Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-07-19

the discovery of truth is the " FIRST fair and rst good OF
human acquisition, but from restless desire to unsete the
present foundations of belief and the generally received facts
Of history II against such historical freethnkers that
Wordsworth inveighs in the welLknown sonnet:
" Those old creduities, to nature dear,
Shall they no.longer bloom upon the stock
Of history, snpt naked rock
Mid a dry desert What 10 il that we hear
The glory Of infant Rome must disappear,
Her morning splendors vanish, and their place
Know them no more. II Truth, who veiled her face
With those bright beams, yet hid it not must steer
Henceforth On humber course, perplexed and slow,
One solsce yet remains for US who came
Into this world in days when story lacked
Severe research, that in our hearts we know
How, for exciting youths heroic fame,
Assent is power, belief the soul Of fact"
Such is poets apprehension Of these historical Pyrrhos
but that against which protest is not severs research
but the peerse and petuant ingenuity which fertile in the
discovery Of cav but barren in the establishment Of facts
Wecan professno admiration for such Giant Doube
whether they be German Germanized Englshmen, than
for their lusrious prototype in Bunyans matchess aegoy
The early history Of Greece and Rome indeed Of the An
glosaxon Conederacy, is involved in great obscuiy, and
that there 10 much in the legendary annals Of prehistoric
times that is entitled credence does not admit of dis
pue But because the narratives Of the old chronicler
often contradictory and sometimes absurd because Puarch
is given dramatic storytelling and old Herodotus relates
with such delightful naus the wondous tales which Egyp-
an priests imposed his easy creduy, justified
in their total rejection equally irrational to believe all
like Rolin and Barthelem to reject all false
like Forchammer and others. It is best do Mr. Groe
has doneto give the legend simply it narrated by the
people among whom it became popular without attempting
into thesis for the raising Of ingenious theories
and improbable specuaons that minister nothing the ed
fcation of the reader.
1t the Of such critics Strauss scout myth
legend every thing they do not wish to believe As il
usraton of this fashion or springs from the
in literature as " Boomersm" in manuamakinghe naked
novelty of the hing let adduce instance from the early
history Of the Saxon mgraons towards the shores Of Britain.
There is legend that in the year 449 A. D., Hengs and
Horsa the head Of horde Of Saxon reebooters made
descent upon England with the benevolent that
which lately actuated similar band Of BUCCANEERS under the
conduct Of the valorous Lopez Now, this "legend has
been transmitted to the credit Of Beza and all succeed
ing chronicle that while it may be true the German
Lappenbeg asserts that Teutonic tribes from the time
the Roman invasons, settled the eastern Of Britain
yet has been universally believed that there was spec
immigration about the middle Of the fifth century But Mr.
Kemb broher of the talented and Shakspearesn
reade in his recent history Of The Saxons in England
dscards the whole story myth and destitute of all
foundation in fact Hengt and Horsa he assures u.s. were
not real personages, but poetic or legendary appea
ives6ctous derived most probably from the pic
tued banners sometimes borne by the Saxon tribes and ALL
fosoot because in the Saxon tongue Hengst is the
for horse and Horsa the feminine appeative of the equine
quadruped. Let how some facts which "are most
surely believed among will fare when tried by the same
test after the lapse Of ages When American history shall
have become legendary, and Poynssian punds come to
write "crcal account Of the late Mexican war; the whole
story, fear (fo the fame Of its heroes) will be regarded
"myth and the actors in the affair be proved as myth
cal as any of the personages that figure
/" In Pope's line,
And the tale Of Troy divine"
The "bale Of Buena Vista" will then turn out after ALL
to be only socialist ballad popular diy "strike
for higher wages Of journeymen knights who welded
needles like swords with Taylor and Wool at their head
engns Of their saroa professions for it is clear says the
future Kemble that 7ayr and Wool merely names
the two banners borne in procession by the nsugen journey
menhat s, suppose the representing the ninth
fraction Of seated Ia Tke while on the other were
depicted luxuran feeces of ooo typical Of the product
most important to the cloh-cuHg ORDER When Patsgonis
shall renounce all anthropophaga tastes and take found
ing universities, may expect that learned professors will
deliver projections and write progomena the egends
will figure as fabulous dem-god, christened Winfield be-
cause Of bis imputed success in arms Po,o fictitious
pseudonym for doughty chefain fond Of stung his mill
tay figure with other peoples feathers; Gushing as one
those words parce dorta person the hoyday soldier
better able to sit cushion than ride on saddles Worth
aegorcal creation similar Ossa in the Honert
poems, or Fama in the Eneid while as to Quitman we
imagine commentators will differ, and be sorey vexed tc
decide whether compound ephet employed BY Ame
rican Scads to desgnaea chief who used exhort hi
cansmen to "qut themselves like men, or whether it was
because the man threatened to and quiz the Amer
can Unon Achilles did the Grecian League before the
walls of Troy We respectfully submit whether the Patago
nan professors will have made as clear and plausible
case as Mr.. John Mitchell Kemble.
We have Observed with great qualification, that neither
Mr. Gote nor Col Mure have prosttuted their talents by
pandeng this historical skepcsm, and that without
subecng themselves the mpuaon Of caelesness
duty in their statements They have held the scales Of his
torc scrutiny with steady and impartial hand. We are
pleased observe this because indications have not been
wanting in several recent publications that the eaven
Of unbeef has begun to pecoae the body and Undue the
spirit Of English literature Now, there may be certain lido
syncaces very becoming in German that will never be any
thing better than foul upon the Engshmsn,
and that which may have become second nature to the
must forever remain an insurable aecaon in the other
ne preserves in connexion with it. his distinctive nationality
would Be some consolation f the characteristics Of the Ger.
man mind were reproduced English BY sue intel
ectua vgor to do justice what is ntrnscay great their
ggannc literature but this hope forever preclude by the