Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1832-11-20

isetoi oy inc doctinaa s-eompcro the writings of
49, WIZ" 'hoSo of Byron-which have really
, hueu inc most to bind to the poor7 The first
mas touched the honcly strings OF our real heart
the other has written fine vague stanzas ,bout
,reeuom' Lara, the Corsair, Chide Harold, Don
'u'"' thcse are the works-wc will not say oil the
"is'nthroPo-at least Of the arstocrat. Are SCOTS
So' ret Byron Liberal, and Scott Tory.
Alas. tho sympathy with huma nifty is the true re-
puoiicani>m of writer of fiction. Liberal and
iory are words which signify nothing out of tho
sphore OF the politics of the day. Who shall we
sciect from the liberal poets OF aye, who has
bound us TO the people, like Scottl Shelley, with
ms metaphysical rriinings!-M"ore, with his Ella
oorate horidity of patrotsml-No. we feel ut
once that nature taught Scott more of friendship
with all man kind, than the philosophy OF the unc
or the fancy OF the other. Out of print Scott
might belong to party-in print mankind
belong to him. Tory ism, which is another name
ior tho spirit of monopoly, forsook him at that
point where his inquiries into human natn ire be AN
lie Is not then, We apprchend, Justly Liable to the
charge OF wanting sound moral--even II urcat no.
ht'eal noral-(and political morals are :hc great
est OF all)-in the general tenor of works which
have compelled tho highest classes to examine nd
respect the lowest In this, with far less learning
far less abstract philosophy, than Fielding he is
only exceeded by him in one character-(und that,
indeed, the most admirable in English fction)-
the character of Parson Adams. Joanie Deans is
worth thousand such Fanny Andrews. Field.
ing, Lc Sage, and Cervantcs are the only three
writers, since the world began, with whom, MS a
novelist, he can he compared. And perhaps hc
cxccls them, Noltaire eXcelcd all the writer's Of
ms nation, not by the superior merits of work,
but by the brilliant aggregate of many. Tom
Jones, Gil Bias, Don QuiAotte, are, without doubt,
greater, much greater productions than Waverly;
out the authors ot Tom Jones' Gil Bias, and even
OF Don Quixottc, have not manifested tho same
fertile and mighty genius the author of the Wa.
verify Novels.
And that genius-scemngly 80 inoxbsustible-
is qucnched at length. We can be charmed NO
nore-the eloquent tongue is mutc-the masters
wand Is broken up--thc right hand hath forgot its
cu'ihng-tho cord That is looSencd was indeed of
si'ver-and the bowl that is broken ut the dark we'll
was of gold beyond all price.
Death, OF late has been busy among the great
mch OF the earth-tho mighty landmarks of the last
ago. one after one. have been remoyed:-Cuvicr
iNckIhtQsh Bchtliani, Goethe, and now Scott
there Is something as II were, mystic ious and So
Tenn IN the disappearance of so many lights of the
age, within so snort interval of each other
ana happening as 1T does, at period when the old
elements OF society are shaken TO the centre il
might have seemed to ancient superstition as if the
world were preparing itself for unex perien ,cd
era, and the removal of tho chiefs of the past
llino oetokened the advent of new order of mind
suited TO tho new disposition of events.
When great man dies, he leaves a chasm
which eternity cannot fill, Others succeed to his
famc-but never to the exact place which he held
IN the worlds eye;--they may be greater than tho
one We have lost--but they arc not he. Shaks-
peare built not his throne tho same site as Ho.
mer-nor Scott on that whence Shakespeare look
cd down upon the universe. The gap which SCOTT
leaves IN the world, is the token of the place he
hlled IN the homage of his times. hundred wears
hence our posterity will still that wide inter
val untenantcd--a vast and mi uhty era i'm tho in.
teitectual world, which will prove how spacious
were ''the city and the tomplo. whose summit has
to Heaven."-Ihe Author Of Eugene Arom