The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-23
SPIRIT OF TIE PRESS.
E ditOrlal Opinions of the Lending Journals
Upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph
ANOTHER GREAT HISTORIAN.

III
have written history in the English language
to the names of Hume, of Gibbon, and of
Macaulay of Bancroft, OF Motley and OF
Prescott-we beg leave to add that OF John
TYLER the younger, who enriches the columns
of Mr. Pomeroys DeW0cTdt with historical
essays, the main purpose OF which IS to prove
that the radical party is no better than 1t
should be. which Mr.. Tyler does with great
force, learning, and muscularity of language.
Two things in Mr.. Tyler's compositions can
never sufficiently be admired - his erudi-
tion and his style. 1t is very seldom that so
much learning and so much grace are so har-
moniously blended in single production OF
the human mind.
1. OF Mr. Tylers learning. In the single
essay now before us, Mr. Tyler alludes with
the most engaging familiarity to Satan, Nam
mon Alexandria, India, Arabia, Antioch,
Alexander Carthage Scipio, Rome, Numidia,
CYRUS, the Goths, SOdom and GomOrah,
Alaric, Byzantium, Death on the Pale Horse,
Hell, the Garden of Eden, Palestine, Bagdad,
and the Sacred Sepulchre. From this it will
be rightly Inferred that the sweep of Mr..
Tyler is tremendous, and his grasp considera-
BILE lie knows all about everything-''the
wild Saracens gathered in tribal communi-
ties"-''the gorgeous fables of Arabia
''Scipio flying his eagles over Spain aud
through Numdia to the walls of Carthage
.-''the inexorable decree of Ahasuerus -
t'the indignant wrath Of God -" Alaric and
Attila bursting against the gates of
Peace, climbing the capitol and
hurting Caesar from his state
death on the Pale Horse armed
with darts and hell following after him
t'the star in the East conducting the shep-
herds to the Virgin'-''the shivering of the
rod of the Caesars within the walls of Byzan-
tium etc etc. etc. We can tell youthful
aspirants for literary distinction that a man
cannot write in this large and loose and lu-
minous and luxurious sort of way, until he
has wasted innumerable gallons of the very
best midnight oil, and ransacked libraries
without number Mr.. Tyler the younger
is as familiar with antiquity as we are with
the administration of his respected and
patriotic papa. What seems to us the morn
ing twilight of the world, is in his eyes a
blaze of broad sunshine He is as familiar
with ''Babylonia' $50 he calls it, as
he is with the city Of Richmond, He is
acquainted with the Gauls the Goths, the
Lombards, and the Huns, as with his next
door neighbors. You would think him Just
come by rail and steamboat from Carthage;
and as for Death on the Pale Horse, he makes
no more of him than if he were a small boy
astride the oldest mare in all Virginia. Now
this is what we like. This is what we may
call impressive. You cannot help being
affected by such little traits of character. If
y
spectfully to such a LeJJuo Lj61OrHAl, but if,
unfortunately, you are not scholar, you
read Mr.. Tylers essay with gaping wonder,
and at the end thereof can only gasp out:
$50 yes! OF course! Certainly! BY all
manner of means
2. OF Mr.. Tylers style. OF this it is
hardly possible to speak with critical calm
ness so rich is it, so noble, so eloquent with
sublime strokes and pretty touches exqui-
sitely interminged. The only fault Of Mr..
Tylers sentences is that they are tritle
long-so long, indeed that they take away
the breath even of the silent reader. Yet it
must be admitted that they are uncommonly
gorgeous-there are no low expressions, there
are no meagre and arid patches-all blooms
with verbal fecundity and variegated mag
nifcence. The following, which reminds us
of Sherdans prose-poetc play of Pi:a1T0
must suffice for a specimen of Mr.. Tylers
mastery of dictionaries. On. b. The reader
will please draw long breath before COM
mencing the fascinating but laborious pc
rusa):-
"Enervated by rehnements of luxury, marvellous
in extent and ndesCrbable in character such as the
world had not witnessed since the inscription, Eat,
drink, and be merry, set over every mans door in
BabylOna by the lneXOraDle decree OF AhasucTuS,
called forth the indignant wrath of God, and drew
down from heaven the fiery hand upon the wall that
measured his kingdom and consumed his beStial
throne, and immersed in sensual ndulgenCcs beyond
the comprehension of the unadulterate mind: such
as those tat INVOKED upon the cities OF the plain the
hot curse of jehovah and sunk Seldom and GOmor-
rah kissing in the burning lake of His appease.ess
rage-Whlle thus drunk with carnage and sin, and
crime, and stepped in lethargc Incidence, she saw
her gories, star by star, expire, and up her proud
steep barbarian mOnarchS ride. She became the
NiObe of nations, Ghldless and Crownless in her
Voceess woe and she stands the lost mother Of dead
empires
If this isn't fine writing we beg most re-
spectfully to be informed what is. Observe
how involuntarily, i'll the poetic rush of his
thought, Mr., Tyler lapses into the heroical
decasyllabic:-
'"The burning lake Of His appeaseless rage,
she saw her glories star by star expire;
Upher proud steep barbarian monarchs ride"
What would we not give if we could write
in such a beautiful way Alas this gor-
geousness Of diction, this pyrotechnical bril-
liancy, this superb rush of sentences this
easy but gigantic vigor, and this
winning sweetness of manner, all combine to
form style so peculiar that few modern
writers would even attempt to initiate it.
1t may be asked by the curious reader what
MIR. Tylers Essay is all about. To this we
can only reply that the vigorous and methodi-
cal writer himself sums up the matter as fol-
lows:-"With minds illuminated we have been
led step by step, to recognize the divine
physical law, and the divine philosophy of the
soul as remaining alone permanent continu.
Gus, and indestructible, in the midst of the
mutations of things and the revolutions o.
human affairs" 1t will be seen, therefore
that what Mr. Tyler the Younger is driving a
is that ''the divine philosophy of the soul i
permanent, continuous, and indestructble
To be sure, nobody has ever said that i
wasn't; but then it is well, new and then, t.
be thus forcibly and elegantly reminded o
I1,oco tY1,tb he