The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-17 00:00:00

LIT BRATUBE.

WRITINGS OF SAMUEL WARREN.
Diary of a late Physician. Parts I and 11. Popu-
lar edition. Blackwood.
Perfectly well do we remember the emotions
with which we first devoured, somewhere about the
autumn of 1838; these memorable " Passages from
the Diary of a Late Physician." Fifteen years
have elapsed since then—yet we can, even now,
call vividly to mind how profound those emotions
were : and, blunted though our sensibilities may
have become during the interval, and indurated
though we may have grown through the captious
influences of criticism, our heart still tells us, at
this moment, that the words then read have left
on our memory an indelible impression. Turning
again over the familiar pages, however, we cannot
in any way feel surprised that' such should have
been the effects produced by their first perusal, or
that those effects should have been thus strangely
perpetuated in our recollection. It cannot
enter into our imagination to conceive any
appreciative reader of Mrs. Shelley's master-
piece, ever after during the course of his
natural life laying the ghost of the monster in
"Frankenstein." It appears scarcely possible to us
that any one having once read Mr. Beckford's
" Vathek" should find fading away from among
the pictures there produced on the retina of his
fancy, the gorgeous Palace of the Senses, the
grimly Halls of Eblis, or even the horrible green
teeth of that goblin a necromancer. It is equally
out of our power to conceive the possibility of even
the most superficial among the students of imagi-
native literature losing a remembrance, for example,
of the oranges blooming for ever in the hands of
that notable family group in the " Vicar of Wake-
field ;" or of the perennial verdure of those dewy
leaves of the exquisite " Picciola ;" or of the Icarian
Wings in " Rasselas ;" or of the pn.s..Conate night-
vratch. in " Raphael ;" or of any other of those fic-
titious particulars—
" Beloved as Fable, yet believed as Truth"—

