Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1848-07-06

Shelley could not win word for him. By
ron moved him not. But how he fondled
all old folio how he Rugged some time
hallowed quarto! Wisdom only spoke to
him authorilatively when gray hairs gave,t
authority. The feeling which lies at the
bottom OF our great admiration for old books,
and which Causes us to exaggera,e their
merits, has yet TO be anaIyzed There can
not be doubt that we are more struck bv
shrewd remark in an ancient writer, than by
a profound remark in modern. Is not this
the effect Of unconscious surprise9 Do we
not, in reading an old treatise, sit down pre-
pared to make all sorts Of allowances, which
we never accord to modern? The mod
ern writer speaks, or ought to speak, from
the fulIness Of all time; his predecessors
ought to have enriched him by the legacy
OF their wealth, and this makes us critical in
our demands. But the ancient writer we
read as ancient; his prosiness we forgive,
his mistakes seem excusable, his very mfr
mites have something of the venera,ion due
TO age, while his beauties not only stand out
prominent from the dull background. but
surprise us with their existence. The other
day we were looking over our Plato, and
the passages marked by an approving PEN
Gil, though certainly often happy, and some
times remarkable, were assuredIy passages
which in modern author few pencils would
have paused to indicate; moreover, COM
pared with the quantity of unmarked passa-
ges, and lis small intrinsic value. (apar, from
the charm of language and the historical
value of these remnants Of antiquity it
seemed to US that the passages admired owed
no little 10 the effect of contrasts This led
us into the train of thought expressed above.
If it be just-if we DO read ancient authors
with secret understanding that they had
not the same advantages as moderns, we
shall easily understand how the detection of
grea, beauties in an old book leads the rea-
der into an exaggerated estimate of its supe-
riorlv. And this was Charles Lambs feel
ling. He liked old books because he forgavp
their faults and admired their beauties; and
he liked them because thew were old. He
liked the nonsense of Sir Thomas Browne
set off as it was by glorious glimpses of
wisdom) better than any modern sense; it
guilty about il. This feeling is ntnusnglv
exhibited in letter to Bernard Bauon-lhe
charming Quaker poet-who wrote to him
about proposed edition of THE Pilgrims
Progress" illustrated by Martin:
"a splendid edition of Bunyan's Pilgrimr'
he exclaims; ''why, the thought is enough
to turn ones moral stomach. His cooked
hat Ct ,oI H.
beaver and a Jenny cane his amice gray
to the last Regent-street cut; and his pain
full palmer's pace to the modern swagger.
Stop Thy friends sacriIegious hand No
thing can be done for B. bu, to reprint the
old cuts in as homely, but good style as
possible. The Vanity Fair and the pilgrims
lhere-lhe lily-smoothness in his setting
out conference.-the Christian ldocy Gin
good sense) of his admiration Of the shep-
herds on. the Detachable Mountains; the
Lions so truly aXegoricaz and remote from
any simihtude to Pidcock's"
Here the unintentional imperfeclions of
the old book are Transmitted by affection in
to absolute merits; and so we NAV say of
all other drawbacks which an unpreiudiced
eye might detect. 1t is worth noting that
this ,horougbgoing par,isanship was carried
by Lamb into his friendships. He did rot
love his friends in spite Of their faul,s-he
loved them, faults and all. While on the
subject OF his anliquarianism, we cannot re-
sisl one wt,icism he uttered, when his SON.
net was rejected as not sufficiently delicate
for Annual readers: Hang the agen' he ex-
claimed, II aciH acrite for an'iquiy!" As
wind-up of this subject. let US give what he
says on Burners History:
81 attn reading Burners Own Times
Did you ever read that garrulous, pleasant
history: He tells his story like an old man
past political service, Dragging. to bis sons
on winter evenings Of The part he took in
public transactions, when his 'old cap was
new.' Full Of scandal, which all true his
tory is. No palialives; but all the stark
wickedness that actually gives the momen-
tum TO national actors. Quite the pralle
of age and outlived importance. Truth and
sincerity staring out upon you perpetualIv
in alto relievo. Himself party man, he
makes you party man. None of the ours
ed philosophical Humeian Indifference, so
cold and unnatural and inhnman! None Of
the cursed Gibbonian fine writing, so fine
and composite. None of DR.. Roberlson's
periods with three members. None of Mr..
Roscoe's sage remarks, all so opposite, ard
coming in SO clever, lest the reader should
have had the trouble of drawing an inference.
Burnet's good old pra,te can bring present
to me-the French revolution, by con-
verse perversity in my nature, fling as far
from me.'
*No one, we hope, will msinterpret this into anv
dsparagement Of Plato; it is only saying that read
by the light which Plato himself hel ped to spread
abroad, his works are less important to than they
were to those for whom he wrote them