The Press. — London, England, 1853-12-03 00:00:00

DECEMBER 3, 1853. ittraturt. Th. Life of Robert Southey. By Charles T. Browne. London : Chapman and Hall. Report of the Royal Literary Fund for 1€47)3. IT would be superfluous at this time to offer any criticism upon Southey. Nearly all per sons are agreed upon the main points of his character, and there is no difference of opinion amongst thinking minds as to the rank which he holds. Mr. Cuthbert Southey's life of the late Laurent was insipid and prolix, and very uninteresting. An epitome of it has been drawn up by Mr. Browne which does not call for any detailed remarks. On beaten ground it is difficult to exhibit freshness or fancy, and Southey was not one of those large and deep natures which reward repeated critical visita tions. The pursuit to which Southey devoted his life,—the profession of letters.—has, however, been again brought under our notice by Mr. Browne, and will require some observations. Great as is the number of readers, the ma nufacture of books, including reports, has pro ceeded lately in a most disproportionate de gree to the number of " authors." properly so called. Compilers, cycloptedists, and mercan tile speculators in cheap publications of all kinds, mainly supply the demand from the coarser and more numerous class of readers. The successful fictionists are the only class of original writers who are remunerated ade quately for their labours. In an age when the virtues of the multitude and the moral perception of the working classes are extolled to the skies by the " Manchester school," we should like to know how the genius of demo cracy is visible in the fact that the worst and most depraved publications are eagerly read in the manufacturing districts, while there is a neglect of the best and finest authors in the language. If the question of the franchise were to be regulated by a taste in popular works, what proportion of political power ought to be entrusted to the devourers of "The Mysteries of Imulon" and similar pub lieations? The Times lately contended that operatives who embarked in " strikes " were not tit trustees to hold political rights ; and it would be a curious inquiry if, taking a hint upon this question, some investigator would contrast the class of works popular with the multitude with those that can really by ac cepted as creditable to the literature of the country. Such an inquiry would be foreign to our present purpose, and we turn from it to the consideration of the condition of authors. We believe it to be in the nature of things that authorship can never be considered a " paying " pursuit. Vulgar and superficial writers avowedly addressing the mob that • red with ease " will find plenty of competi tors in the same low element in which they most naturally respire. Their profits after all,—for fame is out of the question with the mere grubs,—will bear no proportion to the gains of grocers in Cateaton-street or publi cans in St. Giles's. On the other hand, let the man of letters struggling for bread write under the influence of noble aspirations, and address the intellectual and few, and how long must he wait before, in the pathetic words of Gerald Griffin, he can " liain for bill 'portion the half of a moue." The life of the author we have just mentioned, along with that of Robert Southey, suggests what a hopeless profession that of authorship is. The most mysterious part of the question is, that none know the fact better than authors. They are quite well aware that with great ad vantages, and even though he was a popular writer, Southey was never able to store up the amount of a year's income. With an annuity from his friend Mr. Wynn, untiring at his desk, and with constant employment, he was en tirely unprovided for until he got his pension in Pei:►. In Griffin's case there was decided success after some years of agonising toil, under which his spirit became so broken that the author of that powerfully-dramatic novel, " The Collegians," retired sick of heart to a monastery. So also, in Is3l, Moore, while not extravagant, had but one coat fit for com pany, and abjectly dunned his publisher, Power, for a five-pound note. In short, all THE PRESS. that can be said against the perils of author ship is well known to those who pursue the literary profession, and yet. impelled as it were by some species of metaphysical demonism, they enter upon their mission of trial and vex ation of spirit. " What is an author?" asked Mr. Disraeli in his speech this year at the Literary Fund and he ably answered his own ctuestion—" He is all individual fcho, obeying the irresistible att// ewt. of an orgetnie low, devotes himself to extending the domain of k • ledge. and to the cultivation of the human mind." 17pon this point the tenets of the political economists are not so harsh as appears at first sight. Adam Smith tells us, and we think lightly, that the author's or artist's pleasure in his own work can alone be his adequate reward. There must be some strange' fascination which impels men of parts to desert the paths that lead to wealth, and what the world calls " hap piness," and follow that which guides to what has been called "the classicality of a garret." We must only rest contented with the suppo sition that in this fascinating spell there must be " compensations " for much of the hard ships which the literary class that live by their pens must, from the nature of things, expect as their heritage. Not now offering any solu tion of this difficult subject, let us take a nearer view of the present position of authors. A novice is very apt to form a very gnu's! idea of the extent of the literary profession. The continuous columns of book advertise ments in the Times or the :1/hemmers suggest the notion that the product' of original books is enormous. But let the advertise ments be carefully analysed, and au observer will alter his opinion about the number of "authors" working for the public and them selves. The literary advertisements of books can be ranted under six general heads, viz.:— I. Vanity hair; 2. The Trade ; 3. Educational ; f. Putfrrs and Quacks; b. Reprints ; 6. "Au thors Proper." Of late years "Vanity Fair" has contributed it prodigious number of books to the literary market. When Sir Walter Scott was made baronet by " the first gentleman in Europe" authorship became wonderfully attractive to a vast number of lit.