New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-03-06
ME-. CURTIS on CHARLES KlNGsrdY.

go' Or Of the Susdav-SchD0 into ie nc learned that
the moral WA tie essential pat % lie and could not
be detas he'd from il. The moral which was 10 be
iout IN the rose and IN the hear: Of the world wal,
not Hogsrh moral 1t was the moral Of which
Homer Shakespeare and Goethe the interpreters
the moral Of Life. The author who wrote special
improvement 60 bis story and labeled it "The moral
res Ike The painter who wrote under hi- picture
"Tliz is d lion The moral Of story it, spir-
itual use--s fleet upon character. If work Of
Art aimed at particular moral failed Of general es
segcnce; for Nature was Increl all over; and if one
special poGt was selected for emphasis the rest must
b. depressed. Great pictures, like great scenes we're
sub5melg unObtusiye. a man welded to specjsl
pursuit imperfect man. Ideally man was Insds
10 advance altogether and bis nature craved propor-
ton. But unfortunately the world was rot arranged
according TO the demands Of the Imagination, and so
il was bitter to be disproporionstcy good than SYM
Inetricsly sinful il would not do for Clarksoh to
rive up hacking aud hewing at the African Save
Trade Because he did not care to protest With the
same fCrvor against the miseries OF the English
Miners Ii would not DO IN fine, to give up battling
with The sm8l!-poS because there was typhus fever In
the world. Charles KngSleys books had a special
and no; a general moral purpose. lie was more
either. Alton Locke, Yeast, Hypati8 aud Amyss
Leigh giowed-were ell alive with carnestncss Of con-
ViciOn and fsIyiG With e.oquence Of expression.
These books were splendid sermons, aud their aim
was 10 Cbri.anize society. They showed in different
ways and Ut three different periods Of history the
failure Of society that was not Christian. Alton
Locke wac she Uncle Toms Cabin Of the English
social organization. IL was the Voda of Chstism.
1t ives tie autobiography OF taor's apprentice who
was also poet. He staggered through life ,tung NY
mortified pride, hy blighted ambition, by hopeless
love and tho frantic effort to make career; and his
moral was that his pride was mortified hi. ambition
bshted bis love hopeless, and his life lost by that
organization RI socitty upon false principle, which
allowed tho sew 10 prosper, and kept the great mas,
.lnA u III
feeling wit scsthing sarcasm and such fiery eoquenc.
that you seemed TO have heard speech rather than TO
have read q book. II burned the eyes IL began a.
sstory and ended as religious and political pamphlet
Tho Poet began it, but, it advanced the sucriBgs
OF the Tailor constantly broke through the web which
the Poet had woven into tapestry swarming with
lovely and living figures, and Charles kmgsley thrust
through his earnest eve aud his honest hand aud cried
in luIurou. England az John cried in the wilderness,
Repent, repent, for the kingdom Of Heaven is Mt
hand" It's heat Was the beat Of principle, not of
pdtics; it warmed the page Of she book and the
heart of the reader. II nssted that the laws be-
tayed want Of humanity and justice in the general
heart and that it ntOlerablc for Christendom 10
acge The necessity OF certain spirit OF society which
would not exist If ChristendOm really Christian.
He declared that Peace on Earth and GOod.Wi 10
Man did not an tuppcucc-adsy and ticket to the
soup society; and il not with spite or Spleen but
with genuine tears in his eyes that he pointed out Of
the back window to the po-iifcrous purieus Of the
city, whose m0n and women wero struggling and
wing; and when yon asked with indg nation "WhO
"lad done this ard who had suffered it single day
"longor?" he put his hand upon your shoulder aud
said Thou art the man." 1h.s was the moral Of the
proiieoU homily called Alton Locke; it the Lee
son OF the Day. In Iiypsts and Amyas Leigh the
figures were perfectly cosuncd, aid the appointments
were Characteristic but the highest moral and intel
lectusl tone Of the books was that Of Kingsey and
the nineteenth century Now the prorOgative Of
genius was give universal inerest TO It's apecia aims
Romeo sold goodnight to Juliet not for hIlself alone
lint for The whole world Of lovers The secret of the
into in (taI
the worlds interest in Uncle Tom it was general
sympathy. To The world Uncle Tom was not black
martyr Orly-ho was Il race. Uncle Tom was sad soil
tary dumb Africa, Ouicast among nations--au cxlet
continent. The great moral OF Uncle Toms Cabin was
not the Injustice of Black Slavery it was human sympa
thy and caritytho great root of which any special re-
form was only the flower. This difficulty OF partal
viz W was by no confined 10 the reform nOVciss
Scott too had bis ism-ftudaism. ltwas the nature of
novels give dspoportouate importance TO The great
fact of which they treated. They left Ferdinand and
Miranda eating wodding.cakc, and said nothing about
the rest OF their lives. The tragedy OF Uncle Tom
was not half so tragical many other in the
world hut when you rend his story, biz was the sole
sorrow of the universe There was ths kind OF disprO
portion in Alton Locke aud east and Jane Eyre aud
Mary Barton. But all men fought on their own sides.
When mans he an in his book il did moi trouble
him IL he Offended literary rules. MacDuh was les
anxious to parry gracefully than to baton his sword
with the hear, OF Macbeth Kingsley's anxiety
not 30 much to write proper novel rs 10 show that
Chaitbm was inevitable under the present state of
things. Literature was MOI an UniuChhlDG laCt. III
the national spirit superficial and skepical, lis
literature would be hippant end insincerc. The gay
comedies Of the Restoration showed that. The dandy
ism and Il am-chivsy of the Regency gltered in the
song OF Moore and the theatrical passion of byron.
The cctcmpOrary English novels had a collective
meaning. They showed what wire men thought OF
the sham-chivary and It's consequences. They were,
in books the verdict of the most sagacOus Cyes aui
minds upon England. And what thst verde;
When Carlyle gave his great growl in twelve barks
called the Isucr-Day Pamphlets everybody said
well ifyou right and VIC are being srangled with
"red-.apc, what do you propose Probably you would
"hsyc Robert Burns made Prime Minister" the
implscablc philosopher growled again, 81 propose
national virtue" and England shook and reoed with
laughter at what it considered colossal joke A
Christian nation whose king was called Defender of
the Fail could not conceive that faith Incorporated
into it's life except a. Joke No wonder that its
novels were either unconscious betrsyas of a moral
chaos or intentional exposures of IT, no wonder that
the last roem of her chief poet brcathed in the ear of
the world like tragic sigh for her literature the
.toty OF life out of whose heart faith au1 hope had
peiithcd. The CriTnea was the great theater upon
which the of English literature had been justified
There the faults and wrongs of systein-whch tcra-
ture had already denounced, which even in a national
crisis preferred title 80 merit ribbon to heart, aud
q name to a msn-had done moro to shake the pres
tigc of England than any event OF centuries. The
Crimea was the most melancholy comment but thu
most triumphant continuation Of the tone OF recent
English literature. Mr.. Curtis read the scene in east
between the Squire and Tregarya, and rendered the
noem The Merry Brown Hsres came Leaping" very
Effectively. He continued: What would good Sir
Walter Scott have thought had he been told that such
things were 20 be said by his successors in story
telling II was essy TO say that such poems only
served TO folnent unhsndeorne feelings between the
different classes OF society. But this rural tragedy
sham was il not the true statement of the case
Was il wiser and nober to symbolic such seetbng
mass of ignorance and vice as there 10 the rurA
population and the factory towns Of England by
ditious tinker as Bulwer Cid in NY Novel, OF 10y Ire
garva in Alton Locke kingtcy had right to rail