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it is an anxious and fearful thing to be call- for evil, which the French Revolution has ed on to encounter danger among comrades produced. He who now, in his second of whose steadiness you can feel no certainty exile, bears the name of the Count de Each soldier of Kellerman's army must have Neuilly in this country, and who lately was remembered the series of panic routs which Louis Philippe, King of the French, figured had hitherto invariably taken place on the in the French lines at Valmy as a young French side during the war; and must have and galant officer, cool and sagacious becast restless glances to the right an left, to yond his years, and trusted accordingly by see if any symptoms of wavering began to Kellerman and Dumouriez with an imporshow themselves, and to calculate how long taut station in the national army. The it was likely to be before a general rush of Duc de Chartres (the title he then bore) his comrades to the rear would either hurry commanded the French right, General Vahim off with involuntary disgrace, or leave lence was on the left, and Kellerman himhim alone and helpless to be cut down by self took his post in the centre, which was assailing multitudes. the strength and key of his position.

On that very morning, and at the self- Contrary to the expectations of both same hour in which the allied forces and the friends and foes, the French infantry held emigrants began to dese nd from La Lune to their ground steadily under the fire of the the attack of Valmy, and while the cannon- Prussian guns, which thundered on them ade was opening between the Prussian and from La Lune; and their own artillery rethe Revolutionary batteries, the debate in plied with equal spirit and greater efect on the National Convention at Paris commenc- the denser masses of the allied army. ed on the proposal to proclaim France a Re-Thinking that the Prussians were slackenpublic. ing in their fire, Kellerman formed a

The old monarchy had little chance of column in charging order, and dashed down support in the hall of the Convention: but into the valley in the hope of capturing if its more effective advocates at Valmy had some of the nearest guns of the enemy. triumphed, there were yet the elements A masked battery opened its fire on the existing in France for an effective revival of French column, and drove it back in disthe better part of the ancient institutions, order, Kellerman having his horse shot and for substituting Reform for Revolution. under him, and being with difficulty carried Only a few weeks before, numerously signed off by his men. The Prussian columns addresses from the middle classes in Paris, now advanced in turn The French artilRouen, and other large cities, had been pre- lerymen began to waver and desert their sented to the king expressive of their hor- posts, but were rallied by the efforts and ror of the anarchists, and their readiness to example of their officers; and Kellerman, uphold the rights of the crown, together reorganizing the line of his infantry, took with the liberties of the subject. The in- his station in the ranks on foot, and called effable atrocities of the September massacres out to his men to let the enemy come close had just occurred, and the reaction produc- up, and then to charge them with the bayed by them among thousands who had pre- onet. The troops caught the enthusiasm viously been active on the ultra-democratic of their general, and a cheerful shout of side, was fresh and powerful. The nobility Vive la nation, taken up by one battalion had not yet been made utter aliens in the from another, pealed across the valley to eyes of the nation by long expatriation and the assailants. The Prussians hesitated. civil war. There was not yet a generation from a charge up hill against a force that of youth educated in revolutionary princi- seemed so resolute and formidable; they ples, and knowing no worship save that of alted for a while in the hollow, and then military glory. Louis XVI. was just and slowly retreated up their own sile of the humane, and deeply sensible of the necessi-valley.

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ty of a gradual extension of political rights, Indignant at being thus repulsed by such among all classes of his subjects. The Bour- a foe, the King of Prussia formed the bon throne, if rescued in 1792, would have flower of his men in person, and riding had the chances of stability such as did not along the column, bitterly reproached them exist for it in 1814, and seem never likely with letting their standard be thus humilito be found again in France. ated. Then he led them on again to the Serving under Kellerman on that day was attack, marching in the front line, and seeone who has experienced, perhaps, the most ing his staff mowed down around him by deeply of all men, the changes for good and the deadly fire which the French artillery

re-opened. But the troops sent by Dumouriez were now co-operating effectually with Kellerman, and that general's own men, flushed by success, presented a firmer front than ever. Again the Prussians retreated, leaving eight hundred dead behind, and at nightfall the French remained victors on the heights of Valmy.

All hopes of crushing the Revolutionary armies, and of the Promenade to Paris, had now vanished, though Brunswick lingered

long in the Argonne, till distress and sickness wasted away his once splendid force, and finally but a mere wreck of it recrossed the frontier. France, meanwhile felt that she possessed a giant's strength, and like a giant, did she use it. Before the close of that year all Belgium obeyed the National Convention at Paris, and the kings of Europe, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, trembled once more before a conquering military Republic.

