The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1842-09-25
NEW YORK HERALD


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INFLUENCE OF WORKS OF FIcr1oN-CHARAcrER OF
THE FASHIONABLE NOVELS OF THE DAY.-We are not
oil those who denounce with fierce and sweeping
maedlction the whole host of novelists and writers
OF romance. On the contrary, we have ever held
that when governed by truth and moral principle,
fiction is most potent agent in softening the man
ners, modifying the PASSIONS and purifying the cur
rent of public thought. And that this influential
agency has often been rendered subservien to the
sacred interests of virtue and morality, also be-
heve, and cheerfully accord to those who have
employed it, their rightful and honorable position
amongst the benefactors of their race. AS an elo-
quent defender of fiction has sad the works of the
best novelists 5" to be priced, not much in
ference TO their immediate aim or any individual
traits OF nobeness with which they may inform the
thoughts, as for their general tendency to break up
that cold and debasng selfishness with which the
souls of large portion of mankind are encrusted.
They give to a vast class, who by no other means
would be carried beyond the most contracted range
of emotion, interest in things out of themselves,
and aperception of grandeur and of beauty OF which
otherwise they might ever have lived unconscious"
The works of Mackenzie, tor instance. breathing
their own sad and soft music of humanity-the THRU
ling productions of Goodwin, exhibiting the naked
wreste of the passions vast solitude land laying
bare to us the innate might and majesty OF man, the
exqusitely natural tales of Edgeworh, with their gra
phic porrature of character beautiful moral feeling,
and lessons of experienced wisdom-the spirt-stir-
ring romances of Walter Scott, he who made the
nobeness ofhumanity familiar to our daily thoughts
and enriched history TO us, by opening such varied
and delightful vistas to gaze, beneath the range
of its loftier events and more public characters
these, and others of their kind, are the works of
fiction which have increased the stores of innocent
delight-shed on human life new tints of tender
colorng-and taught with unresisted. eloquence, les
sons of most genial wisdom. II were indeed diff
cult to estimate too highly the extent to which such
productions have tended to refine and elevate hu
manity.
OF far different order, however, and of widely
opposite tendency, the works of the fashionable
novelists OF the present day Compared with the
tural graceful chaste, and dignifed productions of
the writers to whom we have Just gratefully referred,
those of the Bulwers and Marryatts and others of
the same school, appear like the rabble OF Comus-
halt-bestlal, hafhuman dropping with wine ,bloat-
ed with gluttony, and Keeling in obscene dances.'-
That Bulweri is skilled in minstering to the amuse-
ment OF his readers, and has, in some instances,
given to his personages thrilling interest, and that
he possesses considerable descriptive power, and
no mean dramatic talent, we readily admit. But he
repeatedly gives the most distorted views of human
character, whilst he too frequently teaches his
readers to seek the true sublime IN the mere
intensity OF passion, and enjoyment in the feversh
EXAMINATIONS which so often work the degradation
OF our nature His eloquence and pahos are In gen.
era made udicrOus by the tnsery of an afectation
scarcely to be pardoned in schoolboy's theme. In
some OF his most pompous and pretending passages,
we endeavOr in vain to catch his meningitis |
rhetoric, like quicksilver shines indeed as it runs
but effectualy eludes our grasp. Were the tnkng |
German largon, and the sentimental frppery and |
dream,' alike absurd and uninteiglble subtracted
from them, the productions of this admired novelist
would be wofuly diminished in volume. But the |
wretched sophisry which, throughout all the works
OF Bulwer, is embracing with raternal fondness
the rotten trunk OF vice, their great and blasting
fault. Well may the true friend of his race, who
knows by what infinite variety of wiles, Error en-
twnes itself around the heart, shudder he gances
over the tiowery page, so carefully conceang from
the eyes OF thousands of unrefecting readers, the
form of the serpent How awful the responsibility
OF the writer, who thus gives permanent expression
In the most fascinating fOrm to sentiments that are
evil and only evil. To "Night and Morning" and |
6 Zanon," we confidently appeal for proof cf the
vicious and demorallzing tendency of the writings |
OF this popular novelist. What parent or guardian |
OF YOUTH who has the least regard for the welfare of
those committed to his care, is there, who can per-
mt them to pore fctions whose heroines are |
no better than women ofthe town. and whose heroes
are only tit for the society Of the brothe? Who |
can need revelation of the tendency of writings |
which attempt to cOhe in the garments of yir-
tue, and to gid immortality with the radiant tints
of goodness and beauty!
Licentieus is the character of Buwer's novels |
the last production of Marryatt, "Perciva Keene,"
is still more abomnable. The woman who can read
the first chapter of this novel; and then not fling the
volume from her with Indignation, must have little
serespect, and still less purity of soul. The work
Is not only meretricous in its general character but
also in its style. 1t is filled with tawdry scraps picked
upin the very Rag Fairs and Monmouth-strects of
literature; and we in almost every page sickened
with wit, as equvoca as the lineage of the hero of
the tale. In vain do we look in such works these,
for the gulleless innocence, and pure affections
stronger than the grave, and dsinterested patriot
ism, and confidng conjugal love, and meek self
sacrifice, and sustaining moral principle which are
so truthfully embodied in the writings of our best
novellsts In vain do we look for the exercise of
that power which leaves on the heart, abiding
images of the beautiful and the true; and impresses
on II lessons of virtue and wisdom which sink for
ever into its fleshly tablets!
And yet. these are the writings which are now so
widely circulated in every city and almost every
hamlet and farmhouse in our land. Where are
the clergy-where the conductors of the re-
gous press-where are the men who profess to be
the only sincere guardians of religion and morality
where is the effort TO stem the progress of this flood