Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-09-23
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.


NJ d. New York, Geo. p. Putnam. 1852
Methode pour Apprentice Lire par lie Systeme Phone
tique. Seconde Partie. Passage de lEcriture Phone
tique rEeriture Usuelle; par Ad. Feline Paris 1854
We learn from Sacred History that there was o
time when the whole earth was of one language
and of one speech. But it came to pass, as men
sjourneyed from the East, that they found plain
in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there
And they said 60 to, let us build us city, and a
tower whose top may reach unto heaven and let
us make us name, lest we be scattered abroad
upon the face of the whole earth" The issue of
the grand enterprise needs not to be stated. The
Babel-builders were but victims of that
vaultng ambition which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other side;
the early heroes of what in after times has become
old and trite story. There those who assure US
that the old Jewish legend is nothing but myth,
scrap of Rabbinical lore only fit to impose on old
women and very small Sunday-school children. We
have but little taste for polemcal theology, nor are
we very strong in Hebrew hermeneutcs, but We find
itque easy to believe in the authenticity of the story
as in the sagaaty of the profound pundts
who have ventured to impugn it. In word, we find it
easier to believe in miracle of power which purpors
have the Omnpotent for its author than in such miracles
of sapienoe Strauss De Wete affect to be when
they pronounce dogmaticay upon what genuine and
what is NOT in the Sacred Writings.
Great results have often sprung from very trivial and
insignificant The curious in such inquiries have
amused themselves by recounting how apple lost
Paradise and taught the great mind of Newton the pn
Cipe of gravitaton how faithess baggage like Helen
caused the woes unnumbefed" which thnned the chi
valry of Greece and made the tale Of Troy divine
how faithful spouse like Lucrea expelled the Tarquins
from the Eternal City; how Cava brought the Moors
Spain how jibe at the yirtuous Madame de Pompa-
dour led the battle of Rosbach and how basin of
water split Mrs Mashams gown called back the great
Marlborough from his victorious the Continent
and led to the dsgracefu peace of Utrecht And So oo
il it had not been for the with which bricks
made from the soil of Shnar and the abundance of btu
which produces might have heard of the
tower of Babel and the confusion Of tongues if mot
avoided might at least have been postponed in its rise
and restricted in the degree Of its prevalence; while
Mr. Krasir would have written his Glossoogy,'
Monsieur Feline have ndited French photography
newspaper scrbblers, u nos have played the critic
over either.
DR.. Kratsir, as our readers all know though Hun
farian by BIRTH is slsarned Thebau' by scholarship
II the Doctor had been present Babel when the confu-
sion of tongues unhappIy arose, he would
have forthwith offered his services interpreter the
*,
though greatly fear he would have lost his tenn
per in dscharging the duties of his office for the Doctor
seems to be one of those whom "much learning" has
made "mad." Samuel Johnson who loved good
hater, would have pronounced Dr. Kraitsir after
his own kidney and if any Of readers has taste
FIR the language of oburgatien safely commend
the "Glossoogy" to his attentive perusa for though
the book is written in English argoD it is plain that the
5drgon is the only vernacular part of the work Still
are inclined to be considerable towards Dr. H. though his
irascibe procviy any thing but what Mr. Weller would
call an " amiable weakness" There is something admi-
rable in all deep emotions and something respectable in
all honest convictions. 1t is evident to mind that
DIR. Kraitsr, like the Hebrew prophet notable
zion, thinks that he does well to be angry and we
ourselves not that he greatly SINS in vent
ing somewhat Of his stomachfu indignation the pur
1eyors marketmsn, hucksters, brters grocers chifo
ners curiosity keepers, and such like who infeat
the walks Of oar modern scholastic literature.
The things which to vex the soul Of Dr.
Kraitsr are, firstly the miscalled spelling Of English
words and secondly the barbarous pronunciation the
Latin language taught by English and American peda-
gogues His present work, accordingly Is addressed
all those " whose mind there remains spot undyed
by the manufacturing process of schools, and
whose intellect has not been blunted besquinted and
tattoed by the barbarian methods which tend to reduce
oil American schooboys into pedantic bigoted can't
ing, mid hypocritic spelling, parsing. cphering simu
lacres of men,, fit only to make "good subjects for
autocrat money making citizens for republic" The
which have brought about this sad of things
are illustrated and defined in the following lucid para
graph:
"We may ken this abnormous condition of things with
the cholera with the potato disease, and with similar
animal and vegetal epidemics In ALL the first cause
consists in dstemper Of the elements of the atmosphere
soil, the consequence being subtle dyscracy Of
the animal vegeta organ which has been affected BY
the former, while the dreadful eectswhch but the
last rings of the chain of all dsproporons between the
atoms of matter and Of all concomtant dysharmonies
between the energies Of the dynamic momentum--art
manifest; those disproportions and dysharmones,
chemist the diagnostic Of the eech Withdraw
themselves from the possible correction by means tina
are at hand though not at brain"
This extract will suffice to give our readers good de
Of DR.. Kraitsrs style, which must be admitted to b.
original, if not elegant 1t viii certainly not be the
thors fault If his book does not succeed in stirring
the sleepy waters of the schools and in displacin
the unconscious cacochymic half vegetal and half
NAL matters OF equyocal generation that are nfectin
the pure souls Of the young under the pompous titles
orthoePy, photography, prosody, and the like - and
surely will be great reproach to the American peopl
If shrink from this eeler of the capacity Of publ
tGs this "poker into the Alps Of dust and broor
which may help to sweep out some Of it." as DR.
metaphorioally entities his work.
To speak sincerely if the Doctor had written his boo
in little better English and in q little better temper
would have proved none the less interesting and goo
A>al rofr Lln tar~ IL H.,