The Press. — London, England, 1857-04-11 00:00:00

APRIL 11, 1857. Sittraturt. Modern English Literature; its Blemishes and Defects. By Henry H. Breen, Esq., F.S.A. London: Lougmans. Tins is a volume professing to be critical in its scope. Its subject is interesting, but Mr. Breen treats his topics in a small style, that detracts from the value of his performance ; and his work is like what might be expected from the usher of a genteel academy, accus tomed to correct school exercises, and to punish erring young grammarians. It is, also, too ouesided, and its citation of authors is arbi trary. The author's own composition is not marked by grace, elegance, or even accuracy (as we shall show) ; and there is an absence of literary amenity in his tone. The volume opens in the following style : The most striking characteristic of English literature in the nineteenth century is the loose and ungrammatical diction that disfigures every species of prose composition. Learning is now more widely diffused, and the number of writers is greater than at any former period, but not the number of correct writers. We have a hundred Alisons for one Macaulay. Nay, I believe it could be shown that, in proportion as the English language has been improved, the art of composition has been neglected. Let the reader take up any of the publications of the day. A mere glance will satisfy him that, whatever credit may be due to the author for invention of subject or arrangement of materials, lie is sadly deficient in the first requisite of authorship— the art of communicating his ideas in correct and appro priate language. There is truth in the charge that much loose and ungrammatical writing disfigures our current English literature. But the abrupt manner in which the essay before us begins proves that its author is no adept in composi tion. "We have a hundred Alisons for one " Macaulay" is untrue. In a writer coming forward to admonish his brethren we could scarcely expect such a style as " Nay, " believe," &c. We shall follow this author closely, and give some specimens of his own inaccuracies. Writing of the improper use of synonymous words, after some criticism on Kirke White, he continues:— Akin to these is the use of " magnanimous" as applied to "mind." Blair has the expression : The magnanimous affection of the mind. And Macaulay, speaking of the tate Lord Holland, de scribes— The magnanimous credulity of his mind. I could fill a chapter with examples of this inaccuracy. Both Blair and Mr. Macaulay are right, and Mr. Breen is wrong.' It is plain that Mr. Breen does not recollect the distinction between animus and mens. If Blair and Mr. Macaulay are wrong, so are many of the ancient classic writers. Livy has the sell tence—" Anirnos, qui nostrae mentis suns, " eosdcm in Omni fortunli gessimus, gerimus ;" and we could cite others. Or, to exemplify the distinction practically, Cromwell, with the eye of genius, discovered that their profes sional instincts would make Blake and Hale the best admiral and judge that he could name, although both of them were opposed to his usurpation. " There was magnanimity in " the mind of such a ruler." There is no inaccuracy in the expression of that thought. On redundant terms Mr. Breen says : The occurrence of redundant terms is very common. Authorship has become a trade, and themes and topics are handled, not so much with a view to their real importance as with that of uroducing a certain number of volumes, a certain quantity of readable matter. To accomplish this object, adjectives and Substantives are thrown in without method or meaning, while conciseness and perspicuity are left to take care of themselves. It would be a waste of time to quote examples of this blemish from the novels and other fashionable literature of the daj, where it is to be met with at every page. In works of higher pretension I have found some instances of it, alike palpable and Judi• crous, which will better serve the purpose of illustrations. And in his first citation he makes an error : The chief mistakes made by the Irish in pronouncing English lie, for the most part, in the sounds of the two first vowels a and e..