Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-04-19

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SHORT REVIEWS.
ESSAYS AND REVIEWS, by EDWIN p. WHIPpLE
volumes second edition. Boston Ticknor, Reed &
Fields PIP. 42l and 40s. Washington Taylor and
Mauy.
Mr. WHIPPLK's contributions to the Moth American and
other Reviews have for him the reputation Of Of the
most acute and vigorous writers Of the day These are
collected and this second edition is the bet evidence Of the
welmeied popularity Of his writings His style is clear,
ese and brilliant and his criticisms sufained and guided
by principles undebssed by the of philosophy so rife
in certain circles, who claim for 1t higher standpoint
than is supplied by the Bible and common snse.
The subjects Of these Essays and Reviews are selected
with fine aste and are all discussed with vuied learning and
eminent ability. Among them have on Macaulsy,
Taourd, Sidney Smith, Wordsworth, Byrn, shakspsares
Critics. Souths Sermons, the old British Dramatas and
two charming articles Of biographical devoted Hen
Fielding and Richard Brnsey Sheridan, and two articles
of distinguished interest and ability on Danid Webster and
Rufus Cheate.
We wish to give Mr.. Whipple leave 70 speak, and the
reader will sure, be best pleased with opportunity
Of forming opinion for hmse and that he may do so
make the following extracts from pungen rticle Justly
and fectousy styled the g Romance of Raseaiy" The
article is admirable throughout and most unhspy true to
the letter. We fear the caustic applied by Mr. Whip
pie will do little to expae the leprosy which hs been SO
widely difused
Rascaty is the rage and asserts its exfence with
an emphasis Il has forced the passages leading the
pie Of fame and breaks into literature was won't break
into houses Things heretofore considered incapable Of
apology adornment, the fixed facts Of guilt aid crme
which charity itself doomed to nfamy obivon now
thrust into faces canded with panegyc and cha
longing respect The thief and the cutpurse, he mur
der and the incenday and swagger the sunny land
Of romance It is saturnala Of complacent blacuardism
and vulgar vany, tricked out in the casof ppey Of Sir
Charles Grandson and Thaddeus Of Warsaw. Its Satan
slipper. And from the whole comes complex hgrance
made up Of sulphur and lavender, hot pitch and de Co.
bgne."
SIN English literature the poet who has done his
writings disturb the natural relation Of things, and give to
sympathy an unnatural direction, is Lord Byron. The
strength Of his genius shown in his in making
caly fashionable He awakened the sensby Of the An
go-Saxon for misanhropc rakes gentee robbers and
sentimental pirates He preached that the height Of wisdom
hatred Of mankind and that all the herosm Of society
among its outcasts This he did with such force Of
passion aud splendor Of Imagination that
bafied in every attempt to reach him by invective rd
cue Ascending higher he at last taught that heroism
sisted in opposition to lawpartculary to that which og
skeG-anQ
resoutely bearing the tortures of the damned This
lifting rascaity to the sublime and many ambitious gentle
began seriously to think of turning rascals Fortunately
however, for their morals, if not for their necks host Of
nitaton commenced writing in this veins an opportunity
offered the philosophy Invested Of s sensbily
and imagination. This worked magical change in public
sentiment The imtators hooted and hissed into OBJ
von into their and the Newgae calendar was no
longer vered II to the honor Of Byron that he did
about the rascay he preached Instead Of teaching
duIto
steadily ncucaed that the flavor Of sin came from dsobe
dience law, and that without the sense Of violated
science wckedness very fiat and tasteless affair He
was incapable Of jusfyng bertinsm BY philosophy Of
immortality and making pander to the will he would
descend into the pit with the fierce plunge Of the
caaracnot creep it afours. He never stopped to
that cowardy perfection Of intellectual meanness which rep
resens asehood to marriage oahs one phase phanhro
py, and sin in moral babbe about nature
| conventionality sGt
The of mark who illustrated rascality for the
edi6cation Of nobility and gentry Bulwer. man o
great talents and master Of style Of singular fascinaon h
still deficient in health and robustness Of mind. Hi
nature morbid and, like all morbid writers who are de-
voured by ambition for ame he sought to produce effects
not by sku combinations Of realities but by striking exhi
bitions Of rascaties His accordingly fle
with characters almost every Of whom deserves TO
hanged or whipped but who, in the opinion OF the wte ar
evidently very clever people, He endeavors hard to max
rascality gentee by converting rascas into coxcombs
compounds hero from Beau Brumnell and Dick Turpn
ne must nave MIN nat enough to please Bond street, an
brave enough for Hounsow Heath. At one time his her
reminds Of that exquisite who had brought his charms
such pitch Of perfection that be compelled to carry
club in the streets ito keep off the women at another,
just the to make picturesque appearance on tn
gallows Through incident description, character, ther
runs percepbe vein Of rsscay Let reader of health
mind Judge Of Bulwers books by particular portions or
the impression of the whole, and be will see radical defet
in the writer's mode Of looking M He distorts object
instead Of representing he and at best achieves but eo
quent falsehoods. aH#
"Buwer introduced romantic crascaly into drawing rooms
and aimed to make the companion of people Of rank an
fashion He cared little the poor mob Of readers II rename
for Answorh, and other novests of low order of talent
debauch the popular mind and manufacture romance for h
vulgar Jonathan Wild, Jack Sheppard and Dick Turpn wer
the results Of attempt to give the people Of rai
caty for themselves Their stimulated study Of b
Of the hanged TO obtain heroes for intense novels
and the romancer emerged from his researches rich in tn
spois Of the prison and the gaows The result was gen
era adelvey into literature Of the convics of centuries
The popular imagination laden with the exploits Of rob
bers and murdere. This stimulating the intellect
the people with and gin and il succeeded. The 70
ances eagerly reprinted here and eagerly purchased
There was but thing waning to complete the evil, an
that was morality which justified rsscaity, and made
philosophical well romantic. This supplied
| France. 4-a tgs+
" The vice OF the French mind is its tendency 10
into extremes. II abhors just medium between oppost
faults. With regard to religion, II In superstition
atheism in government it flies from serviiy to license vi
literature passes from cold correctness to convulsve de
formity. France is almost the only country which coul