The Portland daily press., 1876-02-09
THOMAS JEFFERSON.

noS' auVanced political thinker In one
sense, as the author of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, he may be called the greatest, or, at
least, the most generally known, of American
authors. But in his private correspondence his
literary talent is most displayed; for by his
letters he built up party which ruled the
United States for nearly half a century, and
which was, perhaps, only overturned because
its opponents cited the best portions of Jeffer-
sons writing against conclusions derived from
the worst. In executive capacity he was rela-
uVely weak; but his mistakes in policy and his
ieeDieness in administration, which would
nave ruined an ordinary statesman at the head
OF so turbulent combination of irascible indi-
viduals as the Democratic party Of the United
States, were all condoned by those minor lead
ers of faction who, yielding to the magic per-
suasiveness of his pen, assured their followers
that the great man could do no wrong Read
in connection with the events of his time,
Jefferson's writings must be considered of per-
manent value and interest As a political
leader he was literally man of letters; and
ms letters are masterpieces, if viewed as illus
tratlons OF the arts by which political leader
snip may be attained. In his private cores
pondence be was a model Of urbanity and
geniality. The whole impression derived from
his works is that he was better man than his
enemies would admit him to be- and not SO
great man as his partisans declared him
to be.
WASHINGTON ALLs1oN
Washington Allston, the greatest of Ameri-
can painters, was also graceful poet "His
mind" says Mr.. Dana, Seems to have In it
the glad but gentle brightness of a star, as You
look up to it, sending pure influences into your
heart, and making it kind and cheerful" As
poet, however. he is now but little known.
As prose writer, his lectures on Art. and
especially his romance of Monaldi, show that
he could paint with the pen as well as with the
brush. 1t is difficult to understand why
Monaldi has not obtained permanent place in
our literature. There is in it one description Of
picture representing the visible struggle of a
soul in the tolls Of sin which, in intensity OF
conception and nassion, exceeds any picture he
ever painted. The full richness of Allstons
mind was probably only revealed to those who
for years enjoyed the inestimable privilege of
hearing him converse. 1t is to be regretted
that no copious notes were taken of his CONVEX
sstlons. Mis-. Jameson, in her visit to the
United States, was so surprised to witness such
opulence of thought conveyed in snch SEEM
ingly careless talk, that she look few notes of
MS deep and beautiful sayings. It would have
been well if Dana and others who from dav to
day and year to year saw the clear stream of
conversation flow ever on from the same inex-
haustibe mind, had made the world partakers
OF the wealth with which they were enriched
Aiston, indeed, was one of those men whose
who can talk better than they can write and
conceive more vvidy than they can execute
CooPER's NOVELS.
Cooper lived to write thirty-four novels, the
merits of which are so unequaled that at times
we are puzzledt to cnceive of them as the products
of one mind. His failures are not to be refer
red to that decline of power which accompanies
increasing age, for The D3erslayer, one of his
hast vvrif
worst novel, The Monikins. He often failed
early, as well as late in his career, not because
bis faculties were impaired but because they
were misdirected. One of the secrets of his
fascination was also one of the causes of his
frequent dullness He equaed De Foe in the
art OF giving reality to romance by the dextrous
accumulation and management of details. In
his Two great sea novels, The Plot aud The
Red Rover, the important events are preceded
by large number of minor incidents, each of
which promises to be an event. The rocks
which the vessel by cunning seamanshp es-
capes are described as minutey as the rocks on
which she is finally wrecked. 1t is difficult for
the reader to conceive that he is not reading an
account or an actual occurrence. He uncon-
sciously transports himself to the deck OF the
ship, participating in all the hopes and fears of
the crew, thanking God when the keel Just
grazed ledge without being seriously injured,
and finally goes down into the "hell of waters"
in company with his imagined associates. In
such scenes the imagination of the reader is SO
excited that he has no notion whether the writ
er's style is good or bad. He is made by some
magic of words to see, feel, realize the stua-
tion; the verbal method by which the meracle
IS wrought he entirely ignores or overlooks
But then the preliminaries to these grand
scenes which exhibit intelligent man in a life
and death contest with the unintelligent force
of nature-how tiresome they often are! The
early chapters of The Red Rover, for example,
are dull beyond expression. The authors fond
ness for details trespasses on all the reserved
fund of human patience. 1t is only because
expectation sits i the air" that we tolerate
his tedi0usness. If we desire to witness the
conduct of the man-of-war in the tempest and
the battle, we must first submit to follow all
the cum bersome details by which she is slowly
detached from the dock and laboriously piloted
into the open sea. There is more padding"
IN Coopers novels than in those of any author
who can make any pretentions to rival him,
bis representative sailors, Long Tom Coffin,
Tom Tll.er, Nightingale. Bolthrope. Trysail,
Bob Yarn, not to mention others, are admira-
Bile as characters, but they are allowed to infict
too much Of their practical wisdom on the read
er. In fact, it is a great misfortune, as it re-
CARDS the permanent fame of Cooper, that he
wrote one third, at least, of his novels at all,
and that he did not condense the other two.
thirds into third of their present length.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
Jonathan Edwards may be characterized as a
man of the next world. Benjamin franklin
was emphatically man of this world Not
that Franklin lacked religion and homely prac-
tical piety, but he had none of Edwards's
intense depth of religious experience. God
was to him benefcent being, aiding good
men in their hard struggles with the facts Of
life, and not pitiless to those who stumbled
in the path of duty, or even to those who
widely diverged from it. The heaven of Ed
wards was as far above his spiritual vision as
the hell Of Edwards was below his soundings of
the profundities of human wickedness; but
there never was person who so swiftly distin-
guished an honest man from a rogue, or who
was more quick to see that the rogue was at
war with the spiritual constitution of things.
He seems to have learned his morality in
pratical way. All his early slips from the
straight line of duty were but experiments,
from which he drew lessons in moral wisdom.
If he happened occasionally to lapse iLto vice,
he made the experience of vice new fortress
to defend b is virtue; and he came out of the
temptations OF youth aud middle age with a
character generally recognized as one of
singular solidity, serenity and beniguity His
intellect, in the beautiful harmony of its facul-
ties. his conscience, in the instructive sureness
of its perception of the relations of duties, and
his heart, in its subordination of malevolent to
benefcent emotions-a showed how diligent
he had been in the austere self-cultuIe which
the me of his time. Simplicity was the tiDe
result of the complexities which entered into
his mind and character. He was a man who
never used words except to express positive
thoughts or emotions and was never tempted
TO misuse them for the purposes Of declama-
ton. He kept his style always ou the level of
his character 10 announcing his scientific
discoveries. as 10 his most private letters, he is
ever simple. In breadth of mind be is prob
ably the most eminent man that our country
has produced; for while he was the greatest
diplomatist, and one of the greatest statesmen
and patriots of the United States, he was also a
dscoverer in science, bengnsnt philanthTop-
ist, aud a master in that rare art of so associat-
lug words with things that they appeared iden-
tical Edwards represents, humanity speak
ing, the somewhat dOleful doctrine that the
best thing good man can do is to get out
as soon as he decently can, of this world
into which is immeasurably better, by
devoting all his energies to the salvation
of his own particular soul. Franklin, on
the contrary, seems perfectly content with
this would, as long as be thinks be can bet
ter it. Edwards would doubtless have con-
sidered Franklin child of wrath, but Francis
Bacon would have hailed him as one of that