Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-04-10

that in 1897, or thereaong, his services were trans
ferred to the Democratic Reyiew. What Mr.. Cal
houn said OF his personal relations that they fol,
lowed his political lis probably true of Mr.. Ev-
eret's literary connexions so that the dates which
we have given mark the space occupied in convert
ing him from what our witty neighbor of the Unio,
calls furious Federalst into the regenerateness
of radical Democracy. Wel,".a Cassie says,
/" Heavens above all there be souls that are to be
saved and there be souls that are not to be saved "
In general, the criticisms seem TO us much rather
clever than sound. Two instances may serve to
Justify this judgment of ours in long and labored
paper, he sustains the opinion Started by the pa
triotc vanity of some Spaniard) that " it is nearly
certain that Gil Bias is a translation from the Span
ish - of the Lord knows who, and was, together
with the Bachelor Of Salamanca, stolen from a
MS. which has never seen the light The evil
dences of the fact consist impri,nis, OF the genius
and skill which must be necessary for the compo-
sition of such book when its scene is foreign
country; and secmado, the authors efforts to give
a Spanish air to a novel of Spain, and his having
pretended that the Bachelor OF Salamanca was a
translation Upon just such grounds, Don Quirote
was written by the sage Cid Hamet Benengeli /;
the Tales Of My Landlord by DIR. Dryas-dusi,
and Guliver's Irauels by nobody but the vera
cous Captain Lemuel himself
Our second instance oil unSOundness siiaii coiiie
in shape Of the quotation of two literary opinions,
pronounced Up. 1922 in an article on Voltalre :
!" With regard to the Had and the .Eneid, the for
mer is indebted for large part its reputation
to its curiosity literary monument, and cannot
fairly be brought into comparison Wah any pro-
.duction of a cioiheed age Thus this gentle
man, who thinks the Hiad rather curiosity than
any thing else, next opnes-in pity, Of course, for
its inferiority-that it would be unfair Ito it TO
compare it with any civilized production las for
instance 1--WE suppose) the Columbiad or the Curse
Of Kehama! Yet presently he consents to COM
pare the .Eneid with the "production of a civilized
age" namely. the Henriade; nay, the .Eneid is
what the Liad is mott above one modern produc-
ton for thus continues our critic 90 As to the
.Eneid, if it should be thought extravagant to say
that its merits are greatly superior to those of
the Henriade, it will at least be allowed that they
of the same character" &c. We wonder,
however, how it failed to occur to such a Homero-
mastlx as this, that since the reputation of the Wad
has arisen chiefly out of its curiosity, the Hindoo
and the Chinese poems, the scandinavian Eddas
and Sagas, the Teutonic Niebelungenlied and Hill
denbuch, and many more such .'literary monu-
ments" should not be quite as much admired as
the " tale Of Troy divine"
As 10 the poetic pieces, except " the Poetress,"
which is very pleasing, the TRANSACTIONS the only
ones that betoken any thing beyond mere gentle
manly power of verse-making. The Hermitage,
from the Sanscrt through the French or German, is
prettlly rendered. The attempt at new version
of Burgers Leonora, is, however, any thing but
the flat vulgarisms introduced into it, TO
give 1t all easier air, spoil it.