The Literature of Reason and Revolution

Paine takes great lengths to state that Americans do not want force, but \proper application of that force\defeat unless a stable army was composed not of militia but of trained professionals. But Paine maintains a positive view overall, hoping that this American crisis can be quickly resolved; \embers can never expire.\

Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)

I. Life and career

Born: 13 April 1743

? Birthplace: Shadwell, Virginia ? Died: 4 July 1826 (natural causes)

? Best Known As: Author of the Declaration of Independence

1. His mind ranged curiously over many fields of knowledge---law, philosophy, government, architecture, education, religion, science, agriculture, mechanics---and whatever he touched, he enriched in some measure.

2. He was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of The Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. High points of his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon and the exploration of the west by Lewis and Clark (1804–1806).

3. As a political philosopher, Jefferson was a man of the Enlightenment and knew many intellectual leaders in Britain and France. He idealized the independent yeoman farmer as exemplar of republican virtues, distrusted cities and financiers, and favored states' rights and a strictly limited federal government. Jefferson supported the separation of church and state and was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786). He was the eponym（名祖，指姓名被或被认为用来命名某物，如城市、地区等，例如，罗穆卢斯是罗马的名祖）of Jeffersonian democracy and the co-founder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, which dominated American politics for a quarter-century and was the precursor of the modern-day Democratic Party. Jefferson served as the wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781), first United States Secretary of State (1789–1793) and second Vice President (1797–1801).

4. A polymath (学识渊博的人), Jefferson achieved distinction as, among other things, a horticulturist, statesman, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist (古生物学者), author, inventor and founder of the University of Virginia. II. The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence was an act of the Second Continental Congress, adopted on July 4, 1776, which declared that the Thirteen Colonies in North America were \and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved.\formally entitled The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America, explained the justifications for separation from the British crown, and was an

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expansion of Richard Henry Lee's Resolution (passed by Congress on July 2), which first proclaimed independence. An engrossed copy of the Declaration was signed by most of the delegates on August 2 and is now on display in the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.

The Declaration is considered to be the founding document of the United States of America, where July 4 is celebrated as Independence Day and the nation's birthday. At the time the Declaration was issued, the American colonies were \in declaring their independence from Great Britain. John Hancock, as the elected President of Congress, was the only person to sign the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. It was not until the following month on August 2nd that the remaining 55 other delegates began to sign the document.

The following statements have become world-famous since then:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

《独立宣言》

大陆会议 美利坚十三个联合邦一致通过的宣言

在有关人类事务的发展过程中，当一个民族必须解除其和另一个民族之间的政治联系，并在世界各国之间依照自然法则和自然神明 ，取得独立和平等的地位时出於对人类公意的尊重，必须宣布他们不得不独立的原因。 我们认为下面这些真理是不言而喻的：造物者创造了平等的个人，并赋予他们若干不可剥夺的权利，其中包括生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。 自被统治者的同意。任何形式的政府，只要破坏上述目的，人民就有权利改变或废除它，并建立新政府；新政府赖以奠基的原则，得以组织权力的方式，都要最大可能地增进民众的安全和幸福。的确，从慎重考虑，不应当由於轻微和短暂的原因而改变成立多年的政府。过去的一切经验也都说明，任何苦难，只要尚能忍受，人类都宁愿容忍，而无意废除他们久已习惯了的政府来恢复自身的权益。 明它旨在把人民置於绝对专制统治之下时，那麽，人民就有权利，也有义务推翻这个政府，并为他们未来的安全建立新的保障－－这就是这些殖民地过去逆来顺受的情况，也是它们现在不得不改变以前政府制度的原因。当今大不列颠国王的历史，是一再损人利己和强取豪夺的历史，所有这些暴行的直接目的，就是想在这些邦建立一种绝对的暴政。为了证明所言属实，现把下列事实向公正的世界宣布。

在这些压迫的每一阶段中，我们都曾用最谦卑的言辞请求救济， 但我们一

再的请愿求所得到的答覆却是一再的伤害。这样，一个君主，在其品行格已打上了可以看作是暴君行为的烙印时，便不配做自由人民的统治者。

我们不是没有顾念我们英国的弟兄。我们一再警告过他们，他们的立法机关企图把无理的管辖权横加到我们的头上。我们也提醒过他们，我们移民并定居来这里的状况。我们曾经呼唤他们天生的正义感和侠肝义胆，我们恳切陈词，请他们念在同文同种的份上，弃绝这些必然会破坏我们彼此关系和往来的无理掠夺。对於这种来自正义和基于血缘的呼声，他们却也同样置若罔闻。迫不得已，我们不得不宣布和他们分离。我们会以对待其他民族一样的态度对待他们：战时是仇敌，平时是朋友。

