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Untitled Article
to fade away . We do not mean that , in Dr . Charming's Remarks , there are dot many which are sound , beaiitiful > origin 4 l , ^ -assuredly there are » but in his general notion there was no novelty : taken abstractedly , it is unduly severe ; and regarded comparatively
( comparatively with the manner in which any moral anatomist yet dares to dissect sovereigns , ) it is most unfair . Nor has it produced any effect upon public opinion . The chief result , and that a good one , has been to gain for Dr . Charming ' s other works some readers amongst a class which would else have treated any writer of his profession , opinions , and country , with ineffable
contempt . That Captain Hey wood should have admired Dr . Channing ' s writings was perfectly natural ; as it is that his biographer should isympathize in the sentiment . Not to admire them argues a deficiency in the faculty of literary appreciation . Nor do we demurto the bestowment of praise on ' the literature of America . ' Identical in the past , we hope that in the future it will never be
materially distinguished from the literature of England . But we cannot consent to its being , and we are sure no intelligent American would claim for it to be , at once distinguished from and raised above that of the mother-country . The time of competition is yet distant . Nor do we think that the contrast which Mr . Tagart has instituted in the following passage , or the censure which he has borrowed in the appended note , can be fairly substantiated :
* The , literature of America in general suited his taste . It is true * he knew it chiefly from its most favourable specimens , but in these he perceived good sense prevailing , a disposition to bring every opinion to the test of truth , without that party spirit which mingles so largely in the current literature of our own country , and tinges our popular reviews with so much unfairness and misrepresentation * . '—pp . 321 , 322 .
Good sense and impartiality are essential , but the ' most favoursable specimens' of the literature of a country should have sundry other qualities in addition , if a claim to high rank is to be substantiated . We hope the Americans will both disclaim the invidious contrast , and be dissatisfied with the imperfect praise . As to party spirit / it ebbs and flows at intervals in both countries ; and the literature of both is necessarily more or less tinged with it in proportion . We have seen some choice American specimens ;
* lMI have the utmost aversion to the whole business of reviewing , which I have long considered , in the manner in which it is conducted , a nefarious and unprincipled proceeding , and one of the greatest plagues of modern times . It was infinitely better for the interests of religion and literature when books had fair play , and were left to the unbiassed suffrages of the public . As it is , we are now doomed to receive our
first impression and opinion of books from some of the wickedest , and others of the itupidest of men ; men , some of whom have not sense to write on any subject , nor others honesty to read what they pretend to criticise , yet sit in judgment upon all performances , and issue their insolent and foolish oracles to the pubJic . " - i-Ro : BEKtf Hall's Letter * to Ivime * . Wotks , yol . v . p . 522 . * ¦ J
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:- § k 1 t JTflgsrrt Memoir x > fCaptain Hey § po 6 $ .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1832, page 814, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1826/page/22/
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