Full resolution (TIFF) - 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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