New-York daily tribune., 1861-02-18
INDEX ExPURGATORsUs.

INDEX ExPUgGATORsUs.
We beg leave TO present TO the suffering book
sellers of Cliff street, the prOfusely pictorial
Harpers, the assurance Of our distinguished CON-
mi.cration. In these trying times it is quite i'm
possible to say who will be- prescribed and put
upon the Shareholders black list, or for what
manner of book bibliopolist may be driven out
of the Southern markets as an incendiary. If
the Harpers, so gentle in their text and so ex-
ceedrgly orthodox in their woOd-cuttery, are not
safe from the denunciaiiOn of the Seceders, WhO
we should ike TO know, is sOl We do not ask,
10 be sure, for our own sake, for being ancient
and confirmed offenders, our lamp 10 longer holds
out to burn; but We do ask in behalf of many
honest authors and engrayers and printers who
are willing and ready to prepare the proper style
of goods for the seeding reading circles If only,
BY the most rigorous exercise of intellect and
ingenuity, they could find out what will please
aud what will offend. The denunciation of the
Harpers will bother the whole trade. III theirs
is called by The Columbus (Ga) Times " q black
90 republican, abolition establishment If their
highly embellished Journal Of Civilization is de-
nounced as " violent abolition production -
if they are to be regarded as the bitter enc
% mics Of the South" who will be next marked
out for the absolute ruin which the loss of South
ern trade must involve If their apparently in
nocent and lovely publications are "pernicious
" Northern issues" as The Savannah NepS says
that they are, what works can be regarded as
harmless to the South, and to her " Institution
her " institution so tender and delicate, 80
sensitive and susceptible, so fragile in texture
ard so precarous in existence oh, that we
should live to see Ihc,Jomn0l Of Civilization
likened to Garri.on's LiJcrGtOr What have we
reason to expect next Was it for this that our
untiring cOtempOraries printed in their yaregated
sheet whole.leDgths of Southern Governors and
half.lengths of Southern Representatives, public
gentlemen all smiles, other public gentlemen all
beard, still other public gentlemen oil shirt.cOlar-
perfect gallery of the haudsomest leaders Of the
rebellion! Was there something sinister in this
proiuse portraiture Was the hint taken from
that eminent photographer, the General Superin.
tendent of Police Was the publication designed
to assist President Lincoln in capturing the runa-
way rebels
But the fraternal Harpers are not alone in
their misery Verify, there be other "pernicious
" Northern Issues" if We may credit the said
Savannah Ners, and " some OF them every whit
as bad, and some of them worse than Harper'S
4" Weekly or Monthly" The Sunday papers print
ed in this city have never been regarded as in
sulIerably incendiary, but Tie NerS disposes of
them all in lump. They (" are not to be tOle-
" rated in the South" What, then, is TO be
tolerated "We know" says The Ners,
" of but three literary publications north of Ma
" sons and Dixons line which are worthy of
support from the South" The critical reader
will be upon nettles to know the names Of these
pet publications. They are The Home Journal
which is approved because, being authority as to
the cut of a coat it may afford instruction in
the art of turning the same yestment; The
kHickerJ0cker, which passes muster, because
the editor is presented taking something
upon the cover; The LGdys Magazine, which,
being printed upon fine and smooth quality of
paper, may be useful for gun wads. These are
all. The venerable North american Rerieso is left
out in the cold, i'll company with the versatile
AtlQntic Monthly, and with no end Of religious
Examiners Observers, Watchmen, Trumpets, and
Heralds Three is the exact number of the elect
Al the rest are "pernicious.
We may laugh as much as We please at these
suspicious and dstrusts; but the Southern editors
after all are right For in the first place, lltera-
ture of the highest or even Of the next to The
highest order, is not merely not to be DESIRED
but is rather to be absolutely dreaded by them.
The literature which enlightens ameliorates, ana
reGnes-unadulterate history, purely human poe
try, undStortcd philosophical and religious crit
cisn-this is not a literature for communities
which hold slaves, not by accident, not through
mischapces in early civilization, not by the ac'
quisitions of war, but by dominant public taste,
sustained by the public thought and fanchoned oy
the public religion. The world has certainly ad-
yanced in all that relates to the social equities
since the high days Of the Roman empire; and
vet South Carolina, ss respects the question oi
Slavery, is where Rome was justifes herself py
the Roman example, and, while truer thought
and kindlier economies have swept the barbarlsm
from almost every other land making any pre-
tensions to enlightenment, she still clngs To IL
and exhausts the whole resources Of s0phstry
and special pleading in the futile attempt 10
reconcile religion with legalized wrons-dolng,
democracy with despotism, humanity with cruelty
and STATE nolicy with relations which must prove