The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1857-11-17

bic attainment. Literature is, in its very
nature, of necessity, eclectic and cosmopo-
Titan. 1t abhors a"pent up Utica, "and re-
joices in a"boundless continent" It catches
all winged germs of thought which are
borne on the winds from every quarter of
the whole heaven, and never questions
their local origin or challenges them as to
whence they come. 1t is built upon all
the past, and is, therefore thing histo-
rical. 1t belongs not to any special race
or nation, but to humanity and to the
world. But if the friends of Southern
literature intend by the phrase an en-
couragement of native authors and re-
cognition of their fair and well-earned de-
serts, we go to their side most heartily
1t strikes us that this is what must be
meant; for no genuine patron of Letters
could ever incline to that illiberal senti-
ment which would segregate particular
community from the general republic,
and erect it into a distinct and indepen-
dent section. There is a comity-an in
terco1lrse, in literature, more intimate and
universal than that of commerce, and
which unites all lands which the muses.
have hallowed with their presence, as well
as all ages which have echoed with their
utterances.
DE QUINCY, who has himself exqui-
sitely adorned the Letters of this century,
has called literature one of the fine arts.
In the light of this thought, does it not
seem strange, that while there are so few
comparatively to the mass of persons, who
adventure the chisel Or the pencil, almost
everybody, now days, attempts the pen?
The result is vast deal ofpaltry writing,
for which, however, there seems to be no
remedy. In spite of the most severe and
uncharitable censorship, bad literature is
as inevitable as any other necessary
evil" Literary quackery and sciolism
are certain to prevail where stationery is
cheap and the pen and the press are free.
But it may be said, there is enough
good literature in the world to preserve
the standard of correct taste, in this de-
partment Of activity, from fallin g to a low
and contemplate plane. While PLATO,
DANTE, FENELoN and PASCAL, SCHILLER,
SHAKESPEARE and ADDISON and MAcAU-
LEY are read, it is indeed true that the
human race can suffer no essential and
substantial loss in its models of literary
excellence. And it is gratifying con-
vlction that the fifteenth century, in its
gift to mankind Of the printing art, has
placed us forever beyond the contingency
of any similar disaster to that burning of
the Alexandrian Library which swept, at
once, much Of the best lore of the earth
into irrecoverable humiliation. The best
literary possessions Of man are made Sc
cure to us forever. On this account, per-
haps, we can afford to indulge the per-
petration of faults, absllrdities and weak
ness, on the part of the tiny pen-wrights
of our day land to look with leniency upon
their rude and cumbersome wooing of the
muses..
A Southern literature may be regar-
ded in two relations-one the appropri-
ate working up Of local incidents, histori-
cal events, peculiarities Of custom and in
situations, colonial traditions, anecdotes of
distinguished Southern soldiers, statesmen
and citizens, and, in brief, of whatever is
proper and distinctive in this section of
the country. In this sense, THAoKERAY,
in his new novel, The Nryinians, just be-
gun in Harper's Magazine, may be con-
sidered as makinga contribution to South
ern literature. That such materials
abound here. there can be no doubt, and
of their richness and suggestiveness and
the facility with which they are suscepti-
BILE of being wrought into the texture of
romance and poem, we are equally GER
tain. The other relation of Southern
literature is in the development of the
native genius of the South-its training
and encouragement. This is laudable
object anywhere; but the notion of pro-
lection to domestic talent through any
thing like prohibitory tariff upon the
works of other American authors, or of
foreign ones, is excessively puerile and
Ill l.,o G .,,aI LOU L.