The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-09-05
GREEK AGAINST CREEK.

" Perforations in the Latter Day Psmphlets,I
by one of the eighteen millions of bores edited
by Elizur Wright" is the significant title of
pamphlet Of forty-eight pages, from the press of
Phillips, Sampson, g. Co, of Boston. 1t lisa keen
ly-written and spiritual review of the recent ex-
traordinary publications of Thomas Carlyle; and
it is too little to say of it that piece of vigor
Gus writing it is at least equal to the best of the
essays which it criticses; while in the matter Of
common sense, sound philosophy, and humanity,
it infinitely transcends them. Its author is well
known throughout the country as an original and
piquant newspaper editor, and this last produc-
ton Of his pen is by no means likely to diminish
his reputation. Nothing like it or equal to it
has ever appeared on this side of the water. 1t
reminds one of the wt-seasoned and eloquent po-
litical essays of Backwood, with the substitution
Of liberalism for conservatism. The author, while
he shows his ability to maintain close and logi-
cal argument, meets his antagonist on his own
ground with his own favorite weapons of sarcasm
caricature, and ridicule and, in dealing with his
political heresies and absurdities, acts upon the
seemingly contradictory advice Of the wise man
of old, and answers him according and not ac
cordng to his folly
As a specimen of the style and argument Of
Professor Wrights pamphlet, we give two or
three extracts from that portion of it devoted to
the consideration of Carlyles ultra mOnarchical
notions of government, bio h~-.;i;.y 40 a'i"--~~i
suffrage and his maintenance of the divine right of
certain unknown, wise and heroic individuals to
take the reins of absolute power, and govern ma
tions after the summary fashion of the Dictator
of Paraguay, or the old Deys of Algiers.
"Prophets aud historians, less extravagant than
CARLYLE have had the trick since time began Of
looking at the monarchy or the dynasty, or the
name as the nation; and through their deceptive
writings we always see governments and dynas-
ties, and their fights and feuds excessively mag
n6ed or distorted beyond their due relative i'm
portance Indeed we see in history but little else
The real history of the racei hidden behind that
of ambitious usurpers Of government, or ratherlt
totally lost for the want of historians. We know
something of Pharoah, and Nebuchadnezzar and
Alexander, and Hero and his wonderful servant
Archimedes; but what DO we know Of the Egyp-
tisn farmer, or the Assyrian markct-man, or the
ancient Sicilian peasant The exceptional men
have been written, but we find not the representa-
tive men, the samples of the mass So we learn from
history about as much of ancient human life as
we should now learn of actual European life by
visiting n dozen courts, in all of which we should
find French spoken and costumes, morals, and
manners all cut to the Paris pattern beg
leave humbly to doubt whether the historical rise
and fall of potentates and empires, the develop
ment and decadence Of ancient civilizations and
the eruptions and irruptions of barbarians, real
ly ever had much significance to the human race
at large humbly doubt for example, whether
the dispersion of the Jews and their condemna-
ton to the Old Clo' lyrics throughout the cities
of Christendom was ever any considerable calam-
ty out of narrow circle of chief priests scribes,
and pharsees Pyramids have ceased to grow in
the valley of the Nile, but corn has not, and pos
sibly the latter may be more justly distributed
among the mouths than when the Pyramids were
more tourishing The historical glory ola people
may be one thing and their solid comfort quite
another
aCaryle not only mistakes human nature
itself, but he overlooks the very conditions of the
grand problem of human society. Those condi-
tions have 80 changed within four hundred years,
that the whole anterior history Of the race is
made ndecisive if not valueless. Possibly what
he says of universal suffrage might have been
wisely said while nine-tenths of the race were OF
necessity machines, mere beasts of burden, wheth-
err bond or free. Up to four hundred years ago,
there was nothing on which a civilization could
rest except human slavery, under one name or
another In that day Of the worlds infancy
this is only its childhood-it knew not its right
hand from its left. 1t knew neither the cir
culation Of the blood nor the pressure of the at.
mosphere. II could entertain no astronomical
theory more probable than that the moon is green
cheese, the sun broad red-hot toasting iron, and
the earth pancake. 1t neither yokcd FIRE and
water, nor harnessed the lightning. 1t had no
cotton factories, nor steam horses, nor even gun
powder And, above all things, it had no news
papers or printing presses Now, given at the
egress from Noahs ark, if such egress there ever
were the arts and sciences as they are In 1890,
would the history OF the last four thousand years
be such as we find IL : Would there have been
Babel and the Pyramids, and the Phsroahs, and
Solomon. and Nebuchadnezzar, aud Xerxes, and
Alexander, and that beauty, Caligula, and that
long dynasty Of still greater Christian beauties
breathing at this day out Of its element in the
unfortunate Pic Nino 2"
Passing over the part devoted to Capital Pun
ishment, in which the inhuman and anti-Chris-
tian doctrines of Carlyle are very efectually
handled, we have only space for paragraph or
two from the concluding pages, touching the slave
question Speaking of the a.rocious bill now be-
fore Congress for the recovery of fugitiEeS, he
says
1That condition of humanity, as il rises from
the brute towards the God, runs array from with
an esrnestuess which disturbs nations peace,
and bravery that dsfes midnight horrors, dogs,
devils, and distance, must be false condition, and
all efforts to legalire it and eternize II must be
idle and worse. Lost labor Messrs Clay, Web
ster and Cass, yonr cspacious brains, with nll
Princeton and Audover to back you, cannot make
truth Of 80 ugly lie or succsed in contradict
ing the voice Of your Maker which cries aloud In
these long night-marches by the light Of the nm |
cbangeable star Settle Il by your soulless bills |
and judicial array Of petty postmasters! Good
Heavens. You might ms well attempt to unset
tie that star itself by writ Of eecment legis-
late the multiplication table fiction The
eternal congruity Of things cannot unhinge itself
al your bidding"