—SHERIDAN. Dictionary. The term " in the most part" is not redundant in that sentence. Let it be left out, and the sentence would read, " The chief mistakes " made by the Irish in English lie in the " sounds of the two first vowels, a and e." If Sheridan had affirmed that, he would have been asserting an untruth. There are other " chief" mistakes made by the Irish (to say nothing of secondary errors), and the phrase THE PRESS. " for the most part" w•as rightly employed as a qualifying term. He then cites a seutence from Archbishop Wha.tcly Some writers have/ confined their attention to trifling minutice of style. There is no redundancy in the use of the word "trifling" in that sentence. Some minutia, as in the case of accents in Greek or French, or in punctuation, are highly im portant. There is such a thing as a miserable minuteness of mind, or of what the French cull petitesse. The minutia of a doctor's pre scription are of serious significance ; but there are some petty points of criticism which only recall the disti:_th on the differences between tu•eedledunt and tweedledee. Mr. Breen continues:— The second blemish in English prose is the indiscrimi nate use of singulars and plurals. Although we have cultivated literature, in its most important departments, with greater success than any other people, yet there is no people so deficient as we are in the knowledge and applica- tion of some of the first principles of grammar. And not only does this deficiency exist, as might be supposed, in writers of ordinary ability ; but there are very few of our authors, be their genius what it may, who do not exhibit it in a more or less striking degree. The following are examples of the singular; and, if necessary, hundreds of a similar character might be added : Both minister and magistrate is compelled to choose between his duty and his reputation.--4ustus. Prrface to Letters. The boldness, freedom, and variety of our blank verse is in finitely more favourable than rhyme to all kinds of sublime poetry.—l3LAlß. Lectures. In the extravagant admiration for Grecian costume is to be discerned the effects of Rousseau's dreams on the social con tract.—Ausos. History of Europe. But Ferdinand did not do this, and hence has arisen boundless calarnitisfs to his couutry.—lnkm. History of Europe from Fall of Napoleon. The consequences to the much more numerous classes remains to be taken into account—TAY L Oß. Notes from Books. The poetry and eloquence of the Augustan age was assiduously studied in Mercian anti Northumbrian monasteries.—MACAULAY. History of England. Few politicul conspiracies, whenever religion forms a pretext, is without a woman.—ll'lSßAELl. Quarrels of Authors. Few if any town or village in the south of England has a name ending In by.—HARRISON. English Language. The author is right in censuring those finis takes ; but he is not so correct elsewhere. He says : In the foregoing examples, we have the singular im. properly put for the plural. The use of the plural instead of the singular is no less common. The following are in- stances : The terms in which the sale of a patent to Mr. Hine were communicated to the public.—Justus. Letters. If Machiavel had not known that an appearance of morals and religion are usetulin society.—lbid. To heighten the calamity which the want of these useful labours make every literary man feel.—D'lsnAELL Calamities of Authors. It is in such moments of gloom and depression that the im mortal superiority of genius and virtue most strongly appea r.— ALISON. Essay on Chateaubriand. It is refreshing to see those just and manly sentiments, after the sickly partiality for Roman Catholic agitators, which for the purposes of faction have so long pervaded many of his party.— AtisoN. Essay on Macaulay. It has already been stated that the difference between the new and the old German, the Dutch and the Frisian, the Italian and the Latin, the Mimetic and the Greek, arc precisely similar.— LATFLIM. The English Language. The authority of Addison, in matters of Grammar ; of Bentley, who never made the English Grammar his study ; of Bolingbroke, Pope, and others, arc as nothing.—HARRISON. On the English Language. Junius is right in the first example. The plural " were " is related to " terms," and not to " sale." In the second instance, the phrase "an appearance of morals and reli gion" clearly indicates plurality ; for " morals ' and " religion," though closely related, are different things, and many accurate writers would there use the plural as Junius has done. In the third example, from " The Curiosities of Literature," the error is ob vious. In the (first sentence from Alison, the double specification of genius and virtue makes the error venial, but in the next sen tence, taken from the essay on Macaulay, the error is indefensible. We cannot admit that Dr. Latham is wrong in the sentence quoted by Mr. Breen. When members of a sentence are taken nominatively, the verb must be put in the plural. In that sentence " are " clearly does not relate to " difference " taken singu larly, but to difference taken connectedly with the Dutch and the Frisian, &c. And so, also, in the concluding example, which should be accepted in its present form. He then continues : In order to show the prevalence of this error, I shall quote some examples of it from Gibbon, who is justly reckoned one of our most correct writers. The citations are all taken from the fifth volume of his great work as edited by Dean Milman : The me of fraud and perfidy, of cruelty and injustice. were often subservient to the propagation of the faith.