- -
Particulars possessing for us all the distinct-
ness of reality, and yet combining with this
all the ineffable fascinations of romance : the
beautiful shells and pebbles as it were washed
to our feet by the surges of the Past, as
much the property of each one amongst us, as
' much our own peculiar and personal treasures as
though they were, in fact, the veritable waifs and
strays of poetic literature. Neither—precisely for
the same reason—can we conjecture that those who
once lent their ears to the eloquence of these en-
thralling narratives culled from this counterfeit
" Diary of a Physician," will speedily forget the
charm of its pathos, the suavity of its tenderness,
or the elevating fervour of its philosophy.
It must be remembered that these " Passages
from the Diary of a Late Physician," were the first
.effusions of Mr. Warren's intellect, the earliest
evidences of his ambition to assume a high place in
contemporary literature. They were at once re-
cognised as the undoubted utterances of genius,
and as such they very speedily established their
author's reputation. Subsequently that reputation
was considerably enhanced by the appearance from
month to month, in the pages of Blackwood's Ma-
gazine, of the celebrated story of " Ten Thousand
a Year," one of the most successful novels of our
generation. We have not yet forgotten the inte-
rest excited by that fiction during the period of its
gradual publication in instalments, any wore than
We have forgotten the masterly involution of the
thread of the story, or the artistic alternation in it
of the sorrowful and the humorous, or the tren-
chant satire gleaming out of the throng of the in-
cidents recounted, or the subtle and ingenious
delineation of the principal characters introduced.
Raving read the tale but once, and that several
years ago, on the occasion of its periodical appear-
ance, but having then, no doubt, read it think-
ingly and appreciatively, we bear the whole of the
plot, and the whole of the dramatis person
ae
as vividly in our recollection to-day as though we
had made their acquaintance but yesterday. In
this particular it is with " Ten Thousand a Year,"
as we have already declared it to be with .the
" Diary of a Late Physician." An appreciable
atttestation we take this to be of the consummate
amanifested by the author in (that labour of
done)
would, in some measure at least, have
of literates on thetablets of ourmemory the features
beautiful Kate Aubrey, of Oily Gammon, most
izt,:`3:, and astute of villains, Tittlebat Titmouse, most
Qiiilkallt and vulgar of adventurers, of that horrid
and that detestable Snap, and that sordid
0t and that unconscionable Huckaback.
serves--' 'use! we should never have been able to pre-
. yaito ° Clearly a recollection of dear, old, lovely
13e
11. with the graces of the slumbering heroine
'l' ',n faintly through the open lattice, and visible
a glance every detail of the silent edifice
and the moonlit landscape. Putting altogether
de the later productions of Mr. Warren, discard-
th
even the impressive and severe simplicity of
at tale of Circumstantial Evidence in which mur-
der is charged upon the innocent, and in which the
Wrongfully accused is only rescued at the last ex-
tremity from destruction, we believe that our
author's two earlier works, the works already here
particularised, will secure to him permanently a
high place among the chiefs of imaginative litera-
ture. Although others may be tired of reiterating
their former praises of " Ten Thousand a Year" and
the "Diary of a Late Physician," let us acknowledge
at once that it is not thus by any means with our-
selves. It may be monotonous enough to call
Aristides the Just down to the last sentence of the
last chapter : yet are we for one by no means dis-
posed to relieve ourselves from the sense of itera-
tion by resorting to the paltry device of a con-
venient ostracism. Neither of the admirable
productions just mentioned would have been
one whit the more or one whit the Jess excellent
had Mr. Warren never after put pen to paper, or
had he written the most inimitable masterpiece, or
had he scrawled, and printed, and published the
most preposterous gallimaufry. We consider his
two earlier works by themselves. We weigh each
per se in the balance, and we find that after they
have been subjected the severest test of all, the
lapse of time and the abatement of a sudden and
contagious enthusiasm, that their value has in no
way been exaggerated.
Especially, therefore, are we rejoiced to observe
the re-appearance of these admirable writings in
their new form, in that of a cheap and popular re-
Publication. Cordially do we congratulate the
masses of the reading community upon the oppor-
tunity thereby offered them for familiarising them-
selves at last with these outpourings of a generous
heart and an abounding imagination. Con-
scious of the evil influence so long exercised
upon the humbler dames of the population
by the literary garbage upon which their minds
have been feeding for years past, through the me-
dium of a base and prurient series of penny
Publications, we welcome with unaffected satisfac-
tion the cheap reissue of the writings of those
More eminent authors whose names will be remem-
bered as among the chief glories of our generation.
The incomparable Dickens has, after this fashion,
laid his genial productions within reach of the
Poorer among his contemporaries. Bulwer Lytton
has, in like manner, enabled those who could
hitherto only judge of his effusions by hearsay,
themselves to appreciate the comprehensiveness of
his genius and the scope of his ambition. Emulat-
ng in a similar way the generous designs of those
Illustrious writers of fiction, Mr. Warren has here
undertaken to revise a popular edition of "Now
the Then," of " Ten Thousand a Year," and of
" Diary of a Late Physician." For that
enterprise we venture to predict a brilliant
e°usummation. Let us admit, at once —as
among„, those interested in the spread of a
national-(self)-education by the diffusion of polite
letters
„, among the labouring portions of the com-
/4„„u'utY—that we are peculiarly solicitous that this
success may be achieved. We are solicitous that it
may be so, because in those writings of Mr. Warren,
Besides their distinguished ability, we recognise
the fervour of an elevating morality, and the, ear-
...s_t.ness of a profound and unaffected homage for
Human nature is there faithfully de-
picted, but through that delineation of human na-
ture ournainds and our hearts are lifted up to the
ignorance coition—in weakness of the Omnipotent—in
V/ira of the Omniscient--everywhere of the
Present. It is by this frequent homage for
Virtue and Gentleness, and all the awful and holy
attributes of the Divinity, as much as by any-
else that our author
contrives so frequently to
ccsnirean 110. w d the tribute ofour sympathising admiration.
many noble lessons are inculcated, forinstance,
not ob
trusively, but most persuasively, through the
earliest instalments before us'of his admirable "Diary
of a La
wisdo Late Physician !" inestimable treasures of
dise m extracted from amidst the loathsomeness of
ase, jewels of
p in the foulu •
tai
fnegt densy oe
fs
t
philosophy some of them picked
haunts of crime and the most re-
debauchery—in a word, the flower
culled from the nettle " Danger"—the
Leritable aurum e stercore! What a pathetic inci-
'44 ion to persevsetrance, for example, the account of
those Earl
IvholeDiaryYita ruggles" which constitutes for the
behold presentecT
introduction ! iviszl)st appropriate and most pathetic
What a model of patience do we not
chapter on the cc us for imitation in that exquisite
ancer." It is the same through-
ocut.,the ehe c,n_tire in the solemn deathbed scene
Scholar '> in the anecdote referring to
in
thantoptiop " • the lovely tale relating to " Con-
e his,. 3 in the story of a " Broken Heart," in
ssotarrrtolivi7,l ree
tire
elrt.rtif of the " Forger," in the terrible narra-
" Intriguing and
cdord of Madness," in the
" A Slight Cold," and in the
.ttu memento of the " Martyr Philosopher."