DEFINITION OF LITERATURE.
Weyauwega, Wis.
What is included under the term “Literature?” Is all prose literature?
H. L. A.
Answer.—It would be difficult to improve upon the definition of literature in Webster, quarto edition: “1. Learning; acquaintance with letters or books. 2. The collective body of literary productions, embracing the entire results of knowledge and fancy preserved in writing; also the whole body of writing upon a given subject, as the literature of biblical literature, of chemistry, etc. 3. Belles-lettres, or the class of writings distinguished for beauty or style of expression—as poetry, essays, or history—in distinction from scientific treatises and works on positive knowledge.” Which of the above senses is intended must be judged from the subject and context. Webster further says: “Literature, in its widest sense, embraces all compositions, except those on the positive sciences, mathematics, etc. It is usually confined, however, to belles-lettres, or works of taste and sentiment, as poetry, eloquence, history, etc., excluding abstract discussions and mere erudition. A man of literature is one who is versed in the belles-lettres; a man of learning excels in what is taught in the schools, and has a wide extent of knowledge, especially in respect to the past; a man of erudition is one who is skilled in the more recondite branches of learned inquiry.” The perspicuity of the above definitions leaves nothing obscure. Prose is the common language of men, in distinction from verse. All of literature that is not in verse may be classed as prose, but so may ordinary social and business correspondence, text-books of science, court records, State statutes, and city ordinances, and much else which is plainly excluded from literature by the definitions given above.
“OLD GRIMES.”
Marion, Ind.
Your correspondent, C. N. H., of Chicago, says: “For several years I have seen notices, or sketches, of ‘Old Grimes,’ generally without age, date, and other items to identify the real ‘Old Grimes’ as I knew him. Ephraim Grimes was born about 1770, in Connecticut.” C. N. H. further states, after giving something of his history, that he finally “landed at Fort Covington, N. Y., where he remained, making shingles, until about 1834, when his son came and took him to Connecticut.”
Now, I wish simply to say that I am sure that Ephraim “Grimes,” born in 1770, and living and making shingles in 1834, was not, as C. N. H. declares, the real “Old Grimes” about whom was composed the song: