The Press.
London, England, 1854-12-16 00:00:00

DECEMBER 16, 1854.

Yittraturt.

Miscellanies, Critical, Imaginative, and Juridical.
By Samuel Warren, D.O .L London: Black-
wood and Sons.
As these papers have appeared in Blackwood's
Magazine, and are, consequently, well known,
they require only a notice of their appearance
in a collective form. They show the versatility
of Mr. Warren's mind, and show also his happy
art of making every subject he discusses or
narrates attractive. His reviews, biographical
sketches, and trials, possess as much interest
—and interest of the same kind, too—as his
fictions. He is always successful in engaging
the reader's sympathies by imparting to his
writing, of whatever kind it be, a strong human
element. The famous declaration of Terence,
Homo sum, &c., might appropriately serve as
the motto to the collective edition of his works.
We are sorry, however, to Observe that in
the preface to these volumes he has, as we
must think most unpardonably, printed a
letter, which, if only from compassion to a
great man's failings, ought never to have seen
the light. It appears that when Mr. Warren
had " scarcely entered his seventeenth year,"
he had, with a presumption which he is no
doubt prepared to admit his youth and in-
experience could scarcely excuse, written to
Sir Walter Scott (treating him as the author of
the Waverley novels), and requested his advice
as to the publication of a work which he had
nearly ready for the press, and of which
he favoured Sir Walter with an outline.
Now, at this date every one knew that Sir
Walter Scott, if the author of the Waverley
novels, had some reasons which appeared to
him cogent for preserving his authorship
secret, and the letter must have appeared to
him much like a trap to draw from him a
secret which he was resolved to conceal.
Probably this was the view of Scott, from the
tone of his reply. Mr. Warren gives the letter
a 4 highly creditable to its writer, "as an
" evidence of the extraordinary good-nature
" and condescension of that great writer to an
" unknown correspondent," though we will
undertake to say there is not one among the
myriad admirers of Scott's genius and virtues
who will read this letter without pain and a
feeling of almost personal humiliation at
observing the baseness to which a lofty
nature, when warped by interest or whim, may
descend :
Abbotsford, 3rd August [1823].
Sir,—l am favoured with your letter of the 26th ult.,
which some business prevented my sooner replying to.
I am not the author of those novels which the world chooses to
ascribe to me, and am, therefore, unworthy of the praises due
to that individual, whoever he may prove to be. It is need-
less, therefore, to add that 1 cannot be useful to you in the
way you propose. Indeed, if you will take my advice, you
will seek no other person's judgment or countenance on
the project of publishing which you entertain than that of
an intelligent bookseller who is in a good line in the
trade. Although no great readers, or pretending to par-
ticular taste, these gentlemen, whose profession it is to
cater for the public, acquire much more accurate know-
ledge of what will give satisfaction to the general reader
than can be obtained by a man of letters in his closet.
They have also ready access to good judges, and their own
interest peremptorily commands them to give as much
encouragement as possible to genius, or anything approach-
ing it.
Excuse these hints from one who has bad some expe-
rience, and believe me, sir, your most obedient servant,
WALTER SCOTT.
Samuel Warren, Esq.

If Mr. Warren really thinks this letter
creditable to Scott's memory, he must, for so
clever a man, be the blindest of his species.
To us it is evident that he has published it
from much the same kind of animus that
would lead a callous operator to exhibit a
tumour which he had cut from a great man's
body. The public exhibition of deformity,
whether mental or physical, must always be
of an unwholesome tendency ; and in this
case Mr. Warren whose claim to be con
sidcred a moral writer we are quite willing to
acknowledge—should have known that the
deliberate and unnecessary falsehood of Scott
can have no other effect than to weaken the
sacred obligations of truth, by showing how
lightly he regarded them.
By some shuffling casuistry, Scott did, no
doubt, persuade himself that on this particular
subject he might lie as stoutly and as fro-

THE PRESS.

quently as he pleased without injury to his
moral character. His honourable feeling, and
even his clear sense, seem to have totally de-
serted him whenever his authorship of the
novels was called in question ; for to assert
that a man may always have recourse to down-
right falsehood to keep a secret is simply to
say that truth may be sacrificed to every p Aty
prompting of interest or convenience. There
never was less occasion for deceit than in
Scott's case. Silence would have served his
purpose just as effectually as denial ; and,
after all, if his authorship had bean known,
who can suppose that his fame or his profits
would have been in the slightest degree di-
minished ? All the casuistry by which he
sought to defend himself was inapplicable, as
the instances he alleged were essentially dis-
similar. The falsehood in the letter to Mr.
Warren is the more revolting from being
wholly gratuitous ; not life, or safety, or
even fortune, was at stake. Were such false-
hood to become general, nothing would be
gained by it, as there would be no belief.
Some hold, indeed, that direct falsehood is
not more criminal than equivocation. When
Compton, Bishop of London, who had signed
the invitation to William of Orange, was asked
by James 11. whether there was any ground
for the assertion in the Prince's manifesto
that he came over at the instance of some
peers, spiritual and temporal, the prelate re-
plied, " Sir, I am quite confident that there is
" not one of my brethren who is not as guiltless
" as myself in this matter ;" and when again
interrogated the following day, answered, " I
" gave your Majesty my answer yesterday." The
historian who records these replies questions
" whether the difference between the sin of such
" equivocation and the sin of a lie be worth
" any expense of ingenuity." But in such
eases there is at least a profession of regard
for truth, while direct falsehood treats it with
open contempt.
In the ordinary concerns of the world, what-
ever casuists may allege, there is not the
slightest occasion for that falsehood which
Sir Walter Scott most unhappily thought in
some way or other essential to his inte-
rests. The subject is a painful one ; we
would willingly have avoided it. Mr. Warren
thrusts it on our notice ; and, not only so,
but compels us to speak plainly on it, by
representing the letter as creditable to Scott's
character. If this be his real opinion, we are
very sorry for the deadness of his moral per-
ceptions. It is unpleasant to expose a great
man's faults, but, whenever they do come
before us, let us in heaven's name, with all
charitable regard for the individual, call his
offences by their right name, and without
quirk or quibble condemn them as honest
sense requires, even when we mourn over them
most.

Histoire des Livres Populaires. By Ch. Nisard.
Paris : Amyst.

Amorasx the many services which the Govern-
ment of the Emperor Napoleon 111. has un•
questionably rendered to France, one of the
greatest, though perhaps not one of the most
showy, was the establishment two years ago of
a special commission charged to examine what
the French call lea livres du colportage, that is
the almanacs, books, and publications of all
kinds prepared for the lower orders, especially
the peasantry, and hawked about for sale by
professional hawkers. M. Latour-Dumoulin,
at that time Directeur de la Librairie de
l'lmprimerie et de la Presse, and at present
member of the Corps Legislatif, was charged
with the organisation of this commission, and
with the general superintendence of its
labours. All the works, of whatever kind—
they formed a mighty mass—sold by the
colporteurs were subject to a rigid examina-
tion ; and the result was that the commission
found, to its astonishment, that far the greater
part of them were silly or stupid, or scanda-
lously immoral and irreligious, or flagrantly
seditious. The commission, thereupon, in
virtue of powers intrusted to it by the Govern-
ment, peremptorily prohibited the further cir-
culation of these pernicious publications ; and,
having since been transformed into a perma-
nent institution, it has taken effectual means
to prevent for the future any but works of

1191

an instructive, or at least an innocuous, cha-
racter being sold to the multitude. But
amongst the works presented to the commis-
sion, and even amongst those it has been found
necessary to proscribe, were many of great
historical, political, or literary interest, either
from their antiquity, or peculiar character, or
as showing the mental pabulum of the bulk of
the French people in the nineteenth century,
and of their fathers before them. Accordingly,
it was determined that a book should be
written on the subject of them. The task of
executing this work was confided to M.
Nisard, the very able secretary of the commis•
sion. In two goodly volumes he has classified,
condensed, and commented on the more
ancient portion of the vast materials col-
lected by the commission ; the more modern
portion he reserves for a future work. When
completed the book will form a most compre-
hensive history of the literature of the vulgar
—a subject which never before obtained in
France, or, indeed, in any other country, the
attention it deserves.
The first thing that strikes us in reading
this book is that we knew little about France.
We knew, indeed, like everybody else, her
past and present history, her literature, her
distinguished men ; we knew that she was and
is mighty in war, brilliant in intelligence, and
in some respects one of the foremost nations
of the earth. But we did not know that the
great mass of her population read no other
books, and had no other books to read, than
almanacs filled with absurd and contradictory
predictions; treatises on magic ; collections
of very silly, very old, and very obscene jokes ;
profane quizzes on sermons, funeral eulo-
giums, and other things worthy of all respect ;
wildly improbable romances and tales ; learned
disquisitions on the art of seduction and adul-
tery ; slang dictionaries ; and lucubrations pro-
fessing to be on morality and religion, but
teeming with incredible silliness, or disgrace-
ful scoffing, or irreverential remarks on the
most holy things, or positive, downright in-
decency. In learning that such, and such only,
has been the intellectual food supplied for
centuries to the millions of Frenchmen who
toil in towns or plough in fields, it is impossi-
ble not to feel that the ignorance of that
people must have been very profound, their
immorality very great, their contempt of
religion fearful. We must feel, too, that it is
such things, more than the turbulence of
revolutionists, and the violence of rulers,
which during the last half century have made
Franc' the victim of repeated revolutions, and
as such an enigma to statesmen.
Quitting, however, the political view of this
book for the literary one, we with some confi-
dence venture to proclaim it one of the most
valuable additions which has been made to
French literature for many a day. In the first
place, it lets in a flood of light on the character
of the great commonalty of France ; in the
second place, it abounds in literary antiqua-
rianism, which the author of the " Curiosities
of Literature " would have delighted in, and
which he would have treated with a master-
hand if he had had the opportunity of pro-
curing the materials ; and, in the third place, it
rescues from impending destruction the rude
and singular wood-engravings which have
tAtused the wonder and delight of eneration
after generation of the " low people' in Gaul.
Precluded by want of space from attempting
a detailed examination of the book before us—
it runs to upwards of 1,100 pages—we must
content ourselves with a rapid indication of
its contents. It treats, then, in the first place,
of the people's almanacs, which have always
been widely sold and highly esteemed in
France. From the chapter on this subject we
learn that the first French almanac dates from
1493, and that there are two others, aged re-
spectively three hundred and two hundred and
fifty years. The contents of these venerable
brochures and of all kindred publications is
substantially the same : predictions on public
events, almost always contradictory, and never
by any chance verified, but continued with
imperturbable assurance year after year ; pro-
phecies on the weather for every day in each
season ; cabalistic calculations, interpretations
of dreams, medical counsels, agricultural dim-
tions, tales, legends, kc.

