The Press.
London, England, 1853-09-17 00:00:00

the Kole end of life and object of worship,
in our commercial community, Would be
better pondered than it in likely to be by our
author's political friendm :
The tendency of the times is to reduce everything to
one value ; genius, fitness, authority, eminence,
sacen-
dancy, are all measured by
things progress, as they are doing amongst us, then. will
be no other quality left worth having, no other claim. If
• man seeks to be a legislator, he obtains it by n lf
he seeks to be an tultninistrator, the thing is achieved by
money. He the plsee high ur how that is "ought, it is only
to be obtained by money. England has put Ilindoatan
fano. That country is covered over by a number of
locusts called Englishmen, who, under pretence of ruling,
fatten ton it. Every one of them have acquired that right
by money. Under other nnents, in other countries,
in other centuries, it was generally held that the best.
claims and preparation for certain functions in life were
fitness, ur talent, sue study, or experience. The most bar-
barous country never thought of appointing a man to the
priestly °Mee because he could pay fur it. Neither did
they think that the way to obtain good toddlers and gene-
rals was to make men pay for the right to exercise military
talent. In England, dill most civilised of countries, we
hove reversed that great mistake of the rimple and the
uncivilised; we have discovered that money is the great
measure of all thinge—the universal title. It is not
merely our priesthood, our toddlers, our administrators,
our judges, our legislators, and, consequently, our rulers,
our 'tem and tour dignitaries, that become so for money,
but even in our choice and establishment of the engineers
and instruments in which skill ought to be the panunsoutat
requisite, even then we prefer money to skill. Thus, if a
gnat commercial company, with accumulated capital,
associate to tit out a fleet et steamers for the supply of the
means of transport throughout the glebe, it will instantly
he allinutsd that the engines will be ordered from the best
makers, the captain chosen from the best mariners, the
engineer's Mum the most capable of their profession. Na
such thing ; the building of the vessels themselves will be
its the first place • job; the engines will b• procured of
those masters who will give the engineer the largest bribe
for ordering it of them ; ties c wlllbe chosen hum
amongst those whose friends wfll pay most, and there will
not be an humble seigineer appointed who will test have
been Noupelled to give his MIL or 4111. for his place. The
result. et course, is, that the engine explodes instead of
working ; that the captain steers upon shoals instead of
into port; that the vessels gu periodically to the hotline,
and never to their dentinat• ; and that the worship of
libitum works its own merited punishment by destroying
the whole enterprise, in which the vile metal was expended
on the principle of money worship.

Passages like this take the book out of the
category of commonplace productions, but will
not preserve it beyond the day. The political
novel requires far other and higher qualifica-
tions than are possessed by this " dis-
tinguished writer," as he is dubbed by his
publisher.

JOHN WOLFGANO GOETHE.

The Posner of Goethe. With a Sketch of his
Life. By Edgar Alfred 13owring. London:

John W. Parker and Son.
Iloethe's Opinions, .fr. By Otto Wenckstern.

London : John W. Parker mid Son.
Is resuming our critique of Uoethe's writings,
we notice that, besides his masterpiece of
" Faust," which is as little designed to produce
a beneficial impression as his other works, he
left us that equally great specimen of his
powers in prose, " The Sorrows of Werther,"
which exercised a marked influence on the
rising generation. The young men of Ger
many began to talk like Werther—to write like
Werther—to dress like Werther—and to shoot
themselves like Werther. It was the highest
compliment these good judges and " good ad
mirers " could pay to the author. It is now
seventy-nine years since "Werther" appeared;
and for the last half-century it has steadily
declined in public favour. It is whining in
sl►irit—cooked and perverted in tendency—
unhealthy and unsound to the core. It could
not last, with all the fostering assistance of
'panegyric ; it wanted intrinsic vitality. and it
is now withering like a dead tree. It will long
continue to figure in catalogues of its author's
labours or prolusions, after it COIOWS to will
readers. Goethe confessed that he wrote it to
get rid of " the perilous stuff." as Ilidwer I.yt-
ton expressively translates it. which he felt
within him. lie committed thus a prepense
suicide on the dangerous part of his own mind;
but when he perceived that the glowing story
of Jerusalem s self-murder obtained so many
practical imitators ►unong the ►omamtic youth
of Germany, that all good people were shocked
at this hideous scandal, and horrified at the
moral consequences of the new novel, he com-
posed a clever comedy called " The Triumph
of Sentimentalism," to arrest the mischief.