Litchfield enquirer., 1847-06-10

cra:cd by their genius, and made better by their influence and example, to the land of shadows and silence. With their horps in their hands, and a song on their lips, they passed away. And who are they that are to fiil inc places of the los. ones. and the dead. in the great arcana Of literature! Whiiher shall we look Tor the rising and increasing lights which are to render less apparent the absence of those Upright orbs of song" which have been quenched in the vortex of world!iness. or darkened by the shadows of death !- Those departed minstrels-how the re- nembrunce of their inspiring words steals over our thoughts in the calmness of soils tude, like the sweet echoes of voices be- loved and cherished in happier years!- But they came not back!-they answer not to our call '! :. "For an iron sleep hath bound them in its
 passicnless embrace: We may WOO, but cannot win them from their
 dreary resting place!'
 Peace to their ashes-im mortality to their fame-repose to their gentle spirits!- And what can we say for those of our na- tive bards who, though living. are yet lost to the world in the spheres of usefulness and honorable distinction which they were wont to occupy !-who have aban- doned the Muses, to woo the favor of the "god oc ahis world," and have turned from the calm shades of Castalia, 10 aream golden dreams in the counting house, or to muse amidst the primeval groves of paper cities, and rrosp- -ctively wield the sceptre of command in States and nations yet to be! Still-though they have gone out from us-we will revere their memory, and cherish :heir fame but worthy of double honor shall he be who shall ultimately succeed in winning them back to their "first leve."
 Another cause for the decline ofpoe:ry' may be found in the lack of just and dis crinninating criticism. Nothlng can be moro fatal to the proper development of !. .o'ent and genius of a people, than the sa sr macy of an ignorant, ilibera', irre> q,z~ sible, cringing class of reviewers.- I. I.G;scriminaie praise, on the one hand aai unl aalified and universal condemna> .;nn op the other, seem to us to be the pre- 3ail,ig characteristics of the system of criticism now in vogue. The consequent Ses o'auch state of things, may be clear ], read in the history of the past. The reader has not forgotten the "iron age" in British literature, when few self constituted censors of the periodical press in the falher-land, established, and for a while maintained, the most complete and systematic model of . literary dcspo,ism, which the world has ever witnessed. By affecting adisinteressed zeal for :he cause of letters, and under the spacious pretext of guarding the public from the imposi' tions of ignorant and ambitious pretend CTS, they succeeded in gaining an inf1u- ence infinitely above their real deserts. Their praise was regarded asa sure pass DOT. to fame, while their censure was looked upon, by both author and reader, as indicating the surest and nearest way te premature oblivion. Few could cen- template appearing before the world in the character of an author, without shrin. king appalled, at the prospect of being compelled to pass this fiery ordeal for few, ed.-and they the especial ob. iects of favoritism-were suffered to pass unsca,hed. Now end then, one among the many aspirants to the honor of author ship, animated by a stern, unyielding spirit, determined tc run the venture, and like the naughty Byron. hurled defiance a1 the shafts of his adversaries, and final. lycame off conqueror. But multitudcs, giving way 10 that timidky which is too often the accompaniment of real merit either withheld their works altogether from the public, or, having once thrown themselves upon the slender mercies" of the snerciless, bowed 10 the storm. nor dar- ed ,o rine even 10 witness iis effects upon those around them. Thus. under the guidarrc of Jeffrey and his lsagued asso- ciates, tAc office H the reviewer. instead of bei~g regarded as a nursery and de" fence of the good and true in literature' became as 1t were, the great slaughter house of genius and the press, instead of .ecnang with the light and life of truth, was necessarily reeking with the blood of the murdered regulations and crushed hopes of its victims.
 Perhaps there is fat less danger Of reaching such state of criticism in this country, than there is of running into the opposite extreme, But it would be we'll for our reviewers to bear in mind, that the distance from Scylla to Charybd's is