1192

lAy the next chapter we learn that the
French peasantry have never shrunk from
the practice of diabolical arts, in order,
like Glendower, to summon " spirits from
the vasty deep," or the bowels of the earth,
to reveal to them the future or to aid them
in their necessities; and we see that they
are even provided with the means of raising
the Devil himself, also with the formula neces-
sary for selling themselves body and soul to
his Satanic Majesty, in case there should be
no more lawful way of gaining any object they
may have in view. We learn, too, that they are
in possession of certain prayers and forms,
strongly resembling unintelligible jargon, by
the recital of which they can keep themselves
and their fields free from all manner of mis-
fortunes ; also that they possess talismans
which scare foxes from hen-roosts and wolves
from sheep-folds. We see besides that they
know how to make a certain ointment from the
hand of an executed criminal which will
sm invisible, and enable them, if it
•ed with due precaution, to rob
1 banks without detection. Aud
know as well as anybody what the
and all his imps, sorcerers, and son-
, in their grand midnight meetings,
and when they hold their famous
•.ght suppers on unbaptised babies.
:ening and divination, too, it appears
works that the good people must
ly well versed, as they possess in
therein of all kinds, from the
the learned Apomazar, Philosopher
to the famous Alnaamoum, Caliph
down to peculiar explanations of
the palm Of the hand, and of coffee
breakfast-cups. For diseases in
and their eattle they have, more
remedies than any physician or
surgeon can boast of : they know,
,e, that a dead toad dressed in salt,
ausaftttida, and worn round the
man or beast, enjoys extraordinary

next chapter at which we arrive
we have an amusing proof of the mania of
the French people to consider themselves
and be considered as is plus spirituel de la terre ;
and specimens of the jokes, bon-mots, and
stories which they take the trouble to learn by
heart in order to gain that end are given. The
following chapter treats of books on the corn-
pagnotiage of workmen, and of those which
provide cut-and-dry dialogues for every possible
occasion ; though of what use the dialogues can
be it is not easy to perceive. We have next a
specimen of mock sermons, which would be
if they were less profane. Of
noted malefactors, and of imagi-
, the next chapter shows us that
great many—also that the well
id of the Wandering Jew is as
as it was in its infancy, a thou-
to. The two next chapters are
religion and morality, and on
canticles ; and they are to us the
ling of any, as they show most
•eligious and moral state of the
'rench people. And what do we
' The author himself thus speaks
. to which they refer :
is not so much religion they teach as practices and
'Mies which it ie not easy even for the most robust
4to accept. Very few reasons, rarely any elevation of
.yle or thought, a very small desire to win souls, bet a
clearly expressed intention of striking them with terror,
find, more still, to place them at their ease by presenting to
them puerile obligations, in the accomplishment of which
consists, they are told, salvation—such is the spirit of
most of these publications. I may add that the simple
possession of the works is sometimes recommended, as if
pitch of them were a relic calculated to secure all sorts of
blessings in this world and in the world to come.
The author continues:—
It has often been remarked that there are in the Bible
histories which demand to be treated with the greatest cir-
cumspection, in order to adapt them to the intt.lligence of
peHtsants, and especially of children. But this is what the
Whom of the canticles and other works destined to engrave
thesehistories in the minds of the people have made not
attempt to do. Joseph interpreting the dream of Pharaoh,
gad leaving his cloak in the hands of the wife of Potiphsr ;
Judith employing the language and the artifices of a
Co trtesan to seduce and immolate Holophernes ; Susannah
and the old men ; the Prodigal amusing himself with loose
*o ten—all that is put into dogg, el or is treated in a way
not et all calculated to inspire grave or edifying thoughts.
To spins is the ease with certain *MOO intim lives of
some of tbe saints. jltitttri ,e,

render them
be employe
houses and
then they ki
foul fiend an
ogresses do i
and where a
Saturday-nit
In fortune-ti
tl•om these m
be singular];
*tractions t
treatises of I
in Ordinary
or Babylon,
the signs in
grounds in
themselves
over, better
veterinary s
for example
garlic, and
neck of m,
virtues.
In the 3

more amusing
biographies of
nary persons,
there are a gi
known legend
popular now a
Band years agi
on works on
collections of
most interesti
clearly the 11
pass of the F 1
find in them ?
of the works ti
It is not soma