Weekly national intelligencer., 1850-10-26
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS, LITERATURE, AND
THE FINE ARTS in NEW YORK

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. LITERATURE. AND
8 The FINE ARTS in NEW YORK.
LwRTTxx FOR THE NATIONAL INrELLI6EScER.1
aHslie New York, OCTOBER IL, 1850.
.a Under me title OF the L0rgnefe, or Studies Of
the 7OsCy, 6y an OperGg very clever satirist
has been amusing himself and entertaining the
public during the past nine months with series of periodi-
cal and sketches of which the twenty h and
has been a the editorial tables this week. The peculiar
osture Of ~ L0vgnene has been that although its ccua
ton has bssn large amongst city readers and indeed
chiefly cond 70 hem the author has been able to maintain
bis inmgo throughout, and the os@syous has given
additional and point to the genemsny sares of John
Timon, sh bsing the de plume OF the writer The
6rst nun made its appearance in January last without
any psev adversing--s neat shilling pamphlet erqui-
se ps snd protesting lobe the results Of lhe observa
lion end lence Of veteran man Of the world in the
polite = New York fashisnable society, communicated
in rseA sasy correspondence to country friend. The
Fospec "A 80 back oH the annouacea il as ga work
of TIE entertainment Of % spinssn Who wish hus-
bands all bsis who admire their own charns all besus
who eapivatsd with their portraits; ell old ladies
who wish to be young; all authors audious Of their own
works; al ashioniss in love with thsr own position all
misses eager to be sn all bachelors booking for fortune
all posts infatuated with their powers; all critics conf
dent Of their tastes and all sensible who content
to be honest" Within the covers the authors vein was
found to be quiet hum refined and une1cepionabe pro-
psty of taste, and style modelled the admirable essays
Of the Spectator nther Of the Connoisser Risr
The Lorgnette leved class of readers difficult to
be got ADJUST that cla which, with all the opportunities
Of literary cultivation psssess the least Of 1.-THE fashiona
bs. 1t made hit and has been during the past year
prominent part of urperodcal literature that its dsap
pearance deserves be noticed forms couple Of
neat volumes got up in very good taste by the publishers
SrRIssER TowssEsD and presents for readers out Of
New York. well in il lively picture Of the foles and
fances Of fashionable life the mercantile metropolis
Partly owing to the success Of the Lorgnette, partly be-
topic broachedard in vogue, like fashion
adopted and recognised beomes all Of sudden the rage
this subject of society in New York" has attery been
ken up by erat small by authors and author
ngs Of all and Sizes and discussed until its coat Of gen.
ty is well nigh threadbare Properly speaking, society in
this city possesses no individuality Of its apart from the
characteristics which mark the social system in every large
city, there are no pecuarbs here But the necessities Of
periodical literature are ve great topic is god
send and dropped until has been worn too thin to
pass current any where At present there is hardly vitality
enough ia the interests Of fashionable society keep alive
weekly and monthly organ the Home Journal and the
Repue du Nouuear Monde, French magazine. edited by
Mr.. REsIs DE TRoBRIASD, Partisan resident in New
York. who possesses in high degree the facility for making
the most out of nothing, and who discusses the opeac
veltes and excements Of the beau monde with all that
gravity Of evity for which French teuletoiss
spicuous.
Gravity and evity apropos to notice Of OLIvER
WKsDELL HoLMEs's late Anniversary Poem before the Phi
Beta Society Of Yale Ceese which has just made it, appear
The title is 2sea the Bsance Of Illusions and
running commentary Of satire upon the age in general the
humor, in senses than one, Of the poet. good
deal of intended sarcasm, which, in the correct Of the
term, deeper than satire, sharpens the point of
Dr. Holiness wit. His New England like hits at New York
have no lack Of venom infused into the shafts by which they
are driven. Take specimen
Sour star-crowned mother, whose informing soul
Clings TO fragment, but pervades the whole,
Views with q smile the clerk of Maiden Lane
Who takes her veptral ganglion for HI brain;
No fables tell Us OF Minervas born
From bags of cotton or from sacks of corn;
The halls Of Leyden science used to cram,
While dulness snored IN purse-proud Amsterdam
When our first Soldiers swords Of honor gild
The stately mansions that her tradesmen build;
When our first Statesmen take the Broadway track,
Our first Historians following at their back
When our first Painters, dying, leave behind
On her proud walls the shadows of their mi1d
When our first Poets flock from furthest scenes
To take in hand her pictured magazines;
When our own Scholars content to dwell
Where their own printers teach them how to spell
When world known Science crowds towards her gates,
Then shall the children Of her hundred States N
Hail her true Metropolis Of Men,
The nations centre. then and not till then :"
The "smel Of the shop" betrayed in the very medical
figure Of the pa gangkon in the above quotation per-
vades the whole poem and stamps it with medical origin
without the need of the authors M. D. New Workers, in
their muaious occupations, even scholars and men Of let
ers here having regular professions apart from their literary
abors as general rule invulnerabe satire butt in all
the practical departments Of literary and scientific effort the
comparative standing Of New York certainly very high
Where il loses ground is in the want Of systematic and per-
pe.ual putting and eIong the part of its citizens Of
its own pre-emneDce and absence Of that mutually of
admiration which enables the lera of other cities TO keep
themselves before the public by assduousy keeping one an
other there Take like Dr. RoBISsoS, for instance
sarant in the Of the term, whose scientific
puation Europe in its peculiar sphere rivals that of any
living oriental Ingns scholar and traveller, and you will
nd that here in New York the knowledge Of his being