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From the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review.

LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES.

1. The Prose Writers of America. By Rufus W. Griswold. Bentley. 2. The Statesmen of America in 1846. By Sarah Mytton Maury Longmans. AMERICAN literature, in the opinion of Mr. ings of that which, as a whole, is the subRufus Griswold, has not received its due ject of his eulogy. He lays his finger, share of attention at the hands of the though tenderly, upon the sores which a English public; who remain in half-wilful less honest advocate would have hidden out ignorance of its merits, its progress, and in of sight. He acknowledges, for example, particular its growing nationality. To draw that American literature has sometimes our attention to these things, Mr. Griswold been too humble a candidate for popularity; has made a collection of choice passages has stooped from its lofty station as the from the most meritorious American prose guide and teacher, to be the flatterer, of pubwritings, which he publishes, that they lic opinion; and too often silencing its own may speak for themselves, without any doubts, has contentedly been the mouthcomment on his part, excepting a brief piece of popular fallacies. It is in some flourish of trumpets somewhat formally degree the same with ourselves. Literastyled a biographical memoir, at the en- ture, even in this country, can hardly be trance of each fresh personage upon the said to have yet attained a perfect indestage. The body of the work before us, pendence; it has only changed patrons. therefore, forms a sort of cyclopædia of If it is no longer dependent on the noble, American literature; an accumulation so the wealthy, the man of taste who affects extensive and so miscellaneous that a re- the Mæcenas; if it does not now hang viewer may very well be excused from a about the antechambers of the great, or dedetailed examination and commentary. base itself for hire in dedications; if its But, in a preliminary essay, Mr. Griswold masters are now more numerous, and less enters into a full discussion of the general able to act in concert for the giving or takstate and prospects of his native literature; ing away of reputations; and if the man of and this portion of the work is suggestive letters may so far stand more erect and of much reflection. fearless than of old: still, he has masters, Mr. Griswold, we may premise, is not jealous and exacting masters too, though one of those Americans who displease their affecting the posture of scholars; and he readers, and forfeit their credit at the out-must often see before him the alternative set, by indiscriminate and unbounded lau- of catering to the tastes, in other words, dation of every product of their country. flattering the prejudices of the public, or His tone is calm and temperate, and he writing works that nobody will read. Amehas not shrunk from the disagreeable duty rica, in this respect, does but follow in our of pointing out the blemishes and fail- train: though it may be, as public opinion

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is more despotic and one-sided there than by spoiling the market for native American here, the mischief is more keenly felt productions, it is not to be supposed that Here, certainly, the diversities of party this circumstance will ever stifle or silence and sect serve in some degree-so long as the voice of true genius, or rob America of a writer has a party at his back-as safe-one work of supreme and transcendent guards for the independence of literature. merit. High and rare powers of thought According to Mr. Griswold, the acknow- or feeling owe no fealty to publishers, are ledged inferiority, in certain branches, of not the servants of the market, do not American to English literature, is chiefly, bloom or fade at the bidding of the bookif not altogether, owing to the absence of a trade, and ask no international copyright law of internationel copyright. The sys- for their protection. The impulse that tem of legalized freebooty-that right of forces genius to utter itself is far different border-foray-which enables an American from that which induces men to work for a publisher to appropriate the labors of an livelihood; and wherever that impulseEnglish author, and defraud him of his that is, wherever genius-exists, it will hire, has been, by a most just retribution, make its way through all obstacles, at a the bane of American literature. Thanks pace which no golden recompense can to this system, authorship by profession is greatly hasten, no neglect greatly retard. in America a career, if not impossible and It may be that genius thrives most under unknown, at least one to which the en- difficulty, that singing birds should not trance is fenced off by difficulties that must be fed too well:" not, however, for the deter many from venturing upon it. On reason commonly assigned, that it needs this point Mr. Griswold speaks with au- the spur of hunger to keep it to its paces; thority. but because the struggle with hardship strengthens and disciplines the mental "A short time before Mr. Washington Irving powers, because the frosts of poverty prewas appointed minister to Spain, he undertook to vent the mischief of a too early blossoming, dispose of a production of merit, written by ap because the absence of material and sensuAmerican who had not yet established a commanding name in the literary market, but found it im ous delights makes genius cling the more possible to get an offer from any of the principal fondly to the delight it finds in its own utpublishers. They even declined to publish it at terance. Again, it may be that genius the author's cost,' he says, alleging that it was thrives most in neglect: for then, despairnot worth their while to trouble themselves about ing and heedless of popularity, it seeks native works, of doubtful success, while they only to please itself, and is not seduced could pick and choose among the successful works daily poured out by the British press, for the copyright of which they had nothing to pay.' And not only is the American thus in some degree excluded from the audience of his countrymen, but the publishers, who have a control over many of the newspapers and other periodicals, exert them. selves, in the way of their business, to build up the reputation of the foreigner whom they rob, and to destroy that of the home author who aspires to a competition with him.

