The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-11-07


despises the old mainly for its age revcrences nature
only because he is portion of it. envelopes him in
magical Mmor Of Technology and ideas, and so ex
poets to pass scatheess through every elemental dis
turbance. II is plain that these two men, equally
honest, can never understand each other il is the
new war Of Cornth--who shall tell whether Roman
or Greek shall this time prove victor We are UNI
able to decide whether il is prejudice or ignorance
OF this special topic which leads Mr.. Kingsley to
formularze Emersoniansm in this pointed sentence
You may believe nothing if you like and welcome
but if you do take to that unnecessary act you
fool if you believe anything but what believe,
though do not choose TO state what that is" With
out feeling any sort of respect for the pedagogical
stage-trckery and the overstrained Technology
which distinguish Emerson and win for him many
friends, well disgust many others who would
be friends, cannot help thinking that the excep
ton is more fairly taken in another place in this
wise: "For the many, struggling with the innate
consciousness of evil, in them and around them-an
instructive consciousness which no augmentation
about Evil being a lower form OF good will ever
explain away among those who grind among the
iron facts OF life and have no time for selfdecepton
what good news for them is there in Mr.. Emerson's
cosy and tolerant EpicurismY 7" That, now, 10 a cta
bono argument which Saxon inteects can appreciates
there is sneerng contained in it but 1t is saying
IN plain English, Mr. Emerson, you are drawing
room philosopher, but pray tell me what is the mar
ket value of your fne-spun rauonasms for domestic
and mercantile uses? What good viii your Repre-
sentative Men accomplish for blacksmiths and tail
ors and how do you expect to press into the beer
muddled brains of Herefordshire chaw- bacons your
Red slayors and Waldensamkeits? Inasmuch as
there are in the world many blacksmiths, and tai
lors and ploughmen, and many more who have the
needs OF these, we repeat, the exception is we'll Ia
ken America, as usual, fares hardly. MIR. Kings
ley has evidently very exalted estimate of at
tainments i'll metaphysics or literature. Hear him:
Tho Americans have their ensncers their geograpes their
their solenae chemists few indeed but such bid r
workers, hold their tongues and do their business"
And they have few indigenous authors, you
read the BigleW Papers and The Fable for otes and last
Loaf Uncle Ion's ca,in"
book for showed me that there right healthy artistic
as ws % Ss eyG H when their
ana that the Yankee eagle right gallant bird but
trust to his own natural pumags"
Really, Mr.. Kingsley, this will never do we shall
be compelled in this public way to request Lord Ma
pier to write official despatch to inform you that
such statement is very much though one in
America should say, THE English are a jolly set of
fellows, they have given the world spinning Jenny
they believe in muscle they pension off their de-
cayed prize lighters by honorable retracy in the
Tower corp of Beef Eaters they make very good
private soldiers, and have accidentally produced
two or three tolerabe writers chiefest among whom
are G. w Nj. Reynolds, Topper, and Trollope-the
latter has produced work portraying the horrid
cruelties to which white factory children are sub
jected. We have had far less fear for Britons ever
since we read that book for it showed that there
was right healthy power, artistic well intelec-
tual, among them now---ready, when their pres
ent borrowed lions skin shall have dropped Off to
come forth and prove that the British bull is right
gallant beast if he would only trust to his own nat
ural grass, and not seek to gore and trample his
neghbors'
We shall also be compelled to request the noble
ambassador from England (who will pardon us for
saying his intellect, character and features are all
worthy OF the purest Grecian models) to addition
ally lumine the light which shines in Herefordshire
darkness, by conveying to him the fact that besides
the authors OF Me Biglo,c Papers, "Fable for Crit
ics' and (tnirotie dctuO UNCLE TONS CABIN" there
are in America some few persons who have done a
Cooper, Irving, Prescott, Bancroft Bryant Whit
tier, Longfelow, and Motley. We should not
ask this favor of the embassy, but that we feel
quite sure our personal appeal to the Author of
Phaethon would be regarded as presumptuous,
and that nothing short of the word Of British no
bleman 1--WE almost afraid after all that the Here
fordshre arstocrat will only regard Scotch lord as
simply Nae-Peer) will lead him to look upon our
countrymen in any other light than nation divi-
ded into two parts, whereof part does engage
itself IN the manufacture of clocks and patent medi-
cines while the other is doomed mild but incu-
rable form of insanity, known as Emersonianisn
We close the book without l-will, but little sad
dened by the reflection that no English writer seems
to be able TO comprehend our national condition or
character; that those whose sympahes are usually
the most expansive to forget generosity
when they deal with us; that none of them appear
TO recognise the truth that our eighty years of indie
-
that those who have seemed to endeavor to speak
kindly OF us never give us credit for mind soul
or heart; it seems to be taken for granted that
we are all fools or knaves The highest compliment
that Charles Mackay could pay us was, that our Ca
tawba wine was good and our oysters very large
Bah! as if there no students, artists states
men, poets
But these things, with Kingsley, are but the scud-
ding clouds that for moment dim the brilliancy of
the sun; in the rich light of his thought they are
soon forgotten. Weearnestly recommend our read
to obtain Sir walter Raleigh and his Times" and
they will soon perceive that for its de-
tects has been only because its general excel
lence is irreproacbabe.
srcoyp CALLED FRKprRK THE GREAT
BY Thomas Carlyle Vol l. New York: Harper Brothers.
With their usual tact and enterprise, the Harpers
have reprinted almost as it has appeared in
England, the first volume of this long expected
work of Carlyle's. When we add to the known
ability Of the writer, manifested in portraypg the
stormy grandeur Of the French revolution, and in
causing the colossal figure of Cromwell to be cleans
ed Of its cobwebs and made to stand the noblest
figure in English history--when to the recognised
talent which produced these works we add the fact
that several laborous years have been spent upon
this theme, we are prepared TO expect just such
book as lies before u.s. IL is conscientious and pains
taking, to extent that forces from us sympathetic
groaus for the weary strainings over dim manu-
scripts the fearful wadiDgs through muddy nara
tiyes, the horrd endurances of ghostly Dryasdusts
to which the author has been subjected We append
"a short extract, in which readers will perceive
that the authors sentences have lost none of that
peculiar ring for which he has been famous
f,,la