The Arkansas banner., 1844-02-20
From the Southern Literary Messenger.
 CHEAP LITERATURE. L.,s, c,Il A D Cc,ED AND IENDENCIES,
BY A SoUTHRoN.

BY soUTHRoN.
 Much has been spoken and written of late, concerning the recent system oi cheap publl- cation, so extensively adopted in the larger cities. and from thence, radlating into all sec tions of our Unlon and varied, as the minds and characters of the writers, have been the speculations to which it has given birth and we only venture to contribute our mite, be- cause we entertain some peculiar views upon the subject, which we desire to submit to the dispassionate judgment of the public; for which, the writer ofthis article, and not the re- view must be held responsible.
 That this movement has been productive of important results, no thinking man can doubt-and infinite has been the sell-lauda- ton of enterprisng publishers, who first set the ball in motion; and proportionably bitter their assaults upon the "grasping Book-Ba- rons," whom they charge with the crime of leste-maieste against the sovereign people !- the privilege of acting as the high priests of literature, being considered ample reward for them and the desire of profit, unworthy of 1 their high vocation
 "Wisdom" now, literally s.eries aloud in the streets, and no man regards her." if the ragged urchns who throng the thoroughfares, and dog the footsteps of strangers, vending cheap publications, may be regarded as her heralds. Books are thrust before you as you walk the public streets, or, plunged in dream reverie, inhale the fragrance of your mild Havanna, on the balcony of your hotel; the shrill cry of the news-boy rises above the din of the crowded streets. blends with the splash of the steamboat paddles, and even the swift whir of the locomotive cannot bear you be- yond it. Time was, when books were so valuable for their rarity, as to be chained, like criminals, to the desks of libraries, which be- came shrines ofpilgrimage to the earnest vo- taries of thought; but the order of things has been totally reversed men do not seek books now, but are happy to escape from the ven ders of them; and beholding these things, the glad public claps it's hands and cries a. i loud, that thew era has dawned upon the world, when knowledge, so long the prlvl- ] lege of the few, has become the property of the manyn' and that the intellectual millen- nium has at length arrived. And If, amidst this exulting uproar, dissenting voice IS fals- ed, 1t is either totally diregarded, or scofled at, as inimical to the great interests of the people. Unpopular as the avowal may be, we yet do not heitate to declare that our sym pahies in this matter are with the minority :; for we not only believe, that this system tends to lower the standard of excellence among the educated few, but go still further, and openly assert as our belief, that 1t is call cuated to lower and debase the minds of the great mass of the people. This assertion may seem to involve startling paradox since 1t would appear, that the multiplication of books at almost nominal prices, would naturally tend to dihuse information among all classes of the community. and to spread the light of knowledge as well ssinto the huts w epoor men lie,' las into theluxurious man. sions of the rich but there is one important this, that to ensure a healthy state of mind. as well as of body, more care should be paid to the quality, than the quantity of food pro- vided for it. 'sAll knowledge is not nutri- ment;" far from it there is a knowledge of evil, as well as of good "a philosophy of vice, as well as of virtue,-and woe to that people, who are dependent for their mental food, upon the foul jackalls of literature, who revel only in its garbage and corruption.
 That this point has already been reached by the American people, we are not prepar ed to assert; but such is the inevitable ten- dency of the state of things now existing, we expect to prove to the satisfaction of all can did and unbiased minds.
 The question, then, rests upon the inquiry, not as to the number or price of the books published and circulated, but as to their gen. eral character, and the influence which they are calculated to exert upon the public mind; thrown, as they have been, suddsnly into the hands of multitudes of those, whose previous reading (to say the least) had been exceed ingly limited And here, in the outset, let us not be misunderstood,- ,-the strlctures a. bout to be made, are applicable only to the E.cheap publications,'s strictly so called; the reprints of standard works, which the old publishing houses have been recently driven into, to couneract (ifpossible this movement, are neither, when collected, so cheap, nor as widely circulated as the penny publications of obscure publishers in New Y ork and else where; the New World press, and few others also, deserve to have it said of them, that if they have effected but little good, thag also wrought but little positire harm having been outstripped in the race for public favor by more interruptions competitors, who now have the field; and it is against these 'spetty instruments of mighty mischielo that we now declare war s even to the knife.o
 We arragn them, then, at the oar of public opinion, because, in the first place, they have crushed the hopes of our American authors, and blasted our prospects of possessing na- tional literature
 In the second place, because they have lowered the scale of national honor, by en- tceing our people to participate in, and ben eft by wholesale system of injustice and fraud, both against foreign authors and pub fishers, whose property they have fraudulent ly appropriated often adding insult to inju- ", when the wrong was complained of!
 And in the third place, because the char acter of the works which have had the most widely extended circulation, is such, as to taint and corrupt. the youth of our land, by their open and shameless licentiousness.- Such are few out of many charges which