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from its own true canons of taste by any motive for conforming to the less pure tastes of the multitude. Thus much, at least, is certain if discouragement is not, to high genius, a benefactor, it is no mortal enemy; it will put it to the test, it will make it suffer, but will never crush or ilence it. "When God commands," says Milton, to take the trumpet, and blow a "This legalized piracy," continues Mr. Gris- dolorous or a jarring blast, it lies not in wold, warming as he proceeds, "supported by man's will what he shall say, or what he some sordid and base arguments, keeps the crimi shall forbear." But, though all this be nal courts busy; makes divorce committees in the true, there yet remains much truth in Mr. legislature standing instead of special; every year Griswold's complaint. The literature of a yields abundant harvests of profligate sons and daughters; and inspires a growing contempt for country is not composed entirely, nor even our plain republican forms and institutions. In- principally, of the products of high genius; jurious as it is to the foreign author, it is more so it does not depend on genius for its exto the American, and it falls with heaviest weight upon the people at large, whom it deprives of that nationality of feeling which is among the first and most powerful incentives to every kind of greatness."-American Prose Writers, p. 8.

istence or utility; and, if bound by fetters such as only genius has the strength to break, literature, more feeble, may invoke the aid of law to release it. Great poets and great thinkers appear at long intervals, Let us be careful, however, not to damage and make the times they live in memorable our argument by overstating it. Injurious for generations: they are too few to constias may be the effect of the present system, tute, at any one period, a current litera

ture. The ordinary fruits of a well-trained | assembly or the debating-club: it makes understanding, readiness of adaptation. itself visible nowhere more conspicuously clearness of arrangement, judgment, good than in this very portion of literature which sense, and information-are the highest we call ornamental The difference bequalities one has a right to expect of a tween an Englishman and a Frenchman is mere literary man, a member of that body not more strongly marked than the differwhose accumulated labors constitute a lite-ence between an English and a French rature of the day. And when we reflect novel. In politics, in morals, in religion, what great things this current literature is the insinuating lessons of the lighter literadoing and has done; what a power it ture are often more effectual than any other wields, in the newspaper and periodical teaching; and if a nation is to be great, its press; how it is the true sovereign ruler of rulers should sedulously promote a healththe land; how noble a warfare it wages ful national literature. Herein, certainly, with error, fanaticism, sordid neglect, and the model republic acts not more ungeneinhumanity; when we see 'slavery abolished, rously than unwisely. commerce liberated, religions rendered tole- We are to consider, however, what things rant, ignorance routed, by the patient unit- American literature, hampered as it is, has ed efforts of a current literature, who shall accomplished; and, for this purpose, our deny that everything which tends to the method must be, first to trace the several fostering, training, strengthening, and puri- branches of the stream, and inquire what fying of this mighty engine, is of the high- has been done in each department; and est national concernment? And certainly afterwards to turn our attention to the America, in thus cramping and stifling her united current, and perhaps hazard a connative literature by an act of national dis- jecture as to its course and destination. honesty, uses a policy from which herself The noblest domain of letters, without eventually must be the chief sufferer. It doubt, if we were to judge from the digniis no conclusive answer to this reasoning to ty of the subject, must be that which has say, that America has, unaffected by any reference to religion. But since most, if law of foreign copyright, the practical part not all Christian sects, have agreed to diand net result of all literature, its applica vorce religion from reasoning, and exalt tion to the business of life, embodied in faith by debasing and contemning the unnewspapers and political speeches; and that derstanding, works of controversial diviniall beyond this is merely ornamental, and ty, secluded of necessity from ethical and altogether out of the sphere of nationality. intellectual philosophy, debarred from the By no means to furnish matter for these free use of argument, and degenerated into newspapers and pamphlets there must first almost a bare citation of texts, are become, be books; men's thoughts must first be from the nature of the case, uninteresting and freely developed, and spread open to their unprofitable reasoning, and by common confull dimensions, and in that shape studied sent are left in the hands of one class of and reflected on, before they can gain admit- writers and one class of students. In this tance to the public mind, and produce prac-field we shall not pause to inquire how the tical results, in that compendious and im- American clergy have acquitted themselves. perfect form that alone is possible to the In philosophy, the second in dignity if pamphleteer. Besides, first principles and we regard its subject, and the first, if we universal truths must not be sullied by in- regard the powers of mind necessary for the termixture with the fumes of party spirit, treating of it, we are disposed to believe or they can never hope to gain general ac- that Mr. Griswold's book gives a false and ceptance and reverence due. The politi- injurious impression of American proficiencian may avail himself of the labors of the cy. The author, whether from undervalupolitic.I philosopher, but the philosopher ing that which the wisest of ancient and must never dip his pen in the gall of the modern times have rated as the noblest empolitician. It were equally far from the ployment of the human mind, or from betruth to say, that in all that portion of lieving the study unpopular at the present literature which lies beyond the sphere of day, has not even named philosophy as a politics there is no scope for nationality. distinct subject of American prose writing. Nationality is a thing too much interwoven The few philosophical works he deigns to with men's lives, too closely worked into notice, he distributes under the heads of all their ways of acting, judging, and think- theology or essays, the latter with as much ing, to be put on merely for the political propriety as if we were to place the essays

