The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-11-24
NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER "a, 1859

RSDAY, NOVEMBER "a,
Relisi on and Literature In Yellow
Covers.
A good many people have had and ex-
pressed serious doubts as to whether the
invention Of printing has really been benefit
to mankind; and, when we consider the man.
ner in which the cart preservative of all arts"
has been prostituted by bad book makers, the
dubitation of the old fogies who believe in the
days illuminated missals and monkish manu-
scripts does not seem so absurd as 1t may an
pear to the first view.
| II we examine the literature Of England at
| the time Of the Restoration, we shall find the
most brilliant talents prostltuted for the graft
fcstion of most corrupt and lascivious court
But with the progress of civilization in England
| came . new and purer order of literature.
Richardson and Scott, and Maria Edgeworth
and Marryatt and in our own country Cooper
and Irving, have proved that there is no reason
why the romancist should pander to the baser
passions of humanity, unless it may be found
in his poverty of invention or sterility of ideas
Still there has grown up In this country within
the past twenty years q morbid appetite for
what is called yellow covered or sensation
literature. Such stuff as Ainsworth's "Jack
Sheppard, "Rookwood" and "Old st. Paul's;n
the works of Reynolds, and the still more
dangerous novels of the French writer's of
the school Of Paul dc Kock, George Sand
and Ernest Feydeau, have been freely re-
printed, translated and initiated in the United
States, and have worked more mischief than
any one can imagine. In England class of
sensation writer's, chiefly of the softer Sex, has
lately appeared. They are generally forlorn
spinsters, hard baked in the furnace of attic
ton, and calculated by the various trials and
tribulations which they have experienced in
their researches after husbands These are the
powerful writer's" the "acute analysts of the
human heart" the panegyrists of agonized 60
vernesses and servant girls who love not wisely
but too well. Imitators of the Jane Eyre
school are numerous in this country, but their
books are SO terribly and metapkysieslIy dull
as to do very little little harm.
.Se yellow Covered literature, pure and sim
| pie, such as the works of Reynolds and the
Sunday newspaper novellettes, have very
large circulation among the working classes
here, and occupy the time which might more
probably be given to wholesome reading.
little higher in the social scale we find a
considerable circulation for the light French
literature of the day which instils into the
mind the most dangerous moral poison.
The natnral effect of this sensation literature
on the minds Of people so mercurial, magma
tive and excitable as we are, is of course ex-
ceedingly Injurious. A powerful corrective
for its evil tendencies might be found in the
pulpit; but the parsons are afflicted with the
money getting mania of the day; and so
far from rebuking the prostitution of litera.
ture for filthy lucre, they absolutely
initiate and copy the sin which they
should rebuke In point of fact, the manufac-
turers of sensation sermons are far more in
dustrious, and much better paid, than the
makers of sensation novels. In former times
it was supposed to be the mission of the
clergy to preach the Gospel Of truth and
righteousness, peace and good will to men. In
those days the pulpit was school of morals
and religion-the type of all that was good,
pure, elegant and refined in literature. Nova
days your popular preacher sacrifices every
thing to make sensation. He aims to stir up
sectional strife, to embitter partisan feelings to
foment social animosities, and he does not hesj.
tate at broad anecdote, an indicate double
enteadre, or even an oath, in order to raise
.r create a sensation u
sNu6u AAe often degrades
himself below the intellectual level of his more
ignorant auditor.
This class of cergymen is found chiefly in
the Northern States, although the South has its
Brownlows as well the North its Beechers
Cheevers and Wheelocks. The latter how
ever, are examples, par excellence, Of the
tribe. The gospel they preach is a Cos
pei of rifles, of reyolvers of fire, murder
instruction, and all the horrors of civil
war. According to Beecher and Vince
lock, John Brown, who caused the death Of
several unoffending persons, is hero, martyr
and saint. Mr.. Harrison Ainsworth induces
his vulgar readers to take similar view of Jack
Sheppard, and Turpin the highwayman. Rey-
nolds ennobles the character of a housebreaker,
and draws tears from sympathetic chamber
maids, by his description of a magnificent muir
derer. What Ainsworth and Reynolds and Cobb
are to literature, Beecher and Cheever and
Wheelock are to the pulpit. The yellow covered
| religion Of the latter draws the tears from the
eyes and the dollars from the pockets of all
the old maids and crazy abolitionists in the
land. The yellow covered preachers turn
many penny by their trade They are adver-
tised and pulled, and posted about the street
corners exactly in the same way that new
actor, or fresh prima donna, or a big ele-
plant, is introduced to public notice.
| They drag their sacerdotal robes through
the muddicst and filthiest pools, provided there
is dollar embedded in the slime. They dis.
grace their holy calling and betray the Master