Daily national Democrat., 1861-03-12
The Atlantic Monthly for February--A
Choice Number.

best in American literature. Being filed
with the essences distilled from the brains
and hearts Of such literary gods as Holmes,
LongleIlow, Whittier, Emerson, Lowell
Hawthorne, Bayard Taylor, Charles Rcade
and host OF others, whose nanes are ia
milar as household words all over the land,
together with Miss Martineau, Mss Prescott
Mrs Stowe, and other female encyclopedias
Of all that is possible in mental and literary
achievement it stands the monarch Of Month
lies
We have leforc us the February number
for 1861, just received from the publishers
Through the first ten pages runs an article
on "Our Artists in Italy," After a comprc-
hensiye criticism of justly celebrated ar
fists productions, the writer, in abiding to
his Venus, says:
The Venus of Page we cannot accept not
because it may be unbeautilul, for that might
he but "A Shortcomings because of any
technical failure, for with the exception of
weakness in the character Of waves, nothing
can be hner,--uot because it lacks elevated
sentiment, for this Venus was not the celes-
tial,--but because it has nothing to do with
the present neither is it Of the past nor reia-
ted in any wise to any imaginable future
The present has no ideal Of which the We
nus of the ancicnts is IA manifestation Other
creations of that marvellous Greek mind
might be litly used to symL oiize phases of the
present Hercules might labor now there
are other stables than the Augcan aul not
yet are all llydras slain Armor is needed;
and Vulcan spirit is making the anvil ring
beneath the carth-crust Of humanity But
Venus, the yoluptuous, the wanton,-no
syusuousness prrvadng any religion of this
era finds in her It's fitting type and sign She
her companions, and her paramours, with the
magnificent religion which evolved them
were entombed centuries ago and no angel
has rolled the stone from the door of their
scpulchrc. They are dead; the necessity
which called the Deistic ideal into existence
is dead; the ideal itself is dead, since Paul
preached in Athens its funeral sermon.
We commend the article TO connoisscurs in
this noble art
KNITTING Sale Socks" is story suited
abouts to wharycs among steamboat ranuers
and to the Court of Sessions as does his New
York brother, but he may be often found in
our parlors with his tooth-pick in his mouth,
and his elegantly booted feet on the stove
discoursing tiuently upon the iufcriority Of
the female sex, and Of his contempt for an
woman. In order to make lis con-
Y yelsatiol forciblc, which would otherwise be
fiat and insipid lie weavcs into it,
with great ingenuity, such elegant''techucal
ties' as "I on bet, bar keep" "You git up ard
git," "Dry up" Gone up tlume," &c, DE.
all of which is dgression, for which we beg
to all ages and conditions Those who have
delighted in the homcly simplicity of Widow
Bedott' who have laughed and rolicked
and reyelcd through the pages the "Bcdott
papers rs we have, and went that there
were no more "Belott papers" TO rcad-wil
find pleasure akin TO il in reading "Kuitting
Sale Socks "Aunt Mimy," and "Priscia
the Fair, both belong to the same stock.
We confess that we never had a iast esti-
mate Of a rowdy, as an object Of interest in
nature and to scientific men, till We read
"Scuppaug,' found on page l52 of the mum
Der under consideration. In describing the
New York rowdy, the writer says he is
known "by inhammatoly character which
dissipation has impaired to the
inhalng apparatus of his unclassical features.
by the filthy splcndor of his linen, which
low -bpttoning waistcolt, gorgeous and dirty
likewise, unbosoms disadyantageously to the
gaze of the heholdcr,-hy the inyariabc 'dia-
nond' pin, of gift-book style, with which the
uncture Of the first mentioned integumcnt is
Effected, if not adorned, and, above all, by
massive guards aud guy-chains with which
his watch is hitched on to the Delaying ar
of Chatham street garments, the
original texture and tint of which have long
been superseded 10y predominant grease.
We would here add, in paren,hesis, that it
seems to us that the California rowdy, though
evidently of the same genus, differs, in some
slight particulars from his brother of New
Y ork. He is not always clad in soilcd linen,
but we see him sometimes with his collar and
bosom as pure and white as the garments of
bride. Neither does he couline his where
pardon.
But the Koh i-noor of gems with which
this February number sparkles, is the article
from .hc pen Of Miss Martineau, in which she
molly defends her friend, Lady Byron, against
the aspcrsions cast upon her by her un.cru-
pulous husband and nisapprehending pub
lie. We would advise every man and woman
who has followed the gloomy "Childe" thro'
his "Pilgrimage' and thought that if he had
only experienced little tender forbearanee
and gentle, womanly forgiveness from his
cold and unrelenting wife, that he might
have been an angel Of light instead Of fend
of darkuess,-w say We advise all such to
60 down to Randals and get the book and
read the article in question We think that
by so doing, they would experience a whole
some rcyuIson Of sentiment. The pure life
Of Lady Byron, though blightcd, was eeya-
ted in its noble aspirations as far above Lord
Byrons, as is the chaSte Moon above the
kissing adder which, in its impotent rage
stings itself to death in a noisome cave.
Our limited space forces Us to be content
with making one short extract
As she loved early, she loved steadily and
forever 1t was through that love that her
magnanimity was SO transcendcnt. When
Lold Byron was dying, he said to his conf
dental servant, Fletcher, "Go to Lady By
ron,-you will see her. and say'-and here
his voice faltercd, and for nearly twenty
minutes he muttered words which it was i'm
possible to catch. The man was Obliged TO
tell him that he had not understood syna-
ble. Byron's distress was great but, as he
sail If ~ lutn Il.t.lt.v ~.