New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-01-15
PACIFIC GENIUS.

When Macaulay died it was generally felt
that the English reading world had lost Its
most fascinating essayist, its most subtle,
learned, and eloquent literary critic. Since
then-as they say, every week or two. IN the
prospectus for starring a new theatrical paper
-" the want has long been felt" OF such n
reviewer of Il writer who should combine, as
he DID, the learning of Bentley with even more
than the brilliancy of Sheridan AT last, how
ever. that want has been suppiei. Oar new
Macaulay bursts forth upon the Pacific slope,
aud the name of him il Warren Cheney.
The new Macaulay, to be sure, differs from
the old one. He is great--but his greatness
lies in a special direction. He hts field OF
his own. His illustIOus prototype was ere
ativr, and had the faculty of writing out OF
his own head. Cheney's way is simpler and
tar more expeditions; he writes out OF the
heads of others. THIS is the age Of the mag
nctic telegraph, and Cheney has no time TO
lose. Tie old way in literature, Ike the old
way in every thing else, must 20 to the wall.
Lord Bacon worked very hard TO write
those essays of hs. The original Ma
caulay,-who died at fifty nine, exhausted
with toi,-was surely n proIiglous worker.
How much easier and bcttcr,-if you want liter
ary reputation, and the power of doing good
in The world with your pen,-to tear out one
Of the old Is avs, put your name to the end of
it, and publish it rs your magazine article
The dead author won't mss 1t, aud, ten 10 one,
the living reader won't know il, even 10y sight.
Cheney is not quite up to this yet. He still
wastes littlo time. But Cheney is young,
and has room To grow.
At present the method of this new Macaulay
is Paraphrasc, and his genius shines forth in The
Orerldnd Monthly, of San Francisco. The Orcr-
land Monthly is n magazine started in that city
in 1865, subsequently put to bed, and just now
aroused after "A long sleep. The Editor gays
that he " has picked up the thread which had
been dropped. and hopes to weave 1t into some
cloth of god"; and he has got Cheney to help
him. Cheney's cloth liz thrteen-page article
on Bret Harte and, viewed ms expert weaving,
il certainly is u masterpiece and ought to
fiji the editorial breast with JOY. Harte
WAS the first Editor of THE Orerldnd
Monthly. Hence Cheney's choice OF him
for subject. But life is sh5rt,-partcu-
larly in the Southwest, and it is one thing to
choose your subject, and another thing to
write about it. Here was Cheney's chance,
ana We are DlDuh w Hh1 AhA' Nv iVnt w AllV
occasion. Another man might have tried to
draw something out of his own brain. Foolish,
old fashioned writers still live, who think that
this is a good thing to do. What Cheney did
was to take two old essays written by Edmund
C.. Stedman, the one Oh Poe and the other on
Lowell, and paraphrase both into an essay
on Bret Harte. The result is in The OrcyiGnd
Monthly Cheney no doubt has got his money
for the job and nobody has the headache
or will have till Bret Harte reads the article.
What the emotions of that gifted being may
be when he ascertains that Poe, Lowell, and
himself are one and the same person may,
perhaps, best be left to conjecture. One thing
is sure. He will reverence Cheney
Mr. Stedman's essay on Poe appeared in
Scribner's Monthly for May, 1880; his essay
on Lowell, in The Century, for May, 1882.
Cheney goes a-Mayiug for them in The Ocer-
land Monthlb for January, 1888, and some ex-
tracts are reprinted from his production on
another page. Ii is perfectly clear case, and it
will make Cheney famous. lie ought to be. Such
men are rare, and they should not be allowed to
work in obscurity. We have read Cheney's es-
say with great edifcation; and we can testify
that it not only disclOses splendid me .hOd
for making every man his own magaznist but
will adjust every literary students impressions
as to the spiritual qualities that UNI
derlie Lowelrs wonderful poem of "The
Raven,n Bret Harte's magnificent Com
memoration Ode, and Poe's droll verses
on "The Heather Chinee" The great
career and complex mind OF this poet, indeed,
were never fully understood till now. Who
could imagine, when Lowell was writing
The Fall of the House of Usher" for Ihomp-
sons Overland Southern Monthly Literary Hes