruction and cultivation. I also heard
and read several compositions by the young girls,
both in prose and verse; and I could not but
admire the perspicuity of thought, the perfection
of the language, and, above all, the living and
beautiful feeling for life which these productions
displayed. Genius, properly so called, I did not
find in them; and I question the wisdom of that
publicity which is given to such youthful efforts. I
fear that it may awaken ambition and an inclination
to overrate literary activity, which befools many
young minds, while so few are possessed of the
divine gift of genius which alone makes literature,
as well as authors, good for anything. These young
girls have hardly lived, thought, or known enough to
write of their own experience, their own faith and
conviction. They write, as people sing, by ear. It
is good, nay excellent, that they should learn early
to disentangle their thoughts, to express themselves
well and clearly, and for this purpose these trials
of authorship are commendable. But the publicity, the
printing, the trumpeting abroad, and the rewarding of
them–can that also be good for the young, for any one,
or for anything? True genius will in its own way and
its
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