The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1852-10-21

literary Reviews.
THE GsN OF IHE TIhs-ADonymoas. Red6eld,
New YosS; 1852.
We pronounce this, emphatically, to be a bad
book melancholy Instance ofrsckess book making.
"A better subject could not have been selected;
nothing is more wanted than good biography Of
HviDg men sfnote The Biograraie des Coatempo-
yGss is incomplete, and is, besides growing old it
cont ains many that have fallen into tho do
main Of the past. The London Men Of the Time" was
written expressly for the English market, and is OBJ
nsxious to as severe criticism its American
sake The biographies scattered throughout the En-
syelepcdss aud the Conversations Lexicon, though
carefully prepared, too few III number to supply
the demand for information respecting those whose
names are household words. Ia tho Language
Of President Fillmore. scentemporaneous biography
d precisely the kind of information that every pck-
Ho and intelligent man requires to see." Had the
execution Of Mr. Red6eld's plan been equal tc the
conception, we should have reason to congratulate
ourselves on valuable addition to our literature.
This is, unfortunately, not tho We are in
slned 10 think that the sMeu Of the Time" must have
been written in fulGlment Of contract, in which
the author bound himself to furnish so many pages
Of matter, and the publisher many dollars Such,
~ the least is the natural inference from the cha
sacter of the WORKSHOP is the only hypothesis on
which we explain the omissions and the gross
errors with which it abounds.
There is no department in which it is not
wTetehedly incomplete or inaccurate, or both. In
some eases, the lives Of insignificant individuals
are given At length, while the more distinguished
names entirely omitted. In others, we have .
wretehed traveste of a popular author-half his
claims to fame omitted and the most unmeaning
criticisms substituted for judicous appreciation Of
his merits. Five lines are sufficient for one whose
name will 60 down to posterity, while the meagre
biography Of country editor rsvels in the roomy
tpace OF whole page As is the case in good many
other books which have been published in this coun-
try, foreigners ruthessly sacrificed to Americans
ana while French general is barely mentioned, a
Yankee lawyer, doctor, or members of Congress has
the pleasure Of seeing every event of his life chron
eled, from his christening to his last fit of dyspepsia
This, we need hardly say, is silly, childish prejudice
Is folly like this which turns the laugh against us
abroad. and has given birth to the imputation of
inorsinate vanity, which every modern traveller
IN the States expatiates at length. "The Men of
the Time" are not all Americans; it would be well
for us if, on q fair computation, French, Germans,
Bpsniards, Englishmen, Scotchmen, lrishmen, Por-
tueuese, Russians, Prussians, Italians, Swedes,
Aussrians, Turks, Asatics and South Americans,
did not outnumber that our share Of the ''Men
Of the Time would exceed tenth of the whole,
Besides Mr.. Fillmore very judiciously rem arks.
the information we require is not American biogra-
ply ; the leading men Of this country have mostly
grewn mp among us, and their lives familiar to
sshoelboys It il with the foreigners, whose names
are constantly mentioned in the newspapers and in
conversation, that we DESTROYS Of becoming ac-
suainted. Everybody knows the white coated phi
lesspher, with one trouser leg inside and the other
outside his boot; his exploits and campaign tracts
have been sufficiently advertised in the Tribune to
need no further enumeration in volume contempt
Tsneous biography but we should really like to
hear something moro of the author of Festus -
than that he was the son of an editor, and wrote
couple Of books. Nobody will thank the author
Of the Men Of the Time,'' for biography Of
Thurlow Weed; but four lines is poor allo vance
Ssr the editor Of tho London Times. II may be,
perhaps, harmless superfuty to favor us with
the lives Of all the bishops and leading preachers of
New York and the vicinity, but this should not
have involved the omission of the Padre Ventura,
who contests the palm Of oratory with Ldc,dare or
he modern Peter the hermit, Christoferos Nor
DO the notices Of captains, colonies, generals Of
militia, compensate us for the absence of General
BsdeAu, Sir Joseph Thaokwell, Sir Harry Smith,
Garibaldi, Avezzana, Benz, Wrangel, and thou
sand others.
The same carelessness and injudicious choice Of
materials is visible in the biographies Of the lead
ing men in every path of sminence. We have
here several painters Of whom the world never
heard before but the chaste Corbould, the finished
Isabey the rich Diaz, are wanting; and, will it be
believed! neither the preRsphaelite leader, Mlay,
NOR his apologist, Ruskin, are mentioned, even BY
name. With the exception Of barley and Gavarni,
AL the eminent artists Of France and England are
omitted. "Punch" 10 represented by Mark Lemon,
while Doyle and Leach are deemed unworthy Of
notice and Gilbert, whose felike sketches are 50
popular, the witty Cham, the versatile Tony johann
mot, Beckett Foster, the Constable of wood dra y.
ing, are not to be found. Neither Wyatt nor
Tough are enumerated among the sculptors of the
day; and Powers, whom to beslaver with injudici-
Gus praise is to insult, is pronounced the mmedi-
ate successor Of Michael Angelo.
Surgery is represented BY Sir BENJAMIN Brodie
and DR. Valentine Mott. The former is even
grudged some half dozen lines, and his admirable
works are disposed Of as "ene or two practical
books In abiding to the igature Of the artcria
ann01',nata, the honor Of which is claimed by Sir
Ashley Cooper, rs well as our own countryman, DR..
Mott, no mention whatever il made of the former;
. sxpprcssio rG-i, perhaps excusable in . country
editor, whose zeal tor his country's fame is not
Satisfied with an enumeration Of her undisputcd
triumphs, but ruinous to the reputation Of work
like the one under review. Most of the other lead
ing surgeons and ply sicans are ignored. Neither
Velpeau, nor Champion, nor Trousseau, nor Haw-
kins, nor Lawrence, nor Elliottson, eminent
countryman, Ricord, are deemed by the compilers
Of this work, Men Of the Time" The record Of
science is equally meagrcA Dumas is there, it is
true; but where are Orfla, Gaylussac, and Liebigl
We have Hcrschel, whom everybody knows, and
Mitchell is unmeaningly lauded; but his eloquent
lectures do not seem to have fallen into this book.
makers hands, and Nichon and Lassels are obviously
strangers to him. This appears loss surprising,
when we find, in the sketch Of Adams, that the
pier has only heard of fifteen planets 1t may, per-
haps, seem q matter Of wonder that Robert Ste
pAenson should have been honored with place in
this medley, while similar tribute is denied to the
author Of the Thames Tunnel, Brunei, and to the
' talented q al Is tSa
unknown clergymen, Of every creed, scattered
tAroughout tho United States. By way Of sompen-