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degree that will make our exertions necessary to keep the start SEC. VII. we now have of them." (No. 29).

"The great body of the American people is better educated and more comfortably situated than the bulk of any European community, and possess all the accomplishments that are any where to be found in persons of the same occupation and condition." (No. 25).

<Having represented, or being capable of seeing, the question of our literature and intellectual condition in these lights, -discerning the general causes which either retarded our advancement, or prevented it from being visible abroad,liberal critics, "well wishers to America," delighted to protect her character from the insults of malice and the judgments of ignorance, might have been expected to abstain, as much as possible, from reciting our unavoidable deficiences or unsuccessful attempts; and especially from making them, on every practicable occasion, the subject of burlesque or opprobrium: They might have been expected to treat our literary performances with the utmost lenity, and to hold out to us whatever degree of positive encouragement was consistent with the true interests of literature; the more as, whatever we may have arrogated to ourselves in other respects, we have rarely set up exorbitant pretensions on the score of our books. Let us see how far such expectations have been fulfilled by the liberals of the Edinburgh Review.

The first production of our press brought within their high cognizance, was the fifth volume of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. A society of this description, sprung from the most generous aspirations and benevolent aims; formed under the auspices of Franklin and Rittenhouse; arrested in its promising career by the war of the revolution, which required all the exertions of its members in other fields of public service; struggling anew, when the unnatural aggressor had consented to sheathe the sword, in a community universally engaged in business, and under all the disadvantages inseparable from a new country, to maintain the appearance of vital action, in order to present a rallying point, and nucleus of science, for an infant nation-such a society was in itself, independently of the general considerations intimated above, fitted to conciliate forbearance, and even tenderness and support, from the votaries of knowledge in the old world. Its first offerings might be composed of no very

*

* See Note Q.

*

PARTI. excellent materials; they might be deficient in interest and instruction for an European savant; yet, liberal minds, alive to the excellence of its object, and the remote influences of its rude essays, would not fail to receive them 'with respect, and to rejoice in its very existence, as an auspicious omen, and a certain source of future good. Whether actuated by reflections of this kind, or a confidence in its positive merit, many of the most illustrious of the scientific world of Europe have sought to be ranked among its members; and displayed the title, when obtained, in the front of their works, with evident satisfaction. Of this number, I may cite Dugald Stewart, the most accomplished and enlightened of the countrymen of the Edinburgh critics.

These, our well-wishers, proceeded, however, with a spirit diametrically opposite. They heaped indignities upon the volume of the American Transactions, and made their account of it, the occasion of innuendos and sallies, against the taste and learning of America in general. The following extracts will speak for themselves.

"The want of refinement in arts and in Belles Lettres, is, by no means, the only circumstance, that distinguishes our kinsmen in North America, from the inhabitants of the eastern hemisphere. They appear to be proportionably deficient in scientific attainments. The volume now before us, one of the very few that ever issue from the American press, contains the whole accumulation of American discovery and observation, during a course of peaceful years. It extends to 328 pages, and the most interesting communication it has to boast of is the valuable paper of our countryman, Mr. Strickland. Of all the academical trifles which have ever been given to the world, eighty-nine of the pages, the work of Americans, are the most trivial and dull. Our readers will judge with what difficulty this mite has been collected, when we mention the subject," &c.

"Some of the American philosophers themselves seem to have adopted the language of the ludicrously sentimental class to which M. Dupont de Nemours (the author of one of the papers) belongs, and to have thought it a good substitute for the eloquence and power of fine writing which Providence has denied to their race."—"By the manner in which one of the American contributors cites, and more especially by his remarks upon classical learning, we are inclined to suspect that a man who reads the easier Latin poets is not to be met with every day in North America."-"We cannot resist the temptation of quoting a passage from his paper; the moralizing

part of it is truly American. It is only necessary to add, for SEC. VII. the information of the American Academies, that the Latin quotation is nothing at all to the purpose," &c. "Meanly as our readers may be disposed to think of the American scientific circles, they appear to be highly prized by their own members. The society whose labours we have been describing, attaches to itself the name of Philosophical' with peculiar eagerness; and the meeting-house, where the transactions of its members are scraped together, and prepared for being inaccurately printed, is, in the genuine dialect of tradesmen, denominated Philosophical Hall.""

