July 4, 1804

Nathaniel Hawthorne, ( July 4, 1804 to May 19, 1864) is America's Charles Dickens. Not because of his subject matter but his ability to distinctively convey a certain essential quality about the world in which he and his readers live. They shared an ability to distill in a story a vista of community.

Their worlds coincided when Hawthorne was made American consul in Liverpool. We quote from a letter of Hawthorne's to Henry Bright, a note providing a slice of literary pie. Our source is The Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife, a biography by Julian Hawthorne (1884).  The Lempriere mentioned was the author of Classical Dictionary (1788) and Universal Biography of Eminent Persons in all Ages and Countries (1808):
13 Charles Street, Bath, May 5, 1860.

Dear Mr. Bright, — Here is Mr. Lempriere Hammond's very kind note. Under your auspices, I think I may venture to accept his hospitality, and I should be delighted to spend one night within the walls of Trinity. Is Mr. Hammond a descendant of Lempriere's Classical Dictionary? — or perchance a mythical personage? Do not let him hear of this foolish query; for people are as touchy about their names as a cat about her tail.

I mean to go to London either the latter part of next week or the first of the succeeding one. Part of the time I shall be at the house of Mr. Motley (the Dutch historian), 31 Hertford Street. It is not my purpose to return to Bath till after our visit to Cambridge.
....I think your club is the Oxford and Cambridge. When I come to London, I shall send or call there unless I otherwise hear of you.

Truly yours, Nath. Hawthorne

I do not know the answer to Hawthorne's question. Charles Dickens addressed an urban world where fate and possibility commingled. Hawthorne's dealt with defining symbolism. That may just be the difference between the old and the new worlds.