PRESENT CONDITION OF LETTERS.

LETTER III.

TO WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS, ESQ.

pace, as long as Literature has to contend against the present absence or laxity of reflection which prevails in the reading community, the description of the features of the times in terms of goodhumored ridicule may possibly subserve a better purpose than any more serious delineation. Moreover, an effective caricature is often the truest of portraits. The lineaments of the picture may not correspond trait for trait with the original for which it is designed, but the very exaggeration, which constitutes the caricature, makes prominent that general expression and significance, which might be passed by unnoticed in any more correct presentment. I think, therefore, that I had a sufficient excuse for the license in which I indulged.

rambling reflections, you must deem it a natural incident to the style and form which I have adopted for the expression of my views. At present, I am disposed to linger over the subject touched upon in my last, and to dwell for a little while longer on the literary food of general readers, and those points of inquiry which may grow out of its examination, or be connected with it.

My Dear Sir.--You may have supposed from the tone and tenor of certain passages in my last letter, that I was more inclined to laugh whitnsically over the fantasies and follies of the time, than to analyse seriously the significance of its phenomena. Yet it was very far from being altogether so. All action presupposes two parties, an agent and a patient-a thing acting and a thing acted upon. In all change there must consequently be two ingredients,-the causes that effect the When I commenced these letters I indicated change, and the thing upon which it is operated. pretty broadly my design of not suffering myself There are, therefore, two elements invariably, which to be trammelled by the strict rules of methodical require to be recognized and appreciated in the ex- composition. The thoughts, which rise at random, amination of any revolutionary movement, whether I present in the order in which they visit me, withthis be political, religions, or literary-namely, the out paying much regard to a nice, logical sequence agents of the reform, and the material upon which of ideas, or caring for artistic finish and elaborate it is superinduced. In the first instance, undoubt-development. If, therefore, you should have reaedly, we ought to restrict the former to those long son to complain of any want of connection in my latent but fermenting humors in the bosom of society, which in time necessitate the change, and consider the latter as the reformers themselves. But as these so soon become identified with the causes by which they are actuated, and which they represent; and discharge all the main functions of agents with respect to the mass of society, we may so far pass over the earlier progress of mutation as to consider them the originators with reference. The food of the whale is said to be the smaller And, accordingly, I should place them in the former kinds of fish, whereof it devours whole shoals at of these two categories, as general truth is more con- once, and the floating weeds which cover “full sonant with the purposes of my investigations than many a rood" of the Northern seas. It is one of a minute and unnecessary accuracy, and I should the curiosities of natural history, that this greatest regard the latter as representing society at large. of beasts should condescend to live upon such diIn estimating any intellectual or literary reform, minutive articles of diet. But in the psychological we must, therefore, consider no less diligently the world it cannot be deemed a less singular fact, that society to be reformed, and the phases which it the mighty monster of the land-facetiously and assumes during the progress of the revolution, courteously termed "the public,"-but more justly than the bold thinkers, be they authors, orators, or named Leviathan-should browze upon such priceactors, who extend, and in some measure produce less and unsubstantial garbage, as that with which it. In Literature, indeed, where the anthor and of late years it has been gorging itself. It has the public reciprocally act and react without inter- thrown away the wheat and has been living upon mission upon each other, in so intimate and so in- the chaff. It has renounced solid food and has intricate a manner, it becomes of especial importance vented for its own indulgence a new kind of litethat we should examine the peculiarities of the rary pap. The trash and lighter productions of reader, with the same care with which we deter- Literature are beaten up together and compounded mine the characteristics of the writer. With the into a weak but saccharine solution, on the label former of these subjects I was partially engaged of which is written "haustus sæpe in die capienin my last communication, and though I wrote with dus," while the additional advice of the Newcastle some levity of expression, this did not prevent my doctor is given to the patient veiling an earnest meaning under it. I have yet to learn that Heraclitus was a better philosopher than Democritus. And since any reform, which may now be in progress, or may shortly be commen- This is emphatically the age of Magazines-we ced, will have very great obstacles to encounter, have them in all shapes, sizes, varieties, and times and necessarily travel with a slow and unsteady of periodic revolution, from the Semi-Monthly up

When taken

To be well shaken.

