tions, and personalities? Put him down again in a court of justice; would he be able to lay a complicated train of facts intelligibly before the minds of a common jury, or direct the bench through a maze of almost equally balanced analogies, in a question of law? The heart is very honest, and must furnish, we grant, the orator's inspiration; and must itself be warmed by nature. But words, speech, action, debate, these are things, which nothing but the most laborious study, and the longest practice can enable the heart to command to best advantage. It is some consolation that this is no new theory, though a theory more reasonable we cannot imagine; for the greatest orators of ancient and modern times have united genius and study in equal degrees.

ART. XVII.-1. The Club Room. 8vo, Boston, 1821. 2. The Idle Man. New York.

It is so generally esteemed a violation of critical etiquette, for one periodical publication to enter into a formal examination of the merits of another, that we should not have ventured upon the works before us, which in this respect, have somewhat of the same generic character with ourselves, had we not farther considered, that it is the only point in which they do resemble us, and that to criticism in particular, they make no pretensions.

But before we commence our strictures, our readers will excuse us for making some reflections on the history and the value of a species of fine writing, which once acquired a high name in our mother country, and which, in a new and not less attractive dress, has grown into deserved favor in our

own.

The only sample of essay writing, purporting to be such, and bearing any resemblance to a modern miscellany, that has come down to us from the ancients, is, we believe, the Attic Nights of A. Gellius, who flourished in the reign of Trajan, the declining days of Roman literature;-it is a farrago of independent facts, criticisms, and loose speculations. He enumerates in his preface several Grecian works of a similar nature, none of which have reached us; and it is much to be

regretted, as this kind of composition must have been peculiarly suited to the light, evanescent graces of the Greek language; and still more, as such works would have thrown a light, now much wanted, on the social habits of the age.

Bacon first made this species of writing popular with the English, by a series of essays, which will always be reverenced as a text book among English classics, for the compact yet simple form in which he has embodied the results of a deep observation in moral and social science. Cowley, fifty years after Bacon, still farther recommended this kind of composition, by his agreeable speculations on such subjects as were suggested by the native delicacy of his mind. Indeed he seems to have gone to prose, as to a relief from the unnatural part he was playing in poetry; and his essays must always reproach him for having sacrificed so beautiful a natural taste, to the absurdities of the metaphysical school. Temple and Shaftesbury are principally known by their essays, and prepared the way for what may be justly esteemed an epoch, not only in this department of fine writing, but in literature in general.

We allude to the periodical essays, introduced by Steele and Addison, and afterwards illustrated by some of the greatest wits and scholars in Great Britain. These periodical writings were peculiarly distinguished from all others, in the circumstance of their being suggested by the vices and fashionable follies of the day. They may be looked upon as a body of practical morality, illustrated by such living examples as daily occur in society. The merit of their introduction must be given exclusively to Steele; for although Theophrastus and La Bruyere have, in their essays, or sketches of charter, given a faithful register of the human heart, yet it is rather as the abstract speculations of philosophers, than with a view to a particular application: and even Montaigne, who made a still nearer approach to this kind of writing, differed in this material point, that as his examples were drawn from mankind at large, so his reflections were not peculiarly adapted to the state of society in which he lived; and thus the great object of the periodical writings of Steele, a reformation in the current follies and vices of the time, was neither intended nor effected by Montaigne.

The manner in which these essays were given to the world, on separate sheets, and with an interval of a few days between

the publication of each, distinguished them from every thing of the kind which had preceded them, and was a great cause of their popularity. The leading whim in the circle of fashion, whatever it might be, was immediately caught up by these censors of the public morals, stripped of its delusive colors, and exhibited in the severity of naked truth. There could be no want of subjects, either for raillery or satire, in the various dissipations of a court and a crowded metropolis. But it was fortunate, both for Steele and the world, that by an early association with so fine a genius as Addison, he was enabled to push his inquiries beyond the limited sphere of local and temporary interests into the higher walks of taste and criticism; to indulge in more exalted speculations in morals and in science; and thus not to enlighten one age or nation only, but all mankind.

