The New York herald., 1845-02-05

more than usual degree of attention. Some Of
them philosophical, and some unphilosophical
! some Of them purely literary, and some of them
OF mongfel description, half literary and half
politcal-some OF them affect great elegance, and
some appear 10 glory In alliance with the cheap
and nasty" school-some are splendid with plates
of the fashions" and some are luminous with
" distinguished" faces seen in the White House or
at the Pewter Mug'-but all are alike charac-
terized by one common tralt-a sort Of second
hand ism as II may be called. These magazines
may indeed be properly described as the Rag Fair
or Chatham street of North American Iiteratrr
They have about the same claims to originality,
that the conversation OF Graiiano had 10 sense
, "Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing
more than any man in all Venice. His reasons
are as two grains Of wheat hid in two bushels of
chaf; you shall seek all day ere you find them !;
and when you have them, they are not worth the
search"
The purely literary magaznes-such as the
"Knickerbocker," the s'Lady's Magazine" sJira-
han's Magazine" the "National Magazine" and
swarm of otbers-are the most namby-pamby,
wishy- washy affairs imaginable. They are gene
rally filled with silly stories, in which the sentiment
is often spurious as the style, and never, in any
w q
( terest with the tamest of Mrs. Sherwood's "Tales
! for Children" And even here we look in vain for
any approach to originality The stories, trashy
they are, appear to be merely duplicate of the
trash with which the shelves of circulating libraries
were filled before the advent of Walter Scott,
James, the Porters, and Miss Edgeworth- the
same approved materials of sentimental masters
and misses-inexorabe mamas and inhuman pa
I al 4 .
rious adventures and inconceivable denouements-
which make up the staple of such romances as
Emma, or the Child Of Misfortune"
or the Sorrows of Heart''-"Laura, or the Mys-
terious Marriage"-still constituting the never.
failing stock IN trade of these magazine literati
One rather amusing pecularity about these maga-
zines consists in the struggle which appears to be
constantly going on between the male and female
contributors-the women trying hard to be as un-
feminine as they can, and the men laboring with
equal assiduty, and we must say with greater sue
cess, to emasculate themselves much as possible
The male contributors to these magazines may in
deed, be designated with great propriety as the
props and ornaments Of the "Miss Nancy" school
of modern literature. Not satisfied with boring
their unfortunate readers with their an-perstaltic
love stories, and painfally elaborate attempts at
criticism, these Miss Nancies" must needs
thrust their physiognomies before the public
eye. and accordingly we are treated, in some
of these magazines, to portraits Of their !" dis.
| tinguished Contributors which are certainly
quite characteristic, and in instances corro-
borate very remarkably the theories of Lavater-
Aectation, conceit, and stupidity. appear in every
line OF the wretched engravings One of these
lteratemrs is represented in Lord Byron attitude,
\ IL. L
locks just released from the paper Another is de-
picted in the act of writing for the magazine, ga
zing nently the floor as if he expected an idea
to make its appearance through trap-door, or as
if he were sitting for an illustration Of the classic
description-"fat contented ignorance looking
down upon the earth" Then the portraits are ac.
companied by ''accounts of the life and writings
of the distinguished Originals" iG which Wishy
Washy Blockhead Smith bepufFs and bespatters
with all manner of eulogy Mandy Pamby Jenkins,
and Nanny Pamby Jenkins bepuffs and bespatters
Wishy Washy Blockhead Smith, and SO on TO the
end Of the chapter.
But let us turn to more pretending magazines
| such as the Democratic Repiec and the Whig Re-
view, and see if can find in them any thing like
originality manhood. Alas! we only find in
them the same second hand ism-the same affec:a.
ton-the same barrenness of intellect. There is
not single topic taken up by these reviewers
that has not been discussed in the daily newspa-
pers, and, months before, dismissed from the public
mind settled and determined. The Whie
Reriep is a mere re-hash of all the stale,
fiat, and Improbable paragraphs and stupid
"leaders" Of the whig journals, and the
Democratic Magazine is in like manner the
mere receptacle of all the slip-slop, trash, and
scurrility OF the locofocO party prints. And yet
these reviewers assume the most pompous tone oi
superiority over the daily journalism of the time
affect to hold the newspapers sovereign contempt
and deal out their musty, second hand con,modi
ties with the air of men scattering gold and silve,
amongs, a scrambling crowd. What renders the
airs of these fellows infinitely amusing is the fac
that they almost universally broken dowr
newspaper paragraphists, and penny newspaper ed
| tors, who have been elected as worthless drones
from the daily press-poor creatures who have tried
to establish newspapers, and breaking down in
month or two, fasten on some unucky publisher
whom they persuade to stau magazine, ia which
they abuse the daily press-fnd fault with all the
established usages of society-ant call names a
every body, for a few months, and then having Ut
terly exhausted their poor victim, the publisher
sink into oblivion and are
| Numbered with the puppies in the mud!
Such is the result-the melancholy resuIt-o
an examination of our magazine literature. 81
long continues in the hands of such conceited
arrogant, uniformed, and trashy hte,utems al
those who now control its destiny, it is clear tina
1t must remain what it is, mere fungous ex
crescence-unseemly, disgusting, and TO be got rit
OF only by complete excislon.
---
HE MISSING PAcKETs.-No tidings yet of thu
United States and England 1t is fair to suppos.
that they, having been dismasted, have "pu
away" for some Southern port. They may now b,
at the Western Isles, or Lisbon, or perchance a
Bermuda. We recollect a year or two ago, wheI
the Vile de Lyon was given up by almost ever,
one, she safely reached Bermuda, but in dismast