The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-01-17

The Death OF Lord MISUNDERSTANDING
Literature, Past and Present.
The announcement Of the death OF Lord
Macaulay will be received with infinite regret
wheresoever the English language Is spoken.
The demise of the most eminent of the
essayists and historians of the present
generation (some account of which and
sketch of his life will be found in another part
of this journsl reminds us most forcibly that
the race of intellectual giants is fast passing
away from the face Of the earth, and that there
remain, with here and there an exception, mo-
thing but pigmies. Macaulay belonged to the
old school Of literary men. He was in his day
and generation what Doctor Johnson was
seventy years ago, with the difference that
the former had all the learning, all the criti-
cal power, q more nervous and perspicuous
style, and none of the pomposity and ponde-
rosity of the latter.
The passing away Of such writer's as Macaulay,
Hallam, Irving and Prescott marks the deca-
denee of solid English literature in most
definite, and, we may add, in most unwelcome
manner. That this epoch hath had its parallels
in times gone by is quite true Polite ntera-
ture in the mother country may be said to
have begun with Chaucer, but the soil was not
fruitful at that early period. Until the days of
Massinger, Otwsy, Prior, rare Ben Jonson,
sweet Will Shakspere and glorious John Milton,
English literature could not be called classic.
Even then, in the Elizabethan era, it was married
by much that was gross and obscene-much that
pandered to the worst appetites of the privi
legged classes. The tone of bellies lettres became
still lower under the Stuarts; and the otherwise
delightful lyrics written by the favorites of
court which copied very strictly the vices and
initiated very clumsily the elegancies of Yer
sailles, are very properly tabooed at the pre-
sent day, on account of the gross indecency
which befouls them. Under Queen Anne and
the Georges literature progressed apace,
although the old faint disfgures the humor of
Fielding, degrades the subtle Characterization
caustic wit of the Dean of St. Patrick's. 1t
hath been reserved for the English writer's since
the accession of the fourth George to prove
that obscenity is not wit; that indecency is not
humor; that wholesale abuse is not satire; that
the application of vulgar epithets is not invec-
tive; that a pure, elegant and effective style
may be attained without pedantry or affectation,
and that, whether in the well CLEANED fields of
history, romance, poetry or the drama, the
highest need Of success must be inevitably
awarded to the writer who joins to his intellec-
tual gifts pure and lofty moral Tone
10 nf tl,a fs,I
to-day is something to be proud of. DR.. John
son rides in his own coach; there is as much
money for Dick Steele as he can well manage
to spend; Oliver Goldsmith's copyrights no
longer 60 for song How all these worthless
would stare could they see the sums paid to
men who in the old times would not be thought
worthy to loose the latchet of an authors
shoes, provided he had any
But although there is now an extended de-
mand for literature of high class, and splen-
did rewards for the favorite authors, we fnd
the supply growing small by degrees and dis
agreeably less. Giving the first laurels in
English literature to Bulwer, Alison and
Tennyson, in their several specialities, and in
our own country acknowledging the enduring
works of Everett, Motley, Ticknor, and one
or two others, we almost complete the list of
standard authors. We cannot include Dickens
the caricaturist, nor Thackeray the satirist, who
has not the touch of nature that makes the
whole world kin, nor the race of women wri-
tiers, who are always coarse, puerile, weak and
affected. The generality of writer's at the pre-
sent day have been go far infected with the
faults of the modern French school that they
work only for effects, or sensations as they are
called. Style and beauty of composition are
rarely thought of, much less studied. The Ian
guage itself is distorted and mangled, and
beaten into a shapeless mass. The worst pas.
sons Of the human heart are pandered to, the
vilest social and political theories are promul-
gated, the mind Of youth is poisoned, crime,
vice and immortality Of all kinds are encouraged
by the sensational school Of literature. As
Carlyle truly says about the books of the day,
the goats far outnumber the sheep, and they
are going, every goat of them, straightway to
the bottomless pit. The sooner they get there,
and the sooner literature energies into the
broad sunlight Of truth, virtue and beauty, the
better will it be for the race.
The ALMIGHTY Niger ACROSS THE ATTAIN
1c-We print in another part of to-day's pa
per very curious collection Of English opin-
ions about the Almighty Niger. his chief priests