It will be remembered that the home of the English Laniers was at Greenwich,
-- and so the story of the Lanier family begins and ends with this name, --
one in the Old World and one in the New.
Chapter XIII. The Achievement in Criticism and in Poetry
Speculations as to what Lanier might have done with fewer limitations
and with a longer span of years inevitably arise in the mind of any one
who studies his life. If, like the late Theodore Thomas,
he had at an early age been able to develop his talent for music
in the musical circles of New York; if, like Longfellow,
he had gone from a small college to a German university, or, like Mr. Howells,
from the provinces to Cambridge, where he would have come in contact
with a group of men of letters; if, after the Civil War,
he had, like Hayne, retired to a cabin and there devoted himself
entirely to literary work; if, like Lowell, he could have given attention
to literary subjects and lectured in a university without teaching
classes of immature students or without resorting to "pot-boilers",
"nothings that do mar the artist's hand;" if, like Poe,
he could have struck some one vein and worked it for all it was worth, --
if, in a word, the varied activity of his life could have given way
to a certain definiteness of purpose and concentration of effort,
what might have been the difference! Music and poetry strove
for the mastery of his soul. Swinburne, speaking of those
who attempt success in two realms of art, says, "On neither course
can the runner of a double race attain the goal, but must needs
in both races alike be caught up and resign his torch to a runner
with a single aim.
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