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    September 24, 1853.] THE LEADER. 931

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    AN AMERICAN CRITIC. Mental Portraits; or...

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    Life: Its Dangers And Duration. The Decl...

    enable them to appreciate duly their worldly blessings , and to enjoy them for a length of time ; but alas ! this is not so . As truly as ' that charity covereth a multitude of sins / so surely do personal beauty , great talents and accomplishments , a coronet , or a large estate , not only cover too many personal and mental defects existing , but completely prevent all anticipations , of the evils which may come after . * . . " ¦ " Few that have attained longevity have passed a life of celibacy ; indeed many of ihose whose lives are quoted , have been married often ; and it is curious that in many instances the man and wife have died within a very short time of each other : thus showing , that whilst in all probability the mode of life adopted was conducive to health , the pleasures of domesticity and companionship were not less so . "

    We have here a definite point round which to gather the whole argument . When we said , there .. was . a fixed limit to the life of man , our meaning was not , that a certain number of years might be ascertained , circumscribing the life of all men , short of accidents ; but that Death being the inevitable residue of the activities of Life ( we will not here inquire into the how and why ) , a certain limit thei * e must be for every organism —and this limit will , * of course , vary with the varying composition of the organisms . Every cell has its definite phases of development and decline . Every flower has its limit of existence ; but the same limit is not absolute even for similar flowers . In point of fact , we are seeking

    for a will-o' -wisp in seeking Time as the limit- —it is only the record of the limit . Death does not depend on Time , but on the accomplishment of certain effects , which take place in Time , but are not influenced thereby . Hence the proposition is , that Certain organisms have within , them a reparative reproductive power greater than others . This is really the same as Dr . Van Oven ' proposition , when he adduces Hereditary Constitution as the cause of longevity ; but he will scarcely maintain , that anything like uniformity in such constitutions can be expected ; we must re-organize the world and obliterate the whole past , before such an . uniformity could be attained .

    This question of hereditary transmission is so important , that we shall , in confirmation , translate a passage from Beraud ' s JPhysiologie , just out : "It is no longer possible to doubt that duration of life is often an hereditary attribute . In certain families , early death is so universal , that very few only of their members , by dint of precautions , escape the doom . The individuals of Turgot's family rarely survived the age of fifty , and he who has made the name famous , on approaching the fatal epoch , although enjoying excellent health , and endowed apparently with a strong constitution , remarked that it was time for him to arrange his affairs , and to finish an undertaking which lie had commenced , l ) ecause the term of years allotted to those of his race was drawing to its conclusion . He died , in fact , at fifty-three .

    " Ordinary duration of life is not less an hereditary attribute ; the most reasonable expectations of prolonged life are founded upon such being a family inheritance . Rush says he never knew an octogenarian , in whose family there had not been frequent instances of longevity . Upon this assertion , M . Lucas proceeds to examine the duration of human life . He distinguishes average duration of life from individual longevity . Average duration depends evidently upon situation , hygiene , civilization ; individual longevity , on the other hand , Is independent of these conditions . Instances of it are found in all ages , in all countries ? , under all

    conditions , among all races . The census made under Vespasian shows that in one part of Italy there were 65 persons upwards of a century old . In France about 170 are reckoned annually ; in England , one in every 3100 individuals reaches the age of one hundred . Everything tends to prove that longevity arises from an inherent vital tendency . This vitality is so peculiar , and eo strongly implanted in their nature , that it characterizes their whole organization . They possess generally a kind of immunity from disease . All the functions and faculties of lifesensorial , emotional , locomotive , mental , and sexual—are accomplished , in these individuals , with peculiar energy , regularity , and persistency . "

    It is , indeed , evident , a priori , that as the parents transmit to their offspring the peculiarities of organization , they will also transmit this peculiarity of longevity . This point discussed , we liavo to consider the practical part of Dr . Van Oven ' s work—namely , the moans of attaining longevity ; because , n .-though each organism has a definite limit , beyond which its rcparativo reproductive power cannot travel , yet , as before noted , very lew really attain their own limit , and it is eminently desirable that the mcana ot doing so should bo known . This will occupy us in our next article .