of Hume and Blanchard in the same class. | proves to every man his own existence, and From so ignominious a treatment of philo- that which proves to him the existence of sophy, one naturally concludes that it must other beings,-magnifying consciousness at be an object of study lightly esteemed in the expense of perception,-declare each America, or unsuccessfully prosecuted. We man to be for himself the centre of all have always understood, however, that this things. Idealism, it is clear, must thrive is by no means the case; that there is some most in self-poised and self-sufficient nasort of affinity, in this respect, between the tures; the strong development of social American mind and the German, a certain feeling and human sympathy is hostile to proneness to abstract speculation, which, it, as carrying the mind abroad from itself, though benumbed in the many by the ne- and instinctively forcing it to believe that cessities and tendencies of a money-getting other beings have an existence as real as its way of life, yet displays itself wherever own. We may conclude, perhaps, that the there is leisure and scholarship. The phi- prevalence of idealism in America is one losophies of Germany, we believe, have result of the extreme notions that prevail taken root far wider and deeper in Ameri- there concerning personal independence. ca than in England. Transcendentalism And this seems the more probable, since flourishes there. Kant has been twice the American idealist carries this favorite translated into American English. Car- notion of man's self-poisedness more into lyle has more admirers across the Atlantic practice than do the disciples of the same than at home and, if all this amounts to philosophy elsewhere. Mr. Emerson, for no more, the very diseases and extravagan- example, would have us all conform our ces of philosophy prove at least its exist- behavior to this ideal theory; and seems ence, not to say its diffusion, among the almost to forget that men are naturally greless cultivated classes. In no country where garious, so strongly does he feel that man philosophical studies were not somewhat can stand alone. popular, and carried to some extent, could such a writer as Mr. Emerson have appeared as the only American philosopher with whose works we are at all familiar. The boldness, not to call it audacity, of his doctrines, and of the tone in which he propounds them; the way in which he takes for granted, and supposes his readers familiar with, the most recondite propositions of an ideal philosophy, propositions the most remote from general acceptance in this country; argue a high respect on his part for the philosophical attainments of his readers, a respect not unmerited, if we may judge from the popularity Mr. Emerson is said to enjoy in his own country.

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"I like," he says, "that every chair should be a throne, and hold a king: I prefer a tendency to Let the Stateliness to an excess of fellowship incommunicable objects of nature, and the metaphysical isolation of man, teach us independence. Let us not be too much acquainted. We should meet each morning as from foreign countries, and, spending the day together, should depart at night as into foreign countries. things I would have the island of a man invio

late.

In all

Let us sit apart as the gods, talking from peak to peak all round Olympus. The height, the deity of man, is to be self-sustained, to need no gift, no foreign force. Society is good when it does not violate me; but best when it is likest to solitude."

This American school of ideal, or, as it We might notice, as another characterisis there called, Transcendental Philosophy, tic peculiarity in the tone of this philosophy, of which Mr. Emerson stands for us as the a certain hyperbole of speech, a straining representative, affords some striking indi- after effect, a dissatisfaction with every cations of a peculiar national spirit and doctrine or expression that cannot be turn of mind; germs, perhaps, of that na- wrenched into a paradox, which really tionality which Mr. Griswold so aspires seems akin to the Munchausen vein of after and it is under this aspect alone that exaggeration-run-mad, that distinguishes we are at present called upon to consider American humor from all other kinds. But, the subject. One is struck at first sight by as