erratic, that any sort of form or style may be built upon it. Yet Simpson, Miller, Markham, Balch, and many others yield suggestions and inspiration that well invite others to succeed them.
7. Still further, and without this all the above would be vain, we have the quality of young minds here that may be impressed with such an heritage. Our Oregon youth are sometimes hastily spoken of as vapid and vicious. There is too often a disconcerting unconventionality about them, and a disappointing fondness for trifling amusements. A precocious development giving place all too speedily to premature decrepitude, is a still more disagreeable symptom. But with all that may be said, we have our proportion of steady boys and serious girls, whose ambitions, are high and whose strength is sufficient. In every school there are boys and girls who can already compose a letter or an article that would do credit to their elders. Not everyone indeed with a literary penchant will choose this for his life work. The rewards of industry and commerce and the professions are now too great for that. Literature as a vocation, provided one really writes his heart and tells the truth, is too nearly a whole burnt offering to claim any but the elect; but out of the many who are called some will be chosen. We already have as hopeful author material as can be found anywhere.
After the above seven items, a word should follow as to the need of an Oregon literature. Without its literature a people is lost; they can not think; they lose power to feel. Sympathy is withered. There is no civic consciousness. No vital or manly people have been without their literature. Atlantic States' literature can not take the place of our own, any more than the last year's leaves can nourish this year's fruit. New leaves for the new fruit; new bottles for the new wine. A vehicle of ex-
