Frank Preston Stearns, Cambridge Sketches

[149] the public whom he addressed. One of Goethe's critics complained that the class of persons he had introduced in “Wilhelm Meister” did not belong to good society; and to this the “aristocratic” poet replied: “I have often been in society called good, from which I have not been able to obtain an idea for the shortest poem.”

So it is always: the interesting person is the one who struggles. After the struggle is over, and prosperity commences, the moral ends,young Corey and his bride go off to Mexico. The lives of families are represented by those of its prominent individuals. The ambitious son of an old and wealthy family makes a new departure from former precedents, thus creating a fresh struggle for himself, and becomes an orator, like Wendell Philips, or a scientist, like Darwin.

In the “Autocrat” we recognize the dingy wall-paper of the dining-room, the well-worn furniture, the cracked water-pitcher, and the slight aroma of previous repasts; but we soon forget this unattractive background, for the scene is full of genuine human life. The men and women who congregate there appear for what they really are. They wear no mental masks and other disguises like the people we meet at fashionable entertainments; and each acts himself or herself. Boarding-houses, sanitariums, and sea voyages are the places to