The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-02-27

and thorough Appreciation OF his beauties.-
That Junus had devoted days and nights to
the study of his immortal epic, is evident to
the most transient reader. The proof consiste
not so much in the quotation of long passages,
as in the general tone OF bis writings
The energy, the fire, the impetuosity of his
diction, are all Miltonic. His very expires.
sions are, frequently, even uuconsciously to
himself, those of the Paradise Lost; so COM
pletely had he received them liz such an ex-
preston be legitimate) through the poses ofhis
understanding, and assimiated them with the
operstions of his own mind.
Such are the outlines of this essay. Strong
convinced. Doubtless, in less than twelve
month, we shall see some other claim set up,
possessing even greater internal evidences OF
genuineness. The Reviewer, we think with
justice, rejects the generally received opinion,
that all hope of discovering the true author,
has long since been buried in the graves of
those who were his contemporaries. On the
contrary, he says that the prospect Of a disco
very was never SO bright as it is at present.
The publication of the memoirs and private
correspondence of that day, he npprehends,
cannot but throw, every year, fresh light upon
the subject, and every year adds to the num-
Der of such. Besides the additional letters of
Horace Walpole, we have had, of late, the
Chatham Correspondence, the Selwyn Cores
pondence, the Memoirs and Letters of the first
Lord Lyttelton, the Bedford Correspondence,
edited by Lord John Russell, and others, so
that when the full budget shall have been pre-
scented to the world, it will have clearer in.
sight into the men and incidents of those times,
than it has ever had Of any other era.
There is one objection to the claim set up
for Lord Lyttelton, which we think, is amply
disposed of by the Reviewer. 1t is that when
these letters first commenced, in 1857, he was
but twenty three years old. We are disposed
to think with the Reviewer, that the first of the
series did not indicate any excellence, which
was not within the reach of sprightly young
man of the age indicated. No man, not gifted
with the vision of prophet, could have any
| noresdetected in the first essay, the future au-
| thor of the letters to Sir William Draper, to
the Duke of Bedford, to Lord Mansfield, to Sir
William Blackstone, and to the King, than he
| could have seen in the feeble limitations of the
"Hours of Idleness," the sublime genius
which electrified the world in the last Canto of
Chide Harold and in Manfred. 1t was the
first twitter of the young Nightingale; the
| first essay of the unfedged eagle, preparatory
| to louder note and loftier flight. Like all
| young authors who are ever destined to arrive
| at eminence, he improves as he goes along.
| He becomes more familiar with his tools his
style acquires strength and consistency; he
grows gradually confident in his powers
| and he bursts upon the world in the fulness of
matured capacity, in that letter to the Public
Advertiser which brought Sir William Draper
into the arena.
All these circumstance make in favor of the
Reviewers theory, yet we are far from believ-
ing, as we have already said, that he has es-
| tabished it. Indeed, we should be sorry to
see Junius SO completely identified that there
| would be left no room for doubt. 1t would
destroy an infinite source of agreeable conjec-
ture, aud cut up by the roots, the subject of
many an interesting volume yet to be writ
ten. After all, the pleasure, like that of fox
chase, might be found, to consist more in the
pursuit than in the capture of the game.
Kempelen's famous chess-player was for years
the marvel of the whole world. Some Ger
man Prince bought it, and having found oat
how it worked, threw it into an old garrett,
where it remained for seventy years, until i,
was revived by Maelzel.