—Decline ami Fall. . The richness of her arms and apparel were couspicqous Oa the inmost racks.—lbirl. 333 The jurisdiction of the presidents, the consulars, and the counts, were superseded by the institution of the themes or military governments.-11nt. Tile pronunciation of the two vowels hare been nearly the We are satisfied by our collation of these pas sages with others in the "Decline and Fall," that Gibbon wrote them deliberately; and it is to be observed that Dean Millman, a keen critic and fastidious writer, has left them as they are. In the last, which is the most doubtful, the word "pronunciation" must be taken with " of the two vowels,"—each vowel having a distinct sound, though " nearly the same." We admit that the point may be argued either way ; and in syntax and con struing, every scholar knows that " doubtful" is a term often used. On tenses Mr. Breen is more correct. In the following cases the perfect tense is incorrectly employed : Oar dub has recommenced last Friday, but 1, - was not there. JOHNSON. Letter to Boswell, 1777. You may remember I have formerly talked with you about a military dictionary.—[DEM. Letter (without date) to Mr. Care. It is now about four hundred years since the art of multiplying books has been discovered.—ll'lSlßAELl. Curiosities. Many years after this article was written, has appeared the history of English Dramatic Poetry by Mr. Collier.— /Lid. You may do what yon hare done a century ago, made the Catholics worse than HeIots.—SYDNEY SMITH. Essays. Formerly we have conversed, together with Pericles, on this extraordinary man.---SAVAGE LANDOR. Pericles and ispasia. During the last centnry no prime minister, however powerful, has become rich in office.-31Acautay. History of England. Of this admirable work a subsequent edition has been published in 1822.—AusoN. Essay on Humboldt. Out of the walls of Cadiz, in 1810 and 1811, has anted the cloud that now overspreads the world.-1 DEM. History of Europe. In the instances from Johnson, we must recol lect that less strictness is used in the easy style of a private letter. In the instance quoted from Macaulay, we apprehend that the historian is alluding to the last hundred years, and not to the eighteenth century, in which case his expression is correct. On the blemish to English style arising from slang and the abuse of foreign words Mr. Breen has only four or five pages ; and he might with advantage have dwelt at greater length upon such sources of corruption. French phrases in writing are vulgar, and are only fit for the slipslop school. On slang terms m e need say nothing, as their employment is offensive against other than literary canons. We proceed to Mr. Breen's chapter on " Blunders." The author maintains that want of perspicuity is a frequent fault in our writers, and under this head he cites an instance from Smollett : The robber was confined in an empty garret, three stories from which it seemed impossible fur him to escape. SMOLLETT. Roderick Random. And he accompanies the instance with the following remark : " A garret three stories high." is a contradiction in terms. It was the house, and not the garret, that was three stories high. " Three stories high" is not wrong. Its meaning cannot possibly be mistaken for anything else than " three stories high from the ground." In the same page our corrector makes an other blunder," as he would call it. He quotes from Cobbett, and comments on the sentence : A working man is more worthy of honour than a titled plunderer who lives in idleness.--Conekry. English Grammar. In his anxiety to disparage the aristocracy and bespatter them on all occasions, Cobbett is often betrayed into the use of epithets which his cooler judgment would have re - jected. In the example before us he talks of a plunderer who lives in idleness, without perceiving that his words ex press a glaring contradiction. True, a man may plunder by means of his agents, as well as in his own person ; but with that we have nothing to do here. The terms used are what we must consider; and it is no more consistent with sense to talk of an idle plunderer," than of an " idle libeller," or an " idle highway robber." One of the ex pressions implies a state of being which excludes the other. Our patience is taxed by such " criticism." Does it not occur to Mr. Breen that " the idleness" may be subsequent to the " plunder "? 'arren Hastings, according to the account given by his enemies, " plundered " in India, and lived "in idleness " afterwards in Eng land. It is Mr, Breen, not Col*tt, who is wrong. -