"We have dwelt longer upon this article than its merits justify, for the purpose of stating and exemplifying a most curious and unaccountable fact-the scarcity of all but mercantile and agricultural talents in the new world."*

3. The American work that next attracted the attention of our patrons, happened to be from the pen of a minister plenipotentiary of the United States on the continent of Europe, the son of the American President. These qualities of the author, although they did not entitle him to deference as such, yet gave him claims to some particular personal favour and respect, from critics of the whig-school, and of the bon-ton of European society. And he would have every right to expect the most indulgent dispositions, for his work, if, composed of sketches which were reluctantly permitted to go before the American public in the pages of an American periodical paper, without ulterior destination, it had taken the shape of a distinct volume, through the cupidity of a London Bookseller;-if at the same time it was altogether free from pretensions, and professedly limited to certain heads of observation, upon which accurate information might be of particular utility to his countrymen. The "Letters from Silesia" of Mr. John Quincy Adams, to which it will be understood that I have been referring, were attended with these circumstances apparent upon the face of the volume into which they were collected. I will venture to affirm, moreover, that they possess much absolute, intrinsic merit; that they are greatly above the common standard of applauded English tours, and would have been declared creditable in all respects, had they beenthe production of an Englishman in a similar station. But the Edinburgh Review was as ungracious and wayward in this instance, as in that of the American Philosophical Society. It

* Compare this with the quotations in p. 218.

PART I. not only launched into broad generalities, and drew far-fetched analogies, to decry the work of Mr. Adams, but was at much pains to disparage his understanding and feelings; and turned aside from the only proper subject of animadversion, to carp and sneer at the studies and mind of his country. These assertions might be the more strikingly illustrated here, did not the same tone and design pervade nearly the whole of the article in question; at the same time that the critics cannot effectually conceal the sense, which they really entertain, of the merits of the Letters. A few excerpts from the article will be enough for the occasion.

"It may appear somewhat hard to subject a work which does not offend by any pretensions to a comparison with the excellent standards of its kind; but when we held this work in our hands, we could not help thinking of the American Presidency, and of the state of learning in that powerful and prosperous commonwealth."

"Although this author is neither lively nor very instructive, he shows some qualities which makes him a tolerable companion for a very short tour."**"The feelings of Mr. Adams about his native country more resemble the loyal acquiescence of a subject, than the personal interest and ardour of a republican."**His style is, in general, very tolerable English, which, for American composition, is no moderate praise."**"A spurious dialect, it is probable, will prevail even at the court and in the Senate of the United States, until that great commonwealth shall become opulent enough to break more distinctly into classes," &c.

At the appearance of another American work of the highest possible interest and elevation as to the subject, and proceeding from the first law-dignitary of the American republic, not more respectable by his exalted station, than by his general talents and private virtues-I mean the Life of Washington by Chief Justice Marshall-a fair opportunity was afforded the Edinburgh illuminati, to resist "the impertinence and vulgar insolence," and the "bitter sneering" of the ministerial party with respect to American concerns, by the force of example, in a generous exposition of the merits which they might discover in the performance; a scrupulous abstinence from harsh and supererogatory reflections on the author or his country, and a commemoration of those traits in the American revolution, which distinguish it as the purest and noblest among the most important and celebrated in the history of the world. Nothing would have seemed more remote from probability, than that the disciples of Fox could, on the occasion of re

viewing an authentic biography of Washington, labour mainly SEC. VII. to appear smart and knowing, at the expense of the nation which had produced this model of heroes, and even insult the faithful and unassuming biographer, who had been his companion in arms, had enjoyed his intimate friendship, and shared with him the labours and honours of his civil administration. Whether they pursued so unworthy a course, and how far they improved the opportunity above mentioned, to the very reverse of the proper ends, may be ascertained by the following short extracts from the article under consideration.

"Mr. Marshall must not promise himself a reputation commensurate with the dimensions of his work."

"Mr. Chief Justice Marshall preserves a most dignified and mortifying silence regarding every particular of Washington's private life, &c. Mr. Marshall may be assured that what passes with him for dignity, will, by his reader, be pronounced dullness and frigidity."

"The Speeches in this work display great commercial knowledge, and a keen style of argument-but oratory is not to be looked for in a country which has none of the kindred All the specimens of American eloquence grievously sin against the canons of taste."

arts.

"A more diffuse and undiscriminating narrative we have seldom perused. It is deficient in almost every thing that constitutes historical excellence," &c. &c.

This last stricture upon the narrative is followed immediately by the observation- It displays industry, good sense, and, so far as we can judge, laudable impartiality; and the style, though neither elegant nor impressive, is yet, upon the whole, clear and manly." No ingenuity but that of the Edinburgh critics, would be adequate to explain, how a narrative acknowledged to possess these qualities-which Blair indicates" as the primary qualities required in a good historian"-could yet be justly proclaimed "deficient in almost every thing that constitutes historical excellence."

They are careful, in the abundance of their tenderness for America, to note, as they proceed with Judge Marshall, "the budicrous proposition of her Congress to declare herself the most enlightened nation on the globe." This taunt had been so often in the mouth of the party stigmatized for an "odious, miserable, vulgar spirit of abuse against America," that the repetition of it by her friends, can be accounted for, only by its egregious pleasantry. I propose to enquire into its justice hereafter, and hope to render this point at least doubtful. Towards the conclusion of the article on the Life of Washington, there is

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