`ll4ollS. MAjor Pipeclay Brown has crossed the hills of Guatomaxi, and he sees no reason why he should not rival " Head's Ride across the. Pampas." Doctor Jones Rhubarb served -- months with the —th in the West Indies, slid he announces " The Isles of Death and Beauty," in which he mixes up florid descriptions Of scenery with fearful stories, and prints two large volumes, which, with the aid of advertisements and pro fessional connections, are passed off amongst " interesting , books of travels." Then Miss Decourey Fitzfidget, who waltzed so well at Almitek's fourteen seasons ago, with the desperation of six-and-thirty rushes into print, and, after a cruise to Antwerp in her brother's yacht the Fast Ow, brings out " Tommings and Tumblings on the Ocean Wave;" while Sir Jackson Thompson, of' Cheapside hall, with a baronetcy dating from the Lord Mayoralty of his father twenty years since, on the strength of his hereditary industry and him acquired possession of sixteen couple of the slowest beagles in shire, jumps, not over a five-barred gate (a thing which no Jackson Thompson ever could, would, should, or ought to do), but into a field of bourgeois, long primer, and minion, and is actually counted amongst " literary celebrities," on the strength of three volumes of " The Saxon in the Hunting Field," in which stale prim graphs from the Sporting Magazine arc inter spersed with the apocryphal recollections of " The Slowcoaches' Hunt." Multiply by six each of these very original authors, and you will have something like a whole class, who every season bore the public and threaten the bankruptcy of book clubs with their almost supernatural faculty of twaddling. Good type, clever publishers, good outlay in advertising, succeed in making bad matter pass for a sea son or two, as works of " extraordinary merit and thrilling interest." This class, the " Vanity Fair," depends on the reality of its capital and its assumption of the aristocratic for gaining vogue with the gullible. And here let us observe: that the annuls of literature sufficiently dewonhtrata that the 735 real aristocracy of England very justly boast of the number of first-Mass celebrities which they have contributed to letters. None but nu ignoramus would flippantly disparage the retrusions of a body which, though very p limited iu numbers, and not stimulated by pecuniary necessities, has bequeathed such names in letters ns those of Philip and Alger non Sidney. Lord Herbert of Cherbury. Dorset and Montagu, Bolingbroke. Lyttelton, tiles tertiebi. Walpole. Byron, and Shelley. " The Trace."—A vast number ot advertise. molts are accounted for under this head. Poets. dramatists, and essayists of classical renown have their " trade editions 7 which always command sale, while di, yMI up space in the advertisements. Annotated " Shakspeares," M ikons with variorum notes, Pangloss and Co.'s marvellously cheap publication of Otletor nysius Dustaway's minutely-revised new edi tion of Becher's Holman Johnson's Dictionary, with three thousand and seven hundred and thirty new words, along with " Gibbon's Decline and Fall, adapted for Christian readers, with all the classical quota.. tions translated by an eminent divine. to which IN appended A Disquisition on Ancient History,' timislated front the Ocrinein of I'm. lessor daweraetrenttrasherberg by the Rcv. .labez Sharpley, 11.11.," &e. &v.—such are ti class of I ks—vamped-up editions of ;meld nut hors--which take entire columns of Rarer. t isements. Of such am these we rend : since Scaliger thew has bet% no ant+ eonomaniator 111% 1 111 l piens I nod fta ay.—The Lite ra ry Jwd,e. Meotrii. l'anglosa and lure again ponini thinuaiilres tiatiotial 114.ilefai•tors.-I'he riamterer, Large. in matter, little. in %pave% it is a wuntlerhil bargain for the. inesney.—The Ner.h.lt Pedlar. Since the first !stinting lef olteninghtiee's Library. the is a feat nululralleled, unrilalhil, nuappnewhable, and perfertly unteilehiedielita.el in the patriotic ecutionsy of it, inte.ntionee.--7'he I 'outfought I 'rurher: I , 111,411WIty/1 I )irtiomary 11% R eatArnet 14 iihilobigiral genius pourrit 11V1'1* a Niagara of erudition.— The Ilu■ttm Poser We gur•r.% that our old selioolnintiter, now Profriintw Ids• lowlinitiorionir T. of Siiiiank l'n.rk, mint have helped the hers in their nr•w The Ke«• (14r4 iaa Bu • rrlrn'. 11% )4 011 luny get it.—Pri t o.sor T•uar Burry in the ( N Doerr, Educational works do not pay directly. but indirectly their writers turn them to account, by advertising themselves. Doetor Whipeord has a large seminary down in Yorkshire, and perpetually reminds parents of the fact, with his standing advertisements of " The Royal (:reek tirammar ;" while Miss M'Sniackem's " Young ladies' Help to English History " is also judiei tttt sly kept lwfore the public eye. Even where the works are of great reputation, the sale is often very limited, us the class seek ing for them is comparatively smnll, and pupils can No easily supply themselves with second hand copies. Thus the sale of class books at colleges is constantly retarded. Few writers ever produced more educational works than the late Dr. Cooke Taylor. lie had most in fluential connections with colleges rind schools, along with literary aid besides Of a peculiar kind : ho was a man whose industry wan only equalled by his facility, his expenses were very moderate, and the residuum for his children after his death tells its own moral. " None ought to write schoolbooks except those concerned in teaching " was an axiom of a late celebrated publisher. " Puffers and Quack's" consume n great deal of the spice devoted to advertisements. hut the " Putters " are ss sure peculiar to them selves. We could cite twenty instance's of parties concocting books and emantittiny all thorship 14 purposes not at all literary The great offenders in this clams of Ili! • Vet tiscli4 are professional 11111441104 who wish to count a "literary connection " amongst then resources, and to ?toast of " literary He4•0111' plishmentos." Provincial tetediettl men nre Wilsons for their propensity to this species of advertisement, which conies under the heads of '• the puff collateral " and " the puff oblique " The quantity of litemY rulibinh patched up lay this particular class is quite enormous : they contrive to make thew up prentieea, their patients, and their "tours of relaxation " all auxiliary to keep their 'tutting engine at full work. They hunt for reviews sills an energy that ant - Meltomo Melton iu the pursuit of foxes, 141111 &wend to all art s 1 of cajolery with alt unblushing facility that ..:~.~