    September 24, 1853.] The Leader. 931

    September 24 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 931

    An American Critic. Mental Portraits; Or...

    AN AMERICAN CRITIC . Mental Portraits ; or , Studies of Character . By Henry F . Tuckerman , Author of " Artist ' s Life , " & c . Bentloy IT is becoming daily moro and more of a serious conviction in England , that American literature hns passed from its curly and imitative bondage , into a freedom of national development , promising the best results . Its works are no longer reproductions of the mother country's forms of ( -nought and expression , hut are distinctively American . The consequence is , that we are beginning to regard every new work that crosses

    , ? Atlantic with feelings of real curiosity ; and , amid the cargoes o ( rubbish , wo find valuable commodities . Hero is a volume which cannot , maeod , be recognised as specially American , in any tiling oxcept , perhaps , l » o nmbitious aim which in ox post facto given to it , but it m a volume ot elegant literature , very acceptable , eomo whence it may . -It is a re-Pubhcation of various roview artiolen , written at considerable intervals , j" > a Hubsequently made to stand fora gallery of " Mental Portraits , " with "us afterthought of a . purpose : — "It ia the delight of naturalist ?) to indicate how tho muno law averts ilwolf under viUoly diiloront eiroumntanees : thi-y point to tho leaves and hIoiiih visible in fossil

    emuins , to tho siiino botanical organization in tho palo ( lower buried under Alpine tows and tho rudiunt calyx of the Tropics—to ( . ho identity of material in tho owl ami tho iceberg . A similar parallel may bo drawn from the history of « huor lia P ^ 'sus ro-nppoar continually , inodiiiod by timo and } i \ nvx-, yet essentially »« and tho Manic , No class is represented by tho philosophy of antiquity ; no b norm or special dovolopinont i » mtiuuped ou any oro , and no individual man has

    become memorable—but have their existent prototypes and representatives . Human nature has always been the same . " As a series of " studies , " embracing Southey , Boone , Constable , Wilkie , Lafitte , Korner , Savage , Jenny Lind , Leopardi , Jeffrey , Hawthorne , Brockedon Brown , D'Azeglio , Audubon , Washington Irving , and Gampbell , it is both entertaining and suggestive . Mr . Tuckerman has an elegant mind , a catholic and cultivated taste , a clear unpretending style , and touches each subject with a graceful completeness , very rare in reviewers , who have a tendency to become ponderous when not fragmentary . It is not easy , in a brief notice like the present , to give an idea of his mode of treatment ; we shall borrow , therefore , a passage or two , and let them speak for themselves : —

    THE LITEEAEY ADVENTTJEEE . " The distinction of civilized society is that human life is systematic , and the natural eifect of those circumstances which , in any degree , except an individual from its usual routine and responsibilities , is to induce the impulsive action and precarious expedients that belong to wild races . In the world of opinion and habit I occasionally see those who , goaded by misfortune or inspired by an adventurous temper , break away from the restraint which custom ordains , and by hardihood in action or extravagance of sentiment , practically isolate themselves from nearly all the social obligations acknowledged by mankind . Indeed , every human pursuit

    may he said to have its respectable and its vagabond followers . In trade these extremes are obvious in the merchant and the pedlar;—in the church , we have the bishop and the field-preacher : and in literature , the author who devotes the leisuro that intervenes between the care of his estates and the engagements of fashionable society , to a review , a poem , or a history , and the man about town who lives by his wits , and whose dinner is contingent upon a happy epigram or a successful farce . Even when fortune and rank obtain , natures imbued with a vagrant or adventurous spirit will cut loose from social bondage through mere waywardness or courage , as if there were gipsy blood in their veins , or the instinct of heroism or discovery in their hearts .

