Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1820-01-22
AMERICAN LITERATURE.
FROM THE NY. EVENING POST.

FROM THE n. Y. EyENIyG POST.
TIE Sketch-Book, No. Ale has been
long our intention to seize the first spare
column to introduce, a second time, the
accomplished and amiable author ofthese
charming numbers to the American pub
lie. In doing SO, we feel ourselves en-
gagged in The grateful performance of the
duty we owe him for his exertion of those
extraordinary talents which have Justly
obtalne4 for him, in the last North line
Tican Repiezp, "a work that does honor
to this country, though not extensively
hnown,) the acknowledgement that he
is the most popular writer we have yet
produced, or appear likely to produce
for some time to come. There is a
charm in his manner that is irresistible
to every reader of feeling and refine
ment, and simple indescribable pathos
that steals upon the heart and overcomes
it. In descriptions of domestic distress,
he comes near the tender and elegant
NIX enzie, whose powers in the pathetic
are no ways inferior to those of Otway
himself, without any of his grossness.
We take occasion to say one word
about the high price ofthe Sketch Book,
which we have sometimes heard COM
planned of. 1t is printed on very ele-
pant paper, new type, and every ma
terial employed is superior to the usual
style of similar works in this country !:
but still it is dear. Whose arrange
ment this is, we do not know, whether
the authors or printers. But when we
recollect that this is the production of a
young American, living in foreign land,
who has severely felt the blight of mis-
fortune and that, far from home, and
surrounded by strangers, he probably
writes under the pressure ola somewhat
broken spirit--can any one, at least any
one of liberal mind, look upon the
price of the book in any other light than
as atfording handsome opportunity of
rewarding a man of genius and virtue,
who does honor to his native country.
In presenting the following extract
from the work, as specimen of exqui-
Bite taste and feeling, we are sensible
it is too delicate and refined for the col
Mmns OF newspaper; but there is here
and there reader that will peruse it in
kindred temper to that in which it was
written, and whose heart will respond in
kindred tones to those of the writer--to
such. only we recommend it:
+" The grave is the ordeal of truly hui
man affection. 1t is there that the divine
passion of the soul shows itself superior
to the instructive attachments 81 the
brute; for the love of the animal must
be continually refreshed by the presence
of it's object, but the love of the human
soul can live on long remembrance
The sorrow for the dead is the only
sorrow from which we refuse to be di-
'vorced. Every other wound we seek to
heal--every other afIliction to forget;
but this wound we consider it duty to
keep open-this affliction we cherish and
brood over in solitude. Where is the
mother that would willingly forget the
infant that persisted like blossom from
her arms, though every recollection is :.
pang? Where is the child that would
willingly forget the most tender of pa
rents, though to remember be but to la
ment ; Who, even in the hour of agony,
would forget the friend over whom he
nourns Who, even when the tomb is
closing upon the remains of her he most
loved, aDd he feels his heart, as it were,
crushed in the closing of its portal, would
accept consolation tina, was to be bought
by forgetfulness No, the leve which
survives the tomb is one of the noblest
attributes of the soul. If it has its woes,
i has likewise its delights; and when the
overwhelming burst Of grief is Gained
into the gentle tear of recollection
when the sudden anguish and the con-
v7llsive agony over the present ruins of
all that we most loved, is softened away
into pensive meditation on all that it was
in the days of its loveliness-who would
poot out such sorrow from the heart
Though it may sometimes throw pass
ing cloud even over the bright hour of
gaiety or spread deeper sadness over
the hour of gloom; yet who would ex-
change it, even for the song of pleasure
or the'burst of revelry No; there is a
voice from the tomb sweeter than song.
There is recollection of the dead to
which we turn even from the charms of
the living. Oh, the grave! the grave -
1t buries every error; covers every de-
feet; extinguishes every resentment
From its peaceful bosom springs none
but fond regrets and tender recollections.
Who can look down upon the grave even
of an enemy, and not feel compunc-