Introduction
tainly more gay, but Hawthorne's graver harmonies linger in the ear and abide in the memory. It is only after intimate acquaintance, however, that one perceives fully Hawthorne's real scope, his power to convey an idea in its totality. His art is the product of a rich personality, strong, self-contained, content to brood long over its treasures. It is seldom in the history of literature—and quite without parallel in American letters—that a nature so perfectly dowered should attain to such perfect self-expression. Here lies his supreme fortune as an artist. He was permitted to give adequate expression to a rare and beautiful genius, and for thousands of his countrymen life has been touched to finer issues because Hawthorne followed his boyish bent and became a writer of fiction.
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