Page:Oregon Literature by Horner.djvu/134

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104
OREGON LITERATURE.

can see how the literature of the pioneer will give strength and support to the literature of the future. Then, along with other influences, we shall draw from Grecian art, Italian music, German tenderness, ness, Spanish passion, Yankee shrewdness, French vivacity, Irish wit, English sense, Indian courage, and Oregon dreams and visions; and Oregon literature will rank as American literature, which is English literature under a different sky.

Of the future literature of Oregon it may be said that peace, home, and prosperity will be the probable themes themes that are contemplated in the quiet of the home, and enjoyed by the really progressive classes. Agricultural and pastoral life will not be slighted. Nor will the sons of the men, who made the country, permit to be forgotten the legends incident to the life of the settler, and the trials of the Indian who was gradually crowded out of his home that we might be favored. We have our Minnchahas, our Niagaras, our mountain chains, wonderful caves, and delightful scenes awaiting the touch of the pen and the brush of the artist and the poet. And while there has been enough suffering and privation already endured in the history of our state to quicken the heart and fire the imagination of the orator and the poet, culture and schools will temper the sentiment with philosophy and adorn it with artistic beauty; and as a result, the future Oregonian bids fair to live that higher literary life which it is given every man in this land to enjoy.