图，吁请全世界最崇高的正义：以各殖民地善良人民的名义并经他们授权，我们极为庄严地宣布，这些联合一致的殖民地从此成为、而且是名正言顺地成为自由和独立的国家；它们解除效忠英国王室的一切义务，它们和大不列颠国家之间的一切政治关系从此全部断绝，而且必须断绝；作为自由独立的国家，它们完全有权宣战、媾和、结盟、通商和采取独立国家理应采取和处理的一切行动和事宜。为了强化这篇宣言，我们怀着深信神明保佑的信念，谨以我们的生命、财富和神圣的荣誉，相互保证，共同宣誓。

Philip Freneau (1752 - 1832)

I. Life and career

Philip Morin Freneau (1752-1832) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. Remembered as the poet of the American Revolution and the father of American poetry, he was a transitional figure in American literature.

His political and satirical poems have value mainly for historians, but his place as the earliest important American lyric poet is secured by such poems as ―The Wild Honeysuckle,‖ ―The Indian Burying Ground,‖ and ―Eutaw Springs.‖ Freneau was perhaps the most outstanding writer of the post-Revolutionary period. 1. neoclassical in form, romantic in spirit; 2. His poems are strongly lyrical; 3. clear imagery;

--- pre-romantic spirit; 4. a deistic optimist;

cf. Deism (自然神论, 自然神教派) is a religious philosophy and movement that derives the existence and nature of God from reason and personal experience. This is in contrast to fideism ([哲]信仰主义,僧侣主义, 一种认为知识取决于信仰的学说) which is found in many forms of Christianity. Islam, Judaism and Catholic teachings hold that religion relies on revelation in sacred scriptures or the testimony of other people as well as reasoning.

Deists typically reject supernatural events (prophecy, miracles) and tend to assert that God does not interfere with human life and the laws of the universe. What organized religions see as divine revelation and holy books, most deists see as interpretations made by other humans, rather than as authoritative sources.

Deism became prominent in Great Britain, France, and the United States in the 17th and 18th centuries, mostly among those raised as Christians who found they could not

believe in either a triune (三位一体的) God, the divinity of Jesus, miracles, or the inerrancy (无误; 绝对正确) of scriptures, but who did believe in one God. Initially it did not form any congregations, but in time deism led to the development of other religious groups, particularly Unitarianism (【宗】唯一神教派, 基督教一派, 认为上帝系单一者, 反对三位一体的说法). It continues to this day in the form of Classical Deism and Modern Deism. II. “The Wild Honey Suckle”

Freneau later retired to a more rural life and wrote a mix of political and nature works. His nature poem, ―The Wild Honey Suckle‖ (1786), is considered an early seed to the later Transcendentalist movement taken up by William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau.

In this poem the poet expressed a keen awareness of the loveliness and transience of nature. He not only meditated on mortality but also celebrated nature. It implies that life and death are inevitable law of nature,\ most widely read natural lyric with the theme of transience.The central image is a nativewild flower, which makes a drastic difference from elite flower images typical of traditional English poems.The poem showed strong feelings for the natural beauty, which was the characteristic of romantic poets.

The poem was written in regular 6-line tetrameter stanzas, rhyming:ababcc.

The structure of the poem is regular, so it has the neoclassic quality of proportion and balance. Alliteration, assonance,masculine rhyme used in the poem also produce musical or melodious and harmonious effects, which matches the beauty of the

flower, the beauty of poem is partly embodied in the effects created through changes in the rhythm.The poem contains iambics trochaics and spondee.The arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables suggests the transience of the life of the flower and the poet's emotional change.

The poem is full of sensuous images such as fair flower visual image, comely grow kinasthetic image and honeyed blossoms olfactory image. All the images makeus feel pity for the beautiful flower which has only a short life.Obviously the poetis a senti- mental, deistic optimist.

The line\The tone of the poem is both sentimental and optimistic.