VOL. X-85

to the Annual, from the duedecimo to the quarto. [and with each fresh bait crashes down what he had This observation is neither original nor new, but, imbibed before, making himself a veritable hellus like Jack Sylvester's reply to Ben Jonson, it has librorum; and if for him there be any resurrection a decided merit in its truth. Yet these Magazines of thoughts, they come up in dreams, crude, unare, with a few rare and note-worthy exceptions, connected, distorted and anamorphosed, like the wishy-washy, vapid, and valueless-they contain fantastic shapes of the night-mare. Thus he goes a scanty infusion of thought in a very copious on day after day, destroying more and more the menstruum of words. Notwithstanding this, they tone and healthy action of his alimentary organs. are popular, as their extensive circulation evinces, The morbid appetite, which commenced as a disand the ablest authors of the country contribute to ease, has, in this way, with time and indulgence, their pages. Whence then is their popularity-matured into a habit-and as long as a sufficiency and how happens it that really good writers can of the matériel littéraire is supplied, he takes but be induced to compose for them-or having been scant heed of its form, its substance, or its essence, induced to do so are unable to elevate their charac- provided only that it act as a stimulant, and be not ter to the dignity of a solid Literature! Here are so strong or solid as to operate like a narcotic on three facts apparently anomalous, requiring to be his enfeebled system. When such is the character accounted for. The explanation of the first will of the generality of readers-the large class of furnish in a great measure the explanation of the purchasers, whose coin is the talisman, which, in others; and I think that the popularity of the fee- a high degree, encourages, excites, and rewards bler Magazines may be in no slight degree attri- the manifestation of literary excellence, we can buted to the present condition of the reading public. easily account for the popularity of any Magazines, I once asked a friend of mine, whose appetite however worthless they may be. But under these for apples was most remarkable, why, out of a circumstances what must we expect the Literature large basket full, he never selected his fruit. of the day to be? Its present condition affords the “Oh," said he, “it were nonsense to be picking natural and easily comprehended answer-so far, and choosing when I design eating all-the only at least, as its obvious defects are concerned, for result would be to ensure for the best a priority of the seeds of promise which we may recognize in consumption, and in making my choice, I should the vast garden of cultivated weeds, are largely waste time more profitably employed in eating-attributable to other causes. they will all have to be digested, or left undigested We have now surmounted the difficulty of distogether." Now our very worthy friend, the pub-covering how weak Magazines, containing nothing lic, is pretty much in the same condition, with res- but silly love tales, insipid poetry, and dropsical pect to the golden apples of Literature, as this gen-essays, without any artistic excellence or critical tleman with respect to the fruit of the trees of sagacity, have succeeded in obtaining for themearth. The table of the general reader of this day is abundantly strewed with Newspapers, Magazines, Reviews, Serials, &c., &c. He reads them all-a scrap here and a scrap there-not with the design of gratifying any very fastidious appetite, taste-to lead public judgment. In this country or indulging any very critical taste-not to enjoy Reviews have scarcely ever done this, and of late the more evanescent savor and more delicate juices years they have but seldom effected it in England. of the fruit, nor in the hope of deriving any solid But a Magazine or an Annual lays claim to no nutriment, but to satisfy the cravings of a gullet such high pretensions as these-it designedly caters become morbidly voracious, and to fill a stomach to tastes already formed: If these be good, it hungering after quantity rather than the epicurean strives to rise to their requirements, or to compete delights of quality. The frequency of his meals-with others for enlightened favor; if bad, it panders that is the superabundance of new books and new to them, it helps to degrade them, vitiated though numbers of periodicals—has taught him to swallow they already be. As ordinarily the Newspaper rather without any attempt at mastication. He is at a follows in the wake of political feelings and indifeast of letters, what, according to Abernethy, the cates their current than directs them, so the MagaAmerican Secretary of Legation was over a din-zine almost invariably and perhaps inevitably, lowers ner table. His palate is never cultivated-he itself to the tone and literary habits of the hour. swallows so often, and bolts his morsels so hur- And in this country, this natural but injurious tenriedly, that the stomach is loaded and a wholesome digestion precluded. He soon is suffering all the evils of an intellectual dyspepsia. He reads merely for the momentary excitement, and to stay the cravings of a stomach, which, like Oliver Twist, is continually asking for more. He has lost all his ruminating capacity-he reads again and again,

selves such an extensive popularity, as to have rendered them for a time the solitary substitute for all true Literature. The object of a Review is to form and guide public opinion-to direct public

dency has been materially heightened by the conversion of a large proportion of our Newspapers into Weekly Magazines. A thing so ephemeral in its nature, so transient in its effects as a Weekly, would not receive a perusal, unless in matters deeply touching the interests or feelings of the people, without it accommodated itself to all their shifting

fight with more equal chances of success in the common plain. And thus, while they have contributed so largely to the deterioration of literary taste among the people, and to the debasement of Literature itself, they have impregnated those Magazines, from which some antidote might have been anticipated, with their own virus-a poison which saps all the fountains of vigor, engenders imbecility or actual paralysis, and corrodes the very bone and framework of Literature.

