New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-02-23
THE RIB n T..
MIR. ssiles,s Lec,ure.
To the Editor Of the Tribune:

lEr. sa1Ies's Lecture.
Te he Editor of the Tribune:
You have givea, Sir, very friendly notices Of my
Lectures recently delivered here, and from this |
I'm encouraged to ask brief space in your columns
to correc. what feel to be misspprehenslon In
the remarks which you have had the kindness to
make or insert, on my view of Byron
20 the intellectual estimate of my lecture, | have
moi the folly or the vanity to object. 1t would be
fastidous egotism, indeed, that could find fault
with censure which is tempered by praise.
,sfer mainly to the moral criticism. In this think
the report does injustice to my meaning, my own
mode of expression does it injustice. If the want
cf perspcuily jastfes the inference drawn in that
report, 1t will impress upon me that defect in plain
ness OF speech is an evil. which is yet grave
than logical error or grammatical inaccuracy.
Certainly, nothing was further from my thoughts
than apology for Bgron's moral delinquencies
Such an apology, orr lnsinuated, shoaldscon-
slider equally Offensive to taste and contrary to
facts. consider that b ren was false to the high
trus. committed by Heaven to his charge; that he
was unius, to most exalted capacities. do not
hold that genius alters in the least the Of duty
but do hold that greatly even awfult, increases
the responsibility of its possessor. The law Of
right ia one eternal, universal and Interchangeable.
did not attribute Byron's turpitude tocrcumstances,
bur to his own guilty passions. The doctrine which
makes sin q matter of circumstance is, in my ap-
prehension, odious and pernicious--a doctrine of
which even the sinner, if any moral exatatioH re-
main. will not avail himself. Low the man must be
los. to every noble aspiration-who would resign
the heavenly consciousness of freedom for the ire
sponsbility of brutal or mechanical necessity.
did not treat Byrons scorn with indulgence,
but with indignation; and as little did | Justify
his disgust of life. Disgust of life, as it was in
Byron, s always the result of an abused nature, of
perverted principles and disordered passions.
Even in life that outwardly seems wretched,
interests AMI exalted aims me poor shoemaker
in England, who tried to teach some ragged
urchins to spell had light on earth and hope in
heaven, while many sage and poet lived in
misery and died in despair.
The only point which might deserve the name
Of principle, that tried to enforce in this lee
ture was, that in Byron there was conflict be-
tween the ideal and the actual; that Byron en-
deavored to satisfy glorious faculties in low de-
sires that in consequence, ne brought misery and
gloom to his spirit and that his genius hurried, in
rapid aud downward course. from dependency
to defiance, and from defiance TO delision. can
not help regarding this principle as fundamental
ono in the philosophy Of crime, and one from which
arises large portion of its misery. Why rs it that
the hog lies down with pleasure in the miro Sim
DIV because the riIre Is with its nnturoi
because there is no ideal in that nature that trans
Iii 81, h,,,,, hair
duced TO the degradation of the hog, he cannot
fake his position pleasuraoly in filth. Is not the
very grandeur of human nature which gives to sin
the deepes. sting of sorrow | care not whether
it be said that this grandeur was original, and that
wa have fallea from it, or that 1t is inherent, and
that we pre false to it, Whence else is remorse,
selfaccusation the loss OF peace and all the other
uersies that lash the guilty heart with whips OF
scorpions7 Is not this the doctrine of experience!
Does not every man feel it in the consciousness OF
wrong Z Is it no. tie doctrine of philosophy Is
j, not apparent ia he ancient NEUROLOGICAL dreams
about golden age' lsitnot felt in the poetic mu-
pings OF Plato sn pre-existent condition OF the
,ul More clearly, it is the doctrine of Scripture.
The wletchedness of Solomon was the deeper
from his wisdom. The repinings of tho prodisal
were the more despoAdent from the knowledge OF
his high origin. and from the recolectlons OF his
fathers home; hunger was 6ercer in Its Pangs'
from the memory that even his fathers hired serv-
ants had bread enough and to spare. And theol-
ogy too under variety of opinions, IS true to this
doctrine It's spirit may be traced In the greatest
writer's Of every sect: in the sweet eloquence OF
FENELoN, in the profound thoughts OF PASCAL, In
the rigid metaphysics ef JONATHAN EDWARDS
and in the gorgeous melancholy OF JEREMY lay
LeR.
I is the spiritual element in our nature, call 1t
what we may, or speculate on it as we will, which
hen separated from faith, hope, and duty, pushes
passion TO excess, which crowns the brow OF the
iransgrcssor with agouies, and plants his way with
thorns. 1t was that eleaent In BYRON, mighty
in tbs strength of unsanctihed genius, which con.
vulsed his bosom, and that wrecked his peace. II
the vulgar protiigate does not groan as deeply IS
Byron. or shrek as wildly. it is because he has not
as vivid perceptions--as throobing sensoiiity' as
profound an intuition of the bcautlul-brcause, in
fact, he is nearer TO the mere animal, ana farther
frog, the angel--eyen though that angel be fallen
one.
have trespasscd sir, more than intended. |
beg in conclusion to repeat, that respecting Inc
merely critical opinion Of the notice that occasions
these remarks, bave nothing to complain ana
for very hosritable. generous kindly spirit IN
American Editors generally towards me-yourselt,
Sir among theu-I have much to be grateful.
Yours, respectfully, HhNNi Wills
INTELLIGENT CRlTlclsM.-We clip the follow,
ing gem of criticism from the Cincinnati message,
paper which displays the names OF tour EDITORS
a, its head
IL New Work.-We have been favored with
copy Of indians, Novel by Madame Daderenf,