Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-07-16
pictures ia legitimate style of art He is La To

detunct heroes some or whom have been
in funeral state over a century Mr. Thaekeray has
none Of that spirit which in past ages eanoniz u dead
mems bones lie bauters the ghost o. that ghtfu
rascal the irresistible Mr. congreve" the greatest lite
rary swell of his time, though he were still some
living and blooming pink of elegant snobbery be hoba
nobs with poor Dick Steele though nearly GEN.
fury and half had not elapsed since he commanded the
Life Guards scrubbed for the Taer, sighed for the
beautiful Mrs. Bracegrdle wrote ove-letters to his
I'D dearest Prue," skulked from the baifs and went
home tpsy in many chair, after many bottle in many
tavern he mocks the grave of @ Larry Sterne
as though the sofenng hand of time had long ago
consigned his " bale of cadayerous goods the same
place where the dead ackass he has immortazed went
before him. And you extract better morality than
this Mr. Thackeray, from all these Of saints and
Sinners lay and clerical Instead Of your castron smiles
would like you burst out into little hearty de-
nunciaon There plenty for lecture when you
have such wild blades Smoet Fielding lecture
upon and instead Of simpering the old prebend of
York with .hs sentimental driDble, why don't you give
him few lusy kicks and have done with tg And the
Dean of ST. Paricks not quite the demon you have
drawn him his /" blood was bad" according to Mr..
Leigh Hunt, and the had canker at the heart
which rendered him rather the most wretched than the
worst of men but like what you say of him in
clusion
g An immense genius an awful downfall and ruin. SO
great man he seems to that thinking of him is like
thinking Of an empire falling We have other great names
to mention-none l think, however, SO great so
gloomy
Still less forgive you for treating Addison
Pope complained that Addison treated him His many
virtues deserve than the faint praise you award
him, and his !" fault" at which you hint " as being
past praying for was not great, we hope, you
would represent That he loved old wine and sometimes
soohed his often infrmities by potatons Of his mild
/ \
hand did not often shake he himself informs il did
that bright May morning when he wrote to Mr. Wyche
" the honest gentleman that it shaking" thanking
him for the present of hoe Joseph lived before
the temperance reformation of Mr. Delevan and was no
worse than his contemporaries; it deemed quite
scrptura and proper in those days partake of wine
that maketh glad the heart of man. and to imbibe lit
tie for the stomachs sake considered an apostle
lcal prescription. Addison, good churchman he was,
would as soon have questioned the "apostocal success
sion this dictum of ST. Pauls We have wiser grown
We wonder at such ignorance. We surprised that
our ancestors should have been much inferior to in
virtue and morality But they will have their revenge.
Be patient ye raduced men and of the eighteenth
century Fifty years more, and poserity will
sit in judgment we now sit in judgment over
you.
Most readers, presume will expect to find some
thing about humor in these lectures English Huorsts
But Mr. Thackeray wastes time in learned dsquisi-
ton on the nature and of that intellectual plea
sure which thus denominae Perhaps he thinks with
Congreve, who of its masters that cannot
tell what wit and humor are" In fact it is more
cessary to know what joke is before cracking than
it is that should know how the kernel gets in the
before crack the shell to extract it, The good Dr.
Barrow well says in Of his sermons that it be de-
manded what the thing speak of is and what this
Righteousness doth import the only reply is that which
Democritus made to him that asked the definition of
man "'Tis that which we all see and know" 1t is in
deed thing versatile and multiform, appearing in
many shapes SO many pastures, SO many garbs so va
riousy apprehended by several eyes and judgments that
less hard settle clear and certain know
ledge thereof than to make portrait of Proteus
define the figure Of feeting air The most exhaustive
catalogue Of such occasions give birth wit humor
may be found in the 1.-THE fourteenth of the
great ornament or the Britioh PArspicacy
of that mans intellect surprising than all the
wit and humor the world has witnessed
We have heard it remarked that humor in its most
genuine forms is indigenous to the soil of England
observation 1t appears to u.s. patriotic than true.
Yoltare, in Of his literary pamphlets, Indignantly
pels the assumption which it seems was made as early
his day 1t had been charged that the French Ian
guage contained no word equivalent to the English word
humOr charge which the philosopher by quot
ing word used by COrneie WITH he says, precisely
the Specification, and adds that urbania used
by the Lans in the time of Augustus expression
Of similar import better than this think,
would have been if voltare had said that his country
men certainly had the thing if its name early
the time of Rabelas the cynical old curate Of Mendon
The admirable fooling" Of this ascvious and basphe-
ecclesiastc is said be above all praise by those
who have read him Such at least the English Urqu
hars opinion, is sufficiently evinced by the enthusiasm
and fidelity Of his translation For part are
weak enough to say have read this renowned
book though we commenced to do with the best
intentions of prosecuting the task. But would as
turn nightscavengers for the sake Of finding few
filthy waits as to wade through this Of reekine
Ordure for the purpose Of picking the "gems Of wit
with which it is said to be garnished One feels
monialy uncean ever after touching the friend Of Pa
nurge. The "prnce OF buttons he may be, but his
feats Of ground and lofty tumbing wonderful
! for their ndecency than agility.
Human nature being much the same in all ages, we
presume that the has found its
place in the literature and society Of all civilized and
fined people. The Greeks and Romans doubtless were
not destitute Of but intangible and is
the quality that need wonder If IT nearly all eludes
grasp long it is hidden in unknown alien
tongue Col Mure, in his admirable history Of Greek
literature has concusvey shown that many parts Of the
Homerc odyssey written in humorous and sportive
ven which had wholly escaped the observation Of all d
dactic commentators and aagelatng pedagogues. IT.
Barrow says the witty humorous sometimes eth in