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RETZSCH'S FANCIES. *
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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ffow omnia possumus omnes . —We cannot all of us review every thing : and for ourselves , we claim a special license from over much labour in this department . We are only an eighteen-penny worth . Let the six-shilling Quarterlies ' from their alpine height , look round the wide horizon to survey Nilus or Ganges / and map out the world of literature ; let the three and sixpenny Monthlies load their portly forms with double panniers of
periodical criticism ; let the regular Reviews keep pace with the march of publication , in quick time and close column ; they are labouring in their vocation ; but we are no Review . We are a Magazine . We are not bound to discuss books , as they are ; nor bound to any thin g else , till the year ' s end , when we are bound to stand on the shelves of our subscribers . When we have a
hit at authors , it is like sportsmen , not butchers . We are not obliged to cut up calves . We just take a chance shot or so in the season , when we see a tempting book on the wing , and thus make our readers a present of some game by way of a civil compliment . But while we enjoy this immunity , and in reply to the author who exclaims , * You never noticed my book , ' say , ' Well , sir , and what then V we do freely confess , that when we
meet with a name that we believe destined for inscription in the calendar of fame , but which we have not put in illuminated letters on our own pages ; or when we see a book , which is launched for eternity , and to which we have not bidden good voyage , it does give us a sore twinge . Not for that our praise or homage could be of any worth to such name or book , but simply because we grieve that there should be a shrine at which we have
neglected to kneel , or the dawning of a glory without our having said 'good morrow to the sun . ' We feel like a soldier who has allowed a general to pass without presenting arms , or a child that has not said its prayers . We cannot answer it to our own hearts , that there is genius in the world , and we have not worshipped . We cannot afford not to have had the consciousness of recognizing
and reverencing the spirits that shall rule future ages , whether or not they be appreciated in their own . And therefore it is that never to nave named Retzsch is almost enough to make us wretched . It savours of the sin of ingratitude . To have seen the Shakespear creation made more distinct to sense than ever before , whether by painter ' by actor ' art ; to say nothing of the Bell , and Fridolin , and Faust ; and yet have gone on inditing , printing , and publishing , as if nothing of the sort had happened , grates harshl y on our memories . Nor is our conscience quiet as to the
• Fanciea : a eeriei of subjects in outline , now first published from the original pWtei . Designed and etched by Moriti Hetiach ; with prefatory remarks and descrip tiODH . bv Mra JamAann . Saimdera and OtWv . 1834 .
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Retzsch's Fancies. *
RETZSCH'S FANCIES . *
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No . 94 . 3 O
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1834, page 677, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2638/page/1/
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