moods, and to every changing hue in the sky. | compelled works of a higher order to descend from Moreover, the materials of which it is composed their elevated grounds, in order that they might are, of necessity, so hurriedly written, that their sole inspiration is derived from the fleeting excitements of the outer world, from which they take their complexion. There is no preconceived design, diligently matured, artistically arranged, carefully elaborated, or delicately finished. The profit to be derived from the poem, tale, or essay, would not repay the writer for the time, the talent, and the labor which these excellences require. And as for the reputation--but no man of sense would care a fig for reputation in the present day, con- Thus, the necessity of courting popularity in a scious as he must be how madly, how foolishly, new form has caused Magazines to forswear the how ridiculously praise has latterly been meted out excellence they might otherwise have attained, and with no sparing hand to every fool who had the to stoop to that standard-if such a chaotic abysm impudent fool-hardiness to cry aloud for fame. can with any propriety be denominated a standard— And all the while it may be, that wisdom standeth to which the public taste had either been reduced, at the corners of the streets and in the market or was rapidly tending. But they have secured places but no man heareth her. The readers of their reward-they have obtained that popularity the Paper, (to return from my momentary digres- which by these arts they wooed-and with it that sion)—the readers of the Paper do not require the more solid profit, for which alone such popularity higher excellences of conception and execution was desirable-for to them the music of dollars is they do not anticipate them, they would have but much more welcome than the more intangible and slight appreciation for them, and might even fail ethereal rewards of a well-deserved and intelligent to recognize them if such should be pointed out encomium. And as the golden shower has fallen for their consideration. Hence, very little pains into their lap, in proportion as they have lowered are bestowed upon any thing designed for publica-themselves to the degraded tastes of that mighty tion in the columns of a Newspaper--and the fre- multitude, which is most incapable of judging, quent literary effusions crowded into the anoma- though best qualified to remunerate, they have been lous sheet, present little but a grotesque assem- corrupted, like Danae, without reluctance by the blage of dry bones and unconnected limbs, stolen pleasant rain-drops of their welcome seducer. from some forgotten arsenal of death, and galva- To show still more strongly the state to which nized with a fit of momentary and unearthly life; Literature has thus been reduced, and the perilous while side by side with them appear a strange med-straits into which rival publishers have been wafted ley of uncouth forms, with vitality enough it is by the breezes which competition has excited, I true, but presenting the spasmodic dance of quaint would remind you that most of the more popular figures, such as might be supposed to have peopled Magazines, and certainly all of the most feeble, some archetypal chaos, invented by Puck and his rest their principal claim to public favor on the companions, for their peculiar delectation. engravings with which their numbers are adorned. If the consequences, pernicious in the extreme, These engravings are for the most part well exewhich have flowed from these Literary Newspa- cuted and must have been costly, however low be pers had never been extended beyond the limits their excellences as specimens of art in other resof their own plethoric columns, the effect would pects. The perfection of design, the beauty of have been bad enough and truly lamentable. But arrangement, the harmony of proportions, and the the actual state of the case is infinitely worse than more delicate touches of the accomplished painter this. When the profits of the pedler-among may safely be neglected, for those into whose hands whose wares there is something to suit every body, they are likely to come, are seldom blessed with a though nothing worth the purchase-exceed those cultivated acquaintance in the arts. But in every of the regular tradesman, the latter will be dis- thing that attracts the undisciplined eye, they poscouraged in the pursuit of his ordinary routine, and sess every merit which would be sought. And it will either become an Autolycus himself, or will en- is on these engravings, more than on the table of deavor to unite the operations of the pedler with his contents, that the more popular Magazines trust usual avocations. And this effect have these News- for success. This strongly indicates the low estipapers-hight Family-acted upon the Monthly mate which they and their readers must previously Magazines they have brought them down to their have set upon the claims of Literature. We have own level, by usurping their functions, and retail-witnessed a state of things analogous to this in the ing to every clown inferior goods at a lower price, decline of the theatre. As the spirit of the drama than the other dispensers of periodical literature waned away, and the true dramatic taste became could afford. By provoking competition they have extinct in the audience even more than in the play

