The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1858-03-06

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Press on the infamous work, Each force collect
Which human power can compass or apply!
Let such uneQualled craft the plot direct,
That You with devils might in cunning vie!
Yet far above your schemes God on high
Laughs at the worms who dare aspire 80 much, ssl5
And spurns them headIong they scale the sky,
Or, IL the glitterng prize he lets them clutch, =
Turns it to dust and ashes at their touch!
~hA REVIEW EXTRAORDINARY.
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE REV. A. AUGUSTUS
.-... wAGTAIL, D. D. Fl.
If any man write his own memoirs, and
have them published before his death, there
seems no good reason why they may not be
reviewed before being printed. Again, il
it be true, as Sanconiathon has It, that
"Whatever is u.s." so it will follow, to speak
learnediy, that IN posse may with great pro.
priety be substituted to the more matter-of-
fact in esse. This being admitted, as, indeed
it will be useless to deny it, We proceed to
give the reader some account of the volumes
named at the head of this article, with crit.
ical observations and comments of our own
And first, as to. the general question
touching the propriety of autobiographies,
let it be observed that every man knows, OF
ought to know, better than any one else, the
struggles of his early life--his fears, his
hopes, his subsequent labors, and the effect,
Of those labors. Who, then, SO we'll quail.
fed as he to write his life = s4=ss--t ~
Then, again, men love to read about themselves.
'''Tis pleasant thing to see ene's name in print
A bcoks book, although there's nothing int"
So strong is this desire, that they will
even read caricatures of their persons anG
slanderous attacks on their character. How
much more, then, q well-polished or even q
well vanished biography? The publication
of u mans life in his own time, affords hin
the opportunity of gratifying this, laudablt
desire. = - :, 1-s s. ..7'
The profits, we may remark further, which
arise from the sale Of mans life, he needs
if ever, while he is alive. The price Of the
copyright, even should it be five or ten thou.
sand dollars, can do him no good when HI
is in his grave. So also, if his life is critl.
cised unjustly by reviewers, he is where hi
can defend himself. 1t is not every johnson
that has Boswell; nor we say it modestly
does every Wagtail fall into the hands of an
admirer of the Dagger correspondent
Besides, the autobiographist has illustrious
examples as precedents. Goethe published
his own life, and called it Poetry and Truth
Heinrich Stilling, who married many wives
wrote and published his life, and called i,
Stilling. The great seedsman of America,
As fond Of Scotch and Yankee lasses, as Of
the rose and the violet, has written and pub.
lished his eventful life, and called it eupho-
niously, Laurie Todd. The prince Of show.
men has recently written and published the
life Of Phineas Taylor BdrnuDa, or rather
part of his life. Whether the remaindes
will ever be given to the public is at present
doubtful. .....-.....-., -
The early life Of DR.. Wagtail was very
much like the early life of other great men.
In the nursery he exhibited some of those
traits which distinguished him in after life.
The first fifteen chapters Of the autobiog-
raphy may be supposed to give a minute
detail of the incidents of his youthful days.
The reader as he peruses the volume win
find this whole account deeply interesting.
He will see the sensib,lities, the intellect and
the will, gradually, though somewhat pre-
cariously, developing themselves. He will
be furnished, too, with additional proof of
the truthulnfess of the saying of the poet,
that "the boy is father of the man.' And
this narrative, though the author had no
such thought, goes far towards settling the
question, which has SO long divided the
Philosophical schools, namely, Whether the
chicken is in the egg or the egg in the chick
on.
There is nothing very -remarkable in tho
manner by which our author came in pos
session of his double Christian name. He
was originally called Tony, in honor of his
but when his capacious mind
began to expand, and young ambition
plumed her glossy wing within his soul, he
added, with becoming modesty, the indefinite
article, and became Antony. This satisfied
him for awhile, but in his seventeenth year,
finding that almost all his associates had
two, and some of them three. and even four
Christian names, 1t is not wonderful that
the aspirations within should blossom. and
bring forth its fruit in the imperial name
Augustus. Fashion, too, when the young
mans whiskers began to develop them-
selves, induced him to adopt the latest
style. He was successfully Tony, Antony,
Antony A., Antony Augustus, and finally,
in the beauty of euphonittic concentration
and pathetic elegance, A. Augustus, which We
lrc not sure will not again be altered before
he sculptor receives orders for an inscrip-
lion which shall mark his final resting
place. g NS .i 1 @ ~ s#ss
1t were tedious to dwell upon the school-
boy days of the little A. Augustus, and NM
necessary to trace the development Of bis
powers as he progressed toward
Let US plunge at once is medias
res, and Introduce him to the reader, . full
grown clergyman, in delightful village
known as Hard Scrabble. Let US give, in
his own words, brief account Of the man
nsr ne in which he enlarged his congregations.
Ihere is IN the account, so much OF meek
ness ana humility, characteristics which ever
I.s,I the doctor, that j. conmends
Of the clerical profession. He.
says '.- IS.
Con entering on my ministerial duties, /
found the congregations very small. Cir
which need not mention, had
tended to make them so. It seemed like i
waste for me to preach my sermons to 90
few. therefore, setmysslf to divine some
vay to increase the number Of INV hearers.