“Whenever emancipation shall take place, immediate though it be, the subjects of it, like many who now make up the so-called free population, will be in what geologists call the ‘transition state.’ The prejudice now felt against them for bearing on their persons the brand of slaves, cannot die out immediately. Severe trials will still be their portion: the curse of a ‘taunted race’ must be expiated by almost miraculous proofs of advancement; and some of these miracles must be antecedent to the great day of jubilee. To fight the battle upon the bare ground of abstract principles will fail to give us complete victory. The subterfuges of pro-slavery selfishness must now be dragged to light, and the last weak argument, that the negro can never contribute anything to advance the national character, ‘nailed to the counter as base coin.’ To the conquering of the difficulties heaped up in the path of his industry, the free colored man of the North has pledged himself. Already he sees, springing into growth, from out his foster work-school, intelligent young laborers, competent to enrich the world with necessary products; industrious citizens, contributing their proportion to aid on the advancing civilization of the country; self-providing artisans, vindicating their people from the never-ceasing charge of fitness for servile positions.”
In the “Autographs for Freedom,” from which the above extract is taken, Professor Reason has a beautiful poem, entitled “Hope and Confidence,” which, in point of originality and nicety of composition, deserves a place among the best productions of Wordsworth.
A poem signifies design, method, harmony, and therefore consistency of parts. A man may be gifted with the most vividly ideal nature; he may shoot from his brain some blazing poetic thought or imagery, which may arouse wonder and admiration, as a comet does; and yet he may have no constructiveness, without which the materials of poetry are only so many glittering fractions. A poem can never be tested by its length or brevity, but by the adaptation of its parts. A complete poem is the architecture of thought and language. It requires artistic skill to chisel rough blocks of marble into as many individual forms of beauty; but not only skill, but genius, is needed to arrange and harmonize those forms into the completeness of a Parthenon. A grave popular error, and one destructive of personal usefulness, and obstructive to literary progress, is the free-and-easy belief that because a man has the faculty of investing common things with uncommon ideas, therefore he can write a poem.
The idea of poetry is to give pleasurable emotions, and the world listens to a poet’s voice as it listens to the singing of a summer bird; that which is the most suggestive of freedom and eloquence being the most admired. Professor Reason has both the genius and the artistic skill. He is highly respected in New York, where he resides, and is doing a good work for the elevation of his race.
WILLIAM J. WILSON.
At the head of our representative men,—especially our men of letters,—stands Professor Wilson. He has, at times, contributed some very able papers to the current literature of the day. In the columns of “Frederick Douglass’s Paper,” the “Anglo-African Magazine,” and the “Weekly Anglo-African,” appeared at times, over the signature of “Ethiop,” some of the raciest and most amusing essays to be found in the public journals of this country. As a sketch writer of historical scenes and historical characters,—choosing his own subjects, suggested by his own taste or sympathies,—few men are capable of greater or more successful efforts than William J. Wilson.
In his imaginary visit to the “Afric-American Picture Gallery,” he exhibits splendid traits of the genius of the true critic. His criticism on the comparative merits of Samuel R. Ward and Frederick Douglass, published in the papers some years ago, together with his essay on Phillis Wheatley, raised Mr. Wilson high in the estimation of men of letters. His “School Room Scene” is both amusing and instructive.
To possess genius, the offspring of which ennobles the sentiments, enlarges the affections, kindles the imagination, and gives to us a view of the past, the present, and the future, is one of the highest gifts that the Creator bestows upon man. With acute powers of conception, a sparkling and lively fancy, and a quaintly-curious felicity of diction, Mr. Wilson wakes us from our torpidity and coldness to a sense of our capabilities.
As a speaker, he is pleasing in style, with the manners of a gentleman. His conversational powers are of the first order, in which he exhibits deep thought. In personal appearance, he is under the middle size; his profile is more striking than his front face; he has a smiling countenance, under which you see the man of wit. The professor is of unmixed race, of which he is not ashamed. He is cashier of the Freedmen’s Savings Bank at Washington, and his good advice to his race with whom he has dealings in money matters proves of much service to them.