The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1857-04-30
\ !: 7 ]; ...:..;5i;fiisfl;eIIlanl:tl;o):aJ..s:5,. h M; IT'S /.
sentiment in Literaturc.

l.ta 10 fffF -
Sentiment In Burns was essentially ytmol
lifed BY tenderness,in Byron by passion, lin
Shelley BY imagination; meditation .fostered
it in Petrarch, extreme susceptibility in
Kirke White. 1n.ths French Quietists it.
took the form Of religious ecs:ocy. In the
old English drama it is robust, in the Span
ish ballads chivalric, ,in Hamlet abstract and
intellectual, in "As You Like It's full Of
airy fancifuIncss. o,Miss Edgeworth and
Jane Austen exhibited. it ps governed by
prudence and common sense; Mrs. Radcliffe,
as rendered mysterious by superstition, -
Scott'delighted to interpret it through local
and legendary accessories, under the infiu.
ence Of sensuous temperament. y In the
Dlnesque picture of Francesca da Rimmi il
is full ofIagic sweetness and in Paul and
Virginia perverted. BY artificial toste., In
Charles Lamb it is queint, in Hood deeply
human, In Cowper alternately natural md
morbid.in M .ckenzie soft and pale as moon;
light, and ii ,Bocacio warm as the glow Of d
Turcan vintage. Chastened by WILL it is
as firmaand co ID US sculpture in Alieri, and
melted by indulgence, it is as 'insinuating
as the most delicious lHusiegin Matastisio.--
Pure and geale in Raphael, lii is, halt, -sas|
age in Salvador and Michael Angelo, se-
veriy true insVandyke, il is, luscious and
coarse iaRubeus. And yet, to certain ex'
14E Aet "a 9tT- f3f
tent anGer specific notifications, every one
of these authors and sartists possessed sen
,iment; but, held In solution by character,
in some governed, in others it served gen
ius: ID some. it was Q, peedominant source
OF enjoyment and suffering, and in Tlthers
but an occasional stmulusor agency. Who
doubts, over page of1sthe "Nouvclle He
loise," that sentiment in all It's fearful bliss
was known to Rosseau! The abandon
or his offspring to public. charity does not
d1sprove its existence, but only shows that
in his nature IL was mere selfish instinct.
The history OF philanthrOpic enterprise in.
dicutes the same contradiction, Base cru
city has at times deformed the knight, gross
= u
appetites the crusader, hypocrisy the mis-
sionary ,tand the men whose names figure
in The so;called charitable. la5yements, Of
our day are often the last to WHOM we should
appeal personal kindness and sympathy
The same inconsistency isesident in tha
large class Of women in whose scharacteri
theromuutic predominates over the dotnes
tic Instincts "Confessions" form a popula
department Of Ffench literature r and orr
SsaalIy based On sentiment. Yet their ap
thors are frequently thorough men ,s,I,t ot th'
world, and intense egotists. It is the wan
ofharmony batweenexpression and lie, be
tween the, eloquent ayoya al and the practi
cal influence Of sentiment, patriotic, relig
ious. and humane, whichgaye rise to'the in
vec.ivsiof Carlyle, and other steln advocate
of.,fact, of action and Of rcality;ea Mean
while the beauty, the high capacity; the ea
aitedgrace OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
smust learn 10 distinguish its mani fiesta
tieRs, 10 honot its gepufps power oddlstlfp'
ito rbetorical exoggeration;-- Ts.cherniqsn .s
Riogrsph Essays u ',,l sas ,s bsslsitt
s.. a.. 49,.