    " The enthusiasm of misanthropy made Byron a pilgrim , that of reform drove Shelley into exile , and that of sentiment won Rousseau to a picturesque hermitage . How much of human conduct depends upon the source whence is derived the inspiration or the sanction of existence ! Family pride leads to a constant reference to the standard of external honour ; the desire of wealth to a keen adaptation of all occasions to interest ; while the consciousness of having nothing beyond personal resources to look to for advancement or happiness , breeds in earnest minds an independence of mood almost defiant . To this we attribute , in no small degree ,

    the recklessness of Savage . . Every circumstance of his life tended to encourage self-will . He found neither in his birth , bis fortunes , nor the incidents of his daily experience , any vantage-ground for confidence . Fate seemed to ordain between him and society a perpetual enmity . Hence his dauntless egotism ; driven from the outworks of life , he fortified the citadel . Sure of no palladium but his genius , he held it up as a shield against the arrows of scorn , or thrust it forth as an authentic emblem of his right to demand from others the satisfaction of his wants .

    " Tho genuine literary adventurer is , indeed , a kind of social Ishmaelite , pitching the tent of his convenience as necessity or whim suggests . It is his peculiar destiny to ' take no noto of time / for he falls into any incidental scheme of festivity at morning , noon , or night , joins any band of I'oisterers he may encounter , takes part in the street-corner discussions of any casual knot of politicians , and is always ready to go to the theatre , the club , ji private domicile , or a coffee-house , with tho first chance acquaintance he meets . Ho bangs loose upon the skirts of society . If

    the immediate is agreeable , he scorns change , and hence will prolong his social visits to the infinite annoyance of those who keep regular hours . Where he breakfasts , dines , or sleeps , is problematical in the morning . As the itinerant musician goes forth to win entertainment by his dulcet notes , the vagabond man of genius trusts to his fund of clever stories , his aptitude as a diner-out , his facility at pencraft , or his literary reputation , to win upon the sympathies of some liumano auditor , or chain tho attention o f the inquisitive , and thus provido for the claims of physical necessity .

    " His appeal is threefold—to tho benevolent , the curious , and the vain ; and in a largo city , with tho entree of a fow circles and pluces of resort , it will he , indeed , a strange hazard that deprives him wholly of these long-tried expedients . His agreeability makes him friends which his indiscretions at length weary ; but as ho generally prefers to do all the talking' himself , he gradually censes to he fastidious , and when ho cannot fraternize with a scholar or a gentleman , contents himself with inferior society . The consciousness of superior gifts and singular misfortunes , soon blunts that delicacy which shrinks from obligation , lie receives a favour with the air of a man to whom consideration is a birthright . He is , as Landor

    says of woman , more sensitive than grateful ; borrows money and books without a thought of returning thorn , and although the most dependent of beings , instantly resents tho slightest approach to dictation as a personal insult . Ho is emphatically what Shakespeare denominates si ' landless resolute ; ' considers prudence too menu a virtue for him to adopt , and industry u habit unworthy of hi . s spirit . His wits are his capital , which he invests , day by day—now and thon , perhaps , embarking thorn in a moro deliberate venture , by way of polishing bis tarnished escutcheon . Equally exempt from tho laws of sentiment ns those of economy , ho makes unconsuionablo drafts upon tho approliativenoss ami the malignity of others , by inditing panegyrics and lampoons .

    * * * > x < * * * " It is peculiar to this cIuhh of men to he uneonsoiouH of tho diverse attraction * of talents and character . Their egotism prevents an habitual recognition of the important fact that tho enterfainmxiut afforded by conversational abilities and personal sympathy are two very distinct things . Uoouuko their talk i » listened to with avidit y , their wit productive of laughter , and their reputation of do ( erou « e , they deduce the erroneous conclusion that individually and for themselves an interest is awakened ; whereas , in most oases , tho clmrin i . s purely objective . By men of the world , genius of a literary kind in regarded in tho Mime light an dramatic , artistic , and juggling elovenietss — tho result is not associated with the portion ; it is tho pastime , " «<¦ the num that wins . A conviction so wounding to Milf-lovo i . s not easily adopted ; and , tis a natural eon . sequonce , tho deluded victims Of Hoeial applause continue , in wplto of mortifying experience , to look for a degreo of consideration , and demand a sympathy which it in absurd to expect from any

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 24, 1853, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24091853/page/19/