writer, the beautiful and gorgeous scenes of Stan- exaggeration of the truth. That an intimate and field and Beverley divided the honors of Covent- profound familiarity with one good book will fit us Garden and the provincial theatres of England for the more ready and thorough appreciation of all with the charms of Astley's Menagerie, and the others I take to be just as sound a dogma as that licentious fascinations of Elsler and Taglioni. a diligent and untiring study of one department of The same things have occurred in this country, science or letters is the best preparative for more and one of the celebrated danseuses has displayed general intellectual pursuits. Old Burton has many her influence in this country. If the experience quaint and sensible remarks on my text, and the of the past were necessary to add greater force to practice of some of the most learned men has these inferences, I might refer you to that tempo- been in accordance with it; and may be assured as rary failure of the theatres in the time of Shak- a partial confirmation of its accuracy. I will only speare, with which you are probably acquainted, and cite one instance. Sir William Jones, confessedly might cite to you the pathetic lamentations of my in a reliance on this proverb, made it a point to favorite Terence over the damnation of his Hecyra, read over the whole works of Cicero once every because the good people of Rome--(a flattering year-this was his one book, and from the encytranslation of populus studio stupidus)—were more clopædistic character of his selected author, there entranced by dancing girls, than by the represen- can be no doubt that, whether this adage be true or tation of genuine comedy. But I need not say untrue, he must have derived very great assistance more. I have no doubt you will fully agree with in his multifarious labors. But we rest upon his me in regarding the present careful illustration of practice without inquiring into its consequences. nearly all the more popular Magazines, as evincing But the advantage to be derived from this devotion a thoroughly depraved literary taste. to one book is not so much the mere information directly acquired, as the minute attention, the accurate recollection, the critical appreciation, the collateral reflection and consequent expansion of thought, all of which result from that tension of mind which has in this way been produced. The tendency of Magazine Literature is to produce effects exactly the reverse of these—the lightness, the tenuity, the diversity, the contrariety of the numerous articles introduce confusion and sometimes stupor into the mind; while the habit of reading every thing over only once, and then, for the most part, in the most rapid and heedless manner, destroys the faculty of attention, deadens the memory, cashiers the judgment, and paralyses the thinking powers. Moreover, when a reader has accustomed himself to this negligent mode of perusal, and has trained his palate to a high relish for these highly seasoned trifles, he is not merely indifferent to more solid food, but he has lost the capacity for digesting it or even for swallowing it. Hence a healthy literary taste is too apt to be destroyed by an immoderate devotion to Magazine reading. I might point out the injurious effects which periodicals have upon the frame and substance of Literature, but to this I shall shortly return. Ithink it may be admitted that only to a very limited extent can any benefit be derived from the wide eirculation of periodicals. There can be no doubt that nothing is nearly so well adapted as they are to the diffusion of some literary cultivation among all classes-and to the introduction of the idle, the uneducated, or the overtasked, to some acquaintance with intellectual pleasures. The stimulating nature of their contents-the novelty, even the extravaThe man of one book-homo unius libri-has gance which they aim after the frequency of their passed into an adage. And, though many proverbs issue, their cheapness, and even their engravings are truly nothing more than popularized and ac- contribute to render them welcome companions to credited lies, yet this one I deem to be only an those who would not otherwise read at all. And if

While speaking thus of the Magazines of the day, I am happy to be able to except from the sweeping generality of my censure the Southern Literary Messenger itself. From its first commencement under Mr. White to the present hour, it has always aimed at solid instruction, and the elevation of literary taste, and has steadily exerted itself to give to its readers substantial fare. If it has failed fully to attain that ideal perfection which it has kept before its eye, its has only fallen under that general law of humanity which has inevitably rendered the accomplishment of all human undertakings inferior to their conception. Certainly there has never been any lack of exertion for the attainment of excellence on its part. That it is still capable of improvement no one would more frankly admit than my old acquaintance, its Editor. I would fain have included your former protégé in this exception, but as that unfortunate bantling is now at rest with the things that have been and are not, I will pass over its grave in silence.

While on the subject of Magazines I would delay your intention a little while by inquiring into their tendency. From the practice, though not from the experience of late years, it would appear that this must be decidedly good; but, for my part, I must think their influence injurious, except under certain very favorable circumstances. When I tell you that I regard even the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews as the cause of much irreparable injury to the interests of Literature, you may be surprised, and perhaps after all I can say may continue to doubt. But such is my opinion, and the question is, at least, worthy of examination.