The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-04-26
AMERICAN AUTHORS.


by the present system OF p"a,, ,, of origina
;,s long continuance the American Lii
,boush, which is disiInc"'e and it ad
.,.,,,e Our best works. ~ excellence
,;,. ,hs, we have many tEno,;sb than q
&c.. ,b. annoyance rather o. - Tor This re-
- PRODUCTIONS. o a''ou". =, , 49,
America" :, maintains that something iilo'
seno .a'a,;,v Of language is necessary I'M
fhan i0e" che age OF Elizabeth is altogethe
ifefs'" hing from the literature OF queer
GU ,;,ne and vet the language is the same
.h Nav. the literature OF George the
T.;,d,sr .is and that OF the Regency, are alto
rs,ber distinct from the literature oil the pres
O., dav. II cannot be said that the resem
IT,. a,;ses from similarity Of position, foi
o,h;ns can be more dissimilar than the man
,ors customs, ideas, and general tone OF So
80, twisting in the two nations. What the
Times homes TO see, and what, under the opera
,;o, of the treaty il feels confident OF seeing, Is
literature truly national-a literature which
shall be a copy of American manners, senti'
ments, feelings and society; such literature
in one word, as Eng land has, as France has
ss Germany has, all of which are distinct from
each other, and all of which reflect, in their
several parts, the image OF the age IN when
each is given to the world.
Whether the trait in our literature alluded to
bv the Times be properly traceable TO the
source alleged or not, il is certainly very re.
markable. Our authors, many of them men of
capacity equal to any of the day, seem to think
and TO speak only through the medium of their
English models. 1t was not thus that the
Literature of England was established. Had
her earlier writers been content merelylto model
themselves upon the examples of Greece,
Rome and Modern Italy, had they made Eng
lishmen speak and think as they spoke and
thought in Athens or in Florence, had they
drawn for the English stage, or the English
closet, Roman matrons with English names,
or Grecian damsels disappearing in English
costume, that gigantic literature, the boast and
the true glory Of England. would never have
come into existence. Yet they had every
tempta,ion to do so. There were the lteratures
of Greece and Rome ready to their hands, and
controlling the minds of world just aroused
from the slumbers of centuries. The tascina-
lions of the Tuscan school were full before
them. Yet they were not led astray. They
felt that q Grecian philosopher was not an
English wise-man, and that the English mind
could not comprehend him. They saw that
the Roman warrior Of the Republic bore no re.
semblance to the British knight of the Cru.
SADIE. No beauty of coloring, no ingenuity Of
concealment, no change of costume, could
convert the dark.eyed Florentine into the fair.
haired Saxon beauty. They wrote for the
people they saw and knew and dwelt among
and they saw that they would admire pic
ture, the orig inal of which was TO be found
among themselves, far more than they would
the most splendid portrait of foreign subject
In othor words, they drew from nature, and
not from a painting. They described men and
things as they saw them, and their representa-.
tons by their exaGtness charmed all hearts,
even among those who were not familiar with
the scenes or the people.
Our authors seem to have pursued a course
entirely different. They transplant to Ameri.
ca customs that never existed here, men who
not only have Rot been, but who cannot be ma
tive here, scenes which, here, are Cf impossi
BILE occurrence, and manners of which OIL
people know nothing, and for which they care
still less. We have here our heroines formed
on the English model, beautiful and interesting
enough, assuredly, in England, but altogether
out of place here-we have the manners o.
Buckingham Palace, or Carlton House, among
persons who know no more Of either than such
facts as they may have gathered from the
newspapers. We have everything -rnanners
fashions, men, and women, of the latest Eng.
lish model but as for the men and women
and manners and customs, which we SEE
every day, !they are lett altogether out of the
canvass.
What earthly occasion can there be for this
The body Of the literature of particular age
and country, we take to ca transcript of the
mind of that country during that age. The
press is but the echo of the general sentiment
ofthe times. If it were possible to take da
gueneotype ofthe public minds of England
and the United States at this moment, doe:
any man pretend to say that they would beaI
the slightest resemblance, the one to the other
Then when writing of things appertaining to
this country, why 60 to England for plots, fol
scenery, for characters, for everything The
far descended daughters of Dukes and Mar
qulses, how fascinating soever they may be il
the "West End" cut very poor figure in this
republican country. There are no Beckey
Sharps here, for the state of society does no
admit OF the existence of such person.
There are no Jeanne Deans, no Lucy Ashtons
and yet novels written for America, aboun,
with them.
Murillo, the greatest Of Spanish painters
and one of the greatest the world ever saw
would not go TO Italy to study his art. FL
preferred staying at home-p ain,ing for hi
count:ymen-addressing himself to their il
teiiigence by means representations familia
to them all. Let the poet and the fiction wr
Ter OF every description follow his example,
Lei MIN draw from nature, and all will reeop
nlze the fidelity Of his portraits.
g We learn from the Buchanan Record,
that John Nj. Harvey, who resides near III