Year: 1867

The Richmond Eclectic for January,
1857.


A close and careful perusal Of all the
articles in this number has afforded high'
degree Of enjoyment, and convinced US
that it is a magazine Of q superior grade,
well-suited TO improve the literary taste Of
all who will read its pages, and just such
one as we ardently desire to see in the hands
Of the young gentlemen and ladies of the
land. If the editors hold their publication
up to the standard Of excellence attained
in this issue, as it respects variety in the
character of the selections, fine writings, a
happy combination of entertainment with
instruction, high, moral and religious
tone without the least didactic dryness if
they succeed so we'll every month in
giving their readers history, scientific in
vestigation, European politics, and the
most important theological discussions of
the day, thus admirably adorned with the
charms of graceful, captivating, and ire
sistibly readable style, mixing with all, as
they do in this case, a due proportion of
most pleasant narrative, then we shall be
fully prepared to say that it will be the
fault of the public and not theirs if they do
not receive generous support.


Probably Drs. HoGE and BRowN, and
their friends, will often find it necessary to
tell people that this is not polemical,
Presbyterian, belligerent concern, set up
for the defence of those iSms to which two
Doctors of Divinity, enthusiastically related
as they are, would naturally be ad-
dicted, and which on the proper
arena they would undoubtedly be pre-
pared to vindicate even by fashioned
Calvinistic theological Knocks" ami
cably and judiciously administered, as
some Of their opponents may, for aught we
know, have already discovered--but that it
is literary magazine in good faith, and
religious one in the most catholic sense,
entirely divested Of sectarian bias, and de-
signed to provide for their countrymen,
within a brief compass and at price
suited to their present pecuniary ability,
the very best essays, historical sketches,
and notices Of new views, discoveries, in
ventions, and political and ecclesiastical
changes that appear in the British and other
foreign periodicals, with such entirely
harmless Storcsand interesting narratives Of
travel and adventure, drawn from the same
source, as will make their publication va
ried and attractive monthly repast, in which
readers of every class will find something
to detain them, and in which even the most
thoughtlcss of those who turn over its
pages may be tempted by the engaging
sprightlness of its writer's to read of more
serious things than they are wont to consi-
der, and may be instructed while they only
sought to be pleased.


The literature of this country is at pre-
sent, unhappily, very much imbued with
the acrimonious spirit engendcred by the
war, and the endless strife preceding and
following it, while great number Of very
clever writer's seem to have consecratcd
their talents to the idolatry of certain set
Of disputed ideas in politics and religion,
the constant repetition Of which has very
manifest tendency to enervate the intellect
as well as to produce eXacerbation Of tenn
per. From reading some of the leading
American publications one is irresistibly
led to the conclusion that, by the habitual
discussion Of the same threadbare themes,
the mind ofthe country has reached dead
level, so that we look in vain to the issues
of each month or week for anything fresh
or original, except it be some new effort at
denunciation or deeper development Of in
tolerance.


1t is, therefore, essential to mental vigor
as we'll as morality and good feeling, that
we think, write, read, and speak, to some
extent at least, of matters that afford no
cause Of irritation or painful remembrance,
and, to this end, that we bring our ltera-
ture from lands remote and beyond the
reach of those questions which enter so
largely into every thing that is published
AT the RTedt CCuliCs VI 'ntSii'5ShSS 80 'N''1
country.


The Importance of healthy literature,
literature controlled by Christian prin-
ciples, gives at all times moral dignity to
every effort in this behalf, and renders any
attempt to secure and preserve its purity
labor of love. How much more, there
fore, at this time and under the circum-
stances which surround us, does it become
an object worthy of religious men, and
even ministers Of the gospel, to render
every possible aid in the selection of sound,
intellectual food for the people, that We
may have at least some " fresh fields and
pastures new," some higher, purer traits
of thought into which We may escape from
the sitting atmosphere that surrounds us,
where


| . 1.-THE earis panied,


| The soul is sick with every days report
| OF wrong and outrage with whlch earth Is
| filled!'


That preacher may and should be
literary man no one will deny, and it will
be happy collateral advantage Of the
Richmond Eclectic if the gentlemen who
controlit shall succeed in increasing among
professional men, generally, taste for po-
lite literature. 1t has been remarked that
in our country the gentlemen Of the law,
of medicine, and Of divinity, are too often
exclusively addicted to their own books,
and pay too little regard to that general
knowledge and refined cultivation Of taste