Morning herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1837-1840, 1837-07-31

poleon out War OF CRsarJ
Refore we lake leave of this volume we cannon
forbear ousng fragment of criticism on the secoha
book of the Encid, which IS an amusing specimen VI
the petulan style and searching attention OF ls au
thor With this quotation we conclude, IN ''io pioos
INC assurance that Napoleon was not only very
great general and ruler, but that ne possessed IN
r. markable degree, The qualities which give weight
and point to the lucubraons OF reviewer.
"The second book OF The faheiu 10 consiucteu Tue
chef dpuvre of that epic poem; II deserves Its repua
zion m point of STYLE but falls very short OF IN the
matter which IL treats.
"The wooden horse may have been popular ira
dition but that adion 70 Lialsu;ous anu qu.e unwoi
he Iad where every thing IS ccnformable to truth
and 10 the practice OF war. lslt possible to suppose
thai the Troans such fools not to send fish
inc boat to the island of Tenedos, inquire whether
the thousand vessels Of the Greeks had stopped there
or whether they really gone? But the roads of
Tenedos could be discover from the towers Of lion.
Is possible to believe that Ulysses and the flower of
the Greeks were so stupid as 10 shut themselves up in
a wooden horse that is 10 say, 10 deliver themselves
over to their inplacable enemies, bound hand and
fool2 Surprising lhat this horse only contained an
hundred warriors, lis weight must have been enor-
NOUS and II Is not probable that II could have been
brought from the shore 10 the walls OF ilon IN one
day, especially as II had 10 cross TWO rivers
THE whole episode OF simon IS impropaDle ana
absurd the Of the poet ana tue eioquence
of the speeches he puts INTO The mouth OF Sinon do
not diminish lis absuIdIty. Nevertheless the horse
must be introduced into Troy the very day of the
depar,Ire Of the Greeks, without which il becomes
still more improbable that the thousand vessels
OF the Creeks could remain concealed near Troy.
The beautiful ald pleasing episode of LAGOON re-
commends ITSELF bat ii does not in the least diminish
the absurdity Of the Troans conduct, since they
might have left the horse IN It's position IN the camp
for several days and have got certain Information that
the enemys fleet had sailed before they knocked
down the walls TO bring II INTO the city.
"The warriors shut up IN the horse, 10 whom Simon
opens the gate, do not come out I'LL the Grecan fleet,
which had left Tenedos when all was asleep and in
the darkness Of tn night had landed the army that
could nor have been before o'clock in the morn
ing it was not till that hodr that the posts of senti-
nes fell asleep, and that Simon could open the gate
The whole OF the second book of the destruction of
Troy Is therefore performed between one in TIE
morning and the rising of the sun, that is say, in
three or four hours all this is absurd. Troy cosld
not have been taken, burnt, and destroyed in less
than fortnight. Troy contained an army; this
my did run away, therefore II must have defended
itself in all the palaces. Eneas, who lodged in his
father palace IN wood half league from Troy,
was only apprIsed of the taking and burning Of the
city by the ghost Of Hector. II the house Of Anch
had been leagues from the city, the tumult Of
the taking of the city and the heat of the burning Of
the first houses would have awakened the men and
the animals"
Napoleon was evidently thinking of the burning Of
Moscow, to which he shortly afterwards REFERS He
had said time before to OMeara, III then retired
TO country house of the Emperor Aexander's dis
tant about league from Moscow; and you may
figure TO yourself the intensity of the fire when tell
you, that you could scarcely bsar your hands upon
the walls or the windows on the side next TO Mos
COW, in consequence OF their heated state. 1t was
the spectacle OF a sea and bllews OF fire, sky and
clouds of flame; mountains of red rolling flames
like immense waves of tn sea, alternately bursting
forth and eleyating themselves to skies Of fire. and
then sinking into the ocean Of flame below. Oh! IL
was the most grand, the most sublime, and the
terrific sight the world beheld. Alons, Doc
teur" Eneas, however, does not appear TO have
tkaE
have described the spectacle in lofer language. He
does, however, say, and very forciby, little further
on:
Jam per mGnia clarior igns
daditur, propusque incendia voyunt-
We return 10 our quotation:
"If Homer had treated the taking of Troy he would
not have treated II like the capture of fort, but he
would have employed the time necessary at least
eight days and eight nights In reading the Had one
i,els every instant that Homer had seen actual SER
vice. and had not passed his life, the commena
tors say he did, in the schools of Chos-in reading
the Ened one feels that it the work Of peda-
gogue who had never any thing at all. IL lsdf
hcult to perceive what induced Virgil To begin and 10
terminate the capture the burning and the pillage OF
Troy in few hours; IN that short space OF time he
even collects the booty in central storehouses. The
house OF Anchlses must have been very near Troy
since, in few hours, and Notwithstanding the fight
ing Kneas went TO II several tunes. Scipio required
seventeen days To burn Carthage, abandoned by It's
inhabitants. took eleven days TO burn Moscow
though for the most part built OF wood and II re-
quires several days for a conquering army TO take
possession of city OF such extent. Troy was
great city, for the Greeks, who had one hundred
thousand men, never attempted to surround It. When
lEneas returns that snme night 10 Hon, he finds
|" Cusiodes ecti Phonix ct drus Ulysses
Prptias abant; hue uDdiqne Troia
Inccnss ere pa adv us, mcnsgque Deorum,
Cratercsqnc auro soid captyaque VESTS
CongerittIr."
For this operation alone more than fortnight
qured, and II is not in the midst Of the disorder Of a
city taken by storm that any one amuses hlmsclfwith
heaping MP wealth in central magazines.
Sic denuH socios consBmpta pocte reviso'
Thus from IN the morning till dawn, that IS 10
say, IN three hours, Encas went To Troy, fought all
the combals which he describes, defended the palace
ofPriam-came back 10 Troy to look for Creusa-and
found the city, taken without any more fighting en-
trely occupied by the enemy, all burnt and the maya
ZINES already shut Such ought not TO be the march
OF epic poetry, and such Is not the march Of Homer
IN the HAD. The diary Of Agamcmnon could not be
more accurate for distances and time and the proba-
bility Of military operations, than that master piece isl
We trust the time has gone by when literary critics
affected 10 snccr Naposon because he read Ossian
in poetica translation worthy of a better original.
But tins volume contains proofs that his mind was
profoundly sensible 10 the highest excellence in era
ture-derving IT'S greatest pleasures from those COM
positions in which his own practical experience hsgh
tened the reality Il poetic truth. We only en-
press a hope that amongst the unpublished papers
still in the hands Of persons to whom they were die.
tated M St Helena notes may be found rs stri-
kingy characteristic as these which have now been
gwen TO the public.