We are desirous to express our opinion of the real merits of Addison, from the belief that the effort which of late years has been made, and we think justly made, to vindicate the reputation of the first writers, who broke up the 'virgin soil' of English literature, from the comparative obscurity into which they had been thrown, by the brightness of Queen Anne's day, has produced in some respects a too powerful reaction, and depreciated Addison in particular below his proper level, as a prose writer; and we are apprehensive that our readers. may imagine that we undervalue his actual merits, since in furthering the same good cause, we have contented ourselves with calling their attention rather to excellencies, which he wanted, than to those which he possessed. But while we have no disposition to retract our former sentiments, while in vigor, exactness, fervent and original thinking, we consider him inferior to many both of the preceding and subsequent ages, we cannot deny, that in whatever is beautiful as distinguished from what is powerful, in polite wit, easy eloquence, calm philosophical reflection,-in short, in the perfect harmony of delicate sentiment and graceful expression, he has rarely, perhaps never, been equalled in English literature.

The popularity of the earliest essayists was almost incredi ble. Addison tells us in an early number of the Spectator, that 3000 copies were then daily distributed; and Chalmers somewhere mentions, that the circulation was afterwards increased to 14,000. The success of the first adventurers in New Series, No. 10. 41

duced a crowd of imitators; and the indefatigable Drake* (to whom we must acknowledge great obligations in our inquiries into, and our speculations upon, the present subject) has enumerated no less than two hundred and thirteen periodical papers, which intervened between the commencement of the eighteenth and that of the nineteenth centuries. A small proportion of these have been rescued from oblivion, some by their intrinsic merit, others from caprice, and now occupy a comfortable space on the shelves of most good libraries, under the general, although rather indefinite, denomination of the British Classics.

This collection is composed of so many contradictory ingredients, that it is difficult to speak of its character as a whole, which is to be found only in the distinguishing properties of each individual essayist. We may talk of the stern dignified morality of Johnson, the oriental magnificence of Hawkesworth, the polite irony of Chesterfield, the learned criticism of Cumberland, and the rich pathos of M'Kenzie; but these, although the most prominent features in their respective works, convey but a faint notion of their characters; and we have not time to go into a deeper discussion of them. We will only remark, in general, that while they contain much of undeniable value, in criticism, fictitious narrative, allegory, humorous satire, and many excellent speculations in religious and moral science; they also contain a great deal that is absolutely worth nothing, from the manner in which it is executed, and the subjects upon which it is employed. We do not object to a well written piece, because the subject happens to be local, and no longer interesting, any more than we would object to the admission of a good portrait into a gallery of paintings, because the original is some obscure individual; if it is well done, that is enough, and will give it a permanent value as a work of art; but, in fact, many of these essays are not only upon mean subjects, but executed by very indifferent masters. Many of them are still farther exceptionable on the score of their gross indelicacy; and the Connoisseur, in particular, should on this ground be excluded from the collection; although we think it would be difficult to establish any ground on which it

* Drake has devoted five full duodecimos to the British essayists; and in the Gleaner, a work of three volumes, has compiled, from many obscure periodical publications, several essays of considerable individual merit, but which would have been lost in the uninteresting mass with which they were associated. We recommend his works to a perusal of those who have inclination to pursue these inquiries more into detail.

ought ever to have been admitted into such good company. It is remarkable that Goldsmith's essays, in which an acute knowledge of mankind is so delightfully set off by the singular naïveté of his own character, should not have been incorporated among the British classics. His Citizen of the World belongs to this department of writing more properly than to any other, and would confer at least as much honor as it would receive from such an association. In short, after a careful examination of these volumes, we cannot but think that they now occupy a space on our shelves very disproportionate to their merits; and were a judicious expurgation to be made of such pieces as are evidently the work of inferior hands, and originally intended only to supply such deficiences, as must often occur to the most fruitful mind in the recurrence of periodical composition, we think much useless expense might be saved to the purchaser, and enough still remain of genuine value to insure them a place in every library.

In our preceding remarks we have considered these essays, in reference to their value, as samples of literature; we will now, under favor of our readers, subjoin a few reflections on the influence which some of them have exerted over the English language; an influence perfectly accountable, as many of them were written with the avowed purpose of forming a polite taste in letters, and most of them claimed to be specimens of classical composition.

The English language was long in arrear of its literature; and has been gradually matured under a slow assiduous cultivation. Intellectual excellence may exist at any period; but excellence of language can only be obtained by labor and experience. It must be purified from terms merely synonymous, barren expletives, exotic idioms, before it can become vigorous and precise; and there must be many examples of false taste and barbarous jargon, before there can be created a high acknowledged standard of refinement and harmony. From these causes, English prose ripened slowly into perfection, and did not attain its ultimate polish until nearly two centuries after its literature had reached an elevation, which perhaps no subsequent age has surpassed. The first of those writers in English prose, whose works still continue to be the manual of every good scholar, were enabled to create them at that early period, by an unprecedented vigor of original genius. They were adventurers where man had never trod before, and