The Yazoo Democrat., 1854-08-23


the New Era OF Steam Lftcrafmrc.
The literary character Of the age. and par
ticularly that of this country, is a perfect idi-
osynocracy. Literature, in this era, is not
what it was IN the days Of Addison, Dryden,
Steele, Pope, Johns5n, Or Jupius. What IS
i now A tumor fanfaronade of steam
lectures, serial novels, and itinerant preten-
sions--cutting and slashing at every antique
editice Of letters that good taste and whole
some precedent had led us to admire, or In
duced us to .venerate, as the product Of ge-
MUS or the offspfing Of learning. Literature.
ssn 1863. Ayhat is It Why, that Bull
wer has finished ''Afy Novel in true drama
tic style; that Charles Dickens has made an
sTs4excellent satire On law siiSe lawyers. =
@Bisak House, and that Thaclaray has ta-
ken our. great Atlantic cities by storm by
lampoon lectures, denouneing nine in ten of
the most eminent of the British classics, that
Brother Jonathan may gape and cry ''won
derfull' at the coekney adventurer's audaci-
ty
Excessive Difference to English literature,
has SO. enfeebled the American mind on this
point, as to deprive It Of the capacity to ap-
preciate the distinctinction between intellec-
tual vigor or genius, and composition or
book making Now who will contend for
the preposterous.p position, that the American
mind is inferior to that of the English9 Yet
this admission is constantly implied, when
I'VE bow obsequiously at the shrine Of English
letters, as neophytcs, imbibing life nourish
ment from the breast Of a mother; or Npu
1pil, listening With wonder to the lee
lures of a master. Justice to British lei
ters is one thing; and that justice Americans
are ever ready to accord; but our admission
of our intellectual inferiority would degrade
the parent country we descend from, as well
as disgrace the offspring whose fame and
glory are in some measure a part of its own.
Assumption Of superiority Of intellect
marks every act, and is expressed in every
thought of the English in reference to this
country, and that assumption is carried to
the very extrenesof arrogance and dictation.
If Mr.. Thackeray Lectures, he becomes a
Sir Oracle" who .proclaims let no. dog
bark when I ope my nroutll. And then
treating his Yankee audience as q little clil
dren," he proceeds to tell us tie most ridicl-
lsts srrtf s,ssSa4.ssalss "a e.
gIish Poets and Authors as if American en-
Wy was only to-be Modified by hirsute and
savage detraction, nay positive calu1nng and
outrageous libel on the flower of English
wits and classic poets. Now, what could
Mr.. Thackeray tell Us of English literature
that the American people were not familiar
with long before the father Of "Snobs" star
tied the world by. his -infantile scream. But
Mr.. Thackeray has his opinions and these
opinions must beinjected into the American
mind on the "Dollar" a dose plan. The hui
morist and wit, titles claimed by himself and
not accorded originally by the world, must
turn butcher, and after the lapse Of centuries,
violate tie graves Of illustrious authors to
cut, hack, pound, pulverize and mutilate
them; hanging their skeletons in chains, or
when turned to dust, stamping that dust with
! infaIny, and spurning it with scorn and alb
horrence as he scatters it to the winds.
! Is it possible that Mr.. Thackary can have
formed so wretched and insulting an opinion
of their understanding, taste, liberality and
.benevolence, as to suppose that the American
people cohld only be conciliated by. abuse Of
Ibis own countrymen, whom the yerdicr
Iof polite learning, in every quarter of the
civilized world, had consecrated to- fame -
i Is it possible, that he thought so meanly Of
us, as to imagine that the only read to bro
ther Jonathan's pocket, was through their
hatred Of his own countrymenl And is it
4 possible that to fill his pocket, he would dis
Egrace hiinselfby pandering to that hate?-
5Oh, nol He game to improve our literary
taste, and mend our literary morals. How
BY defaming, slandering and villifying his
own countrymenl With what disgrace does
an act so vile and infamous adorn his brow
This too, is the man who would improve our
moral sense, BY giving an examples il his own
person, Of the most immoral conduct that a
man can commit abusing his own country
to foreigners for thirty pieces Of silver
why Swift never committed so vile an act,
did he Z What had the American people
to do with the. amours Of = dead author or
! the courtships Of live poets ii London, Dub
4 In o1. Manchester SsIDnose Thomas Moore.