The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-11-23

i y
him, as they are, he would win more applause
than in the description Of other scenes; because
all would feel the truth of the portraiture. Scott
Jailed In describing modern manners in Saint
Ronanswell. Why2 Because his affections
and feelings were with the past; and those bal
lads and romances in which his boyhood de-
lighted, exercised over his Imagination con
trolling power, and when he came TO give il a
"local habitation and name," that controlling
power was manifest.
But who Of SCOTS readers has not some
times regretted that he did not give us more Of
the men and manners Of the day? If he had
thought as much of them as Of baronial and
other periods--and having studied, he had at
| temped to paint them when his mind was in ITS
! vigor, he would have succeeded as well as in
Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, or the Crusaders. Fielding
could only describe the manners around him, be-
cause he had only thought of them. SCOTS
Imagination had feudal bias, and consequently
he painted tina; period best when, as he des-
| cribes it,
"They laid down to rest
With the corselet laced
Pillowed on bucker cold and hard
They carved at the meal
With gloves Of steel,
And drank the ned wine through the helmet bard"
How delightful if Scott had given us some Of
the scenes which he witnessed among the diff
ferent circles with whom he mingled. In such
scenes he studied human nature, il is true, but
he applied his knowledge in describing how men
acted in other circumstances than those in which
he saw them act for he well knew that the truth
full portraiture inds sympathy in every breast
He learned the whole history of the human
heart, and then gave us volumes of the olden
time, because there his imagination feasted.--
He should, soneumes, have shown US our
selves as we are. Ii seems TO me that not only
in our early history is there wide field for the
novelist, but that in our own times here is both
wider and better. What a great variety of
characters in oui country Men from all climes,
OF all opinions parties, sects. The German,
Frenchman, Elglishman, Russian, the Back
woodsman, the ankee, and the Southerner, are
each and all often found in the barroom of
country tavern. To one who likes to observe
character what enjoyment! Why, as FalslaiI
would say, "it is play extempore" And then
10 quit scene ike this, pass few miles from
one of these towns, and be right into the wilder
ness: for il seems wilderness 10 look round on
the deep woods, and the wild prairie, and see no
marks Of civilization but the road on which you
travel How the mind expands You look up,
and fancy some far off cloud, the Great Spirit
looking down on His primeval world, in all the
freshness and beauty OF its first years. The
Imagination CLOVIS, the feelings freshen, the af-
fections become intense. Rapidly, then, the
scenes Of our boyhood rush upon us our early
manhood, our hopes, our fears, the lady Of our
love, the objects of our ambition. We see some
brilliant bird that we have started from Its perch,
dar, off in the blue ether, and thus before US
seems the world, all our own. And then we en-
ter the town, and behold the vast variety of hui
man beings among whom and with whom we
have to struggle. Here, too we often find wo-
men loveliest and most fascinating--a flower in
the wilderness, and beautiful both in bud and in
bloom. And here are generous and free spirits,
who wear no disguise about them, whose feel
ings spring up like the eagle from its eyrie in
natural fearessness The change is enjoyment :
one fits US for the other. In solitude we think
over. examine, and analyze what we see in the
world; and in tn world, the reflections and re-
solutions of solitude strike us like parental ad-
monition.
That simplicity which Cooper has described
so well in the character of Misunderstanding
seems TO have been the characteristic of the
early Pioneers. Ii has been my good luck to
meet with several of them One, who is now
county squire, and, Of course, far advanced in
years, with whom became acquainted in the in
terror of Ohio, frequently in conversation with
me, dwelt upon the peculiarities of the Pioneers
lamenting with a simplicity, energy, and natu-
raj eloquence, which told that he was one Of
them, the "ialling off," as he called it, Of the
present times.
Why" said he to me- elf you will believe
me- there is not half the confidence between
man and man that there used to be, when
was in the wilderness here, and used TO travel to
the different stations. II was long tramp,
tell you--but you might rely on the man
who went with you, 10 life. and TO death,
Just as you would on your rihe-and then
you rested upon your riie-and looked round
upon the beauties Of the wilderness-and
the wilderness is beautiful to them that like
it-and felt that you were man. Why,
could do every thing for myself in those
days-I needed no help no howl tell you
have snug farm, and may be, some things that
you call comforts; but | shall never be as happy
as Twas when was here in the wilderness with
my dog and rife, and nothing else. No, shall
never be as happy again, and that's fact Mr.
-, our preacher, breaches good Sermon
batting spice of Calvinsm, that l, somehow,
can't relish or believe natural, but he can't make
me feel like used to--I mean with such reli-
ance on Provdence-as did when reused up
in the morning, and looked out on the beauties
Of nature, just as God made them. You find
fault with these roads-and know the travel
ing's bad-l thought SO myself as came 10
town-and yet used to travel through the will
derness when there was no road or town
sometimes felt tired, il is true, but il was not the
WEAKNESS feel now-no no never shall be
so happy as was in the wilderness, and that's
fact"
! believe have repeated the very words as
they fell from the lips of the fine old man.
was much anu ;ed with his opinion Of novels.
"Why, am told, !" he said, ''that a man will
write two big books-and not word Of truth in
'em from from beginning 10 end. Now Amt that
abominable To tell lie, any how, is a great
shame; but TO WRITE ana then to print il, is what
never thought Of. How can you tell il from
truth, if he's an ingenious man Ii looks just
like truth when It's printed. Il destroys all con
fidence in books. Judge Jones tells me that
there was man called Scott, who has written
whole shelves of 'em--what do YOU call em 2
novels2 He tells me that he was a pretty good
If .,,k a n r