New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-11-13


sive even to puerility. This morality is based
not upon the superficial differences which exist
between men, but only upon the essential unity
which these differences attest 1t comprises
the sphere of mans relations TO himself-to his
ideal-to his infinite source, where consequent
" the antagonism Of man with man disappears,
and selflove and benevolence proclaim them
selves indissolubly one. Dickens has no sus.
picion of these astral depths in man. Life is
TO him pure surface, bounded on the north
by the head, on the south by the belly,
on the east by the heart, on the west by the
liver. and whatsoever falls without these pal.
pablo limits is double-Dutch and moonshine.
I'm short, he confines his view of man TO what
is ofthe earth earthly, and in so doing is bound.
of course, grossly to exaggerate his characters
in order to pique the interest of his readers.
For, when ones whole conception Of the mys-
terry and majesty of life is limited TO the obyi-
GUS antagonism of virtue and vice, of the
church and the playhouse, it is evident that
the conception will not carry him great way.
and that the jaded palates of nOyel-readers will
speedily crave more piquant rejection. Hence
you find all Dickens's virtue to be necessarily
tainted His virtuous men are like game on
the turn, appetising to q sophisticated taste.
but revolving TO healthy one. His good men
are morbidly good, good by natural iniirmty as
it were, and hence unexpectedly tiresome.
Was ever the human soul so besmeared and dis
guised as by those benevolent dumplings named
Cheeryblel But the case is the same with the
whole gallery of his portraits. Nowhere man,
but only some vulgar and ludicrous caricature
of him. The proper virtue of man, which pre-
suppOses an exact harmony between his love N
others and his love of himself, utterly fails OF
his recognition, and we have left us instead
mere adipose tumor of sympathy, running
pailluls at every puncture.
ThackerOy on the contrary gives you none OF
these diseased specimens of humanity. His
characters good and bad, are stamped with ns-
lures own signet and every picture is as fresh
and breezy as the early cock-crowing He has
tIt DoluHtes W pdlut cNacty 40 NO hhuS
them, and does not busy himself to give an cpl
cal shape to characters which nature herself
leaves incomplete. The only figure in the style
of Dickens lie ever attempted is that OF Amelia
in Vanity Fair, and how unyeracious and para
lytic creature does she prove, beside his own
immortal and Incompatible Becky! Thackeray
nowhere Processes to descry the great future OF
humanity his writings neither avow nor disavow
a belief in mans approaching redemption out of
mantile vanity and falsehood; yet his instincts
are so noble and salutary that he always re-
mains aloOf from the arena where our Lillpu-
tian moralists contend nor ever for a moment
ducks his manly head to the strdent inanities
which claim to regulate Unpopular intelligence.
He is often called a sceptic, but clearly this is
not because he dsbelieves in perfect goodness,
but Only in that which is imperfect, being ex-
tremely conscious of itself.
Mr.. Thackeray's purely literary merits do
not need to be pointed out they are familiar
to all readers. His calm observation, which
always gives You man. and not some micro
SCOPE and grotesque exaggeration of him; his
unstrained narrative, which perfectly mirrors
his subject, whether pOmpous or plain; his die
ton, so colloquial yet so precise, so unaffected
yet so picturesque, where so much is painted
by word, aud yet so much more is limited to
the imagination; the total absence of artiiice
and effort in his dclineatiOn of character; tho
graceful bonhommie which enlivens his thought
as the blood eBliyens the skin; the genial
humOr that kisses and comforts the nGrmity
it sports with; the sense you feel throughout
all his scenes of reserved power greater than
has been displayed and then, over all, the air
of thoroughbred and manly repOse reflected
upon the person OF the author himself; all
these things are plain to every eye. Instead of
dwelling on these traits, therefore, let us sim
ply welcome Mr. Thackeray to our shores, and
abide the charming entertainment he is pre-
pared to set before US. If he stay long enough
with Us, he will discover that we also put forth
many legitimate prOyOcatyes TO satire though
hardly to satire of SO bland temper as his
own. Our fOllies need not 80 much good-na.
tured ridicuie, as sorrowful and indignant rep
rotation, for they are not the mere dtbris and
wreck Of old manners which boast a lingering
decency even in decay but rather the brand
new inventions Of an underbred and prosper
Gus vulgarity. And besides, the abatement of
these evils would seem properly to belong to
homebred satirists, who feel glow of hearty
shame in being somewhat implicated in them
Mr.. Thackeray, We doubt not, like all sensible
persons, will more gladly contemplate the ad-
mirabe lesson which here on every hand will