tain life; hence we do not expect great books and intellectual triumphs to come from those who received their growth in the torrid or in the frigid zones. It has also been observed that those climates, in which it is too easy to obtain a livelihood, impede intellectual progress. It has, therefore, been believed that no stirring thought will come from the nations of equatorial Africa nor from our cherished Philippines. In these lands, those who have palaces leave them to live in groves, gondolas, chariots, theaters, fashionable clubs, popular resorts, the racing circle, and the bull-fight ring; everything succumbs to pleasure, until pleasure becomes licentious in its influence an influence which is never truly literary. Accordingly, we look to the more temperate climes for literary achievement at its zenith and human endeavor in its glory; and men of attainment have come to believe that Oregon, which is centrally located as to mildness of temperature will produce a superior literature; and that it has two distinct climates, each of which is favorable to the growth and development of a particular literature, peculiarly pure, perspicuous and powerful.
Of the Saxon motherland the scholarly Taine said, "Thick clouds hover above, being fed by thick exhalations. They lazily turn their flanks, grow dark, and descend in showers; oh, how easily." Is not that Western Oregon? The Saxons of Europe have left their climate to find a sim-
