text:  Has there not been for half a century a spontaneous an ardent a loving return in literature of our own and all countries to the old and great in the productions of the human mind--to nature with all her fountains? Does not the spirit of man in the great civilized nations at this day travail with desire of knowing itself its laws its conditions its means its powers its hopes? It studies with irregular often blind and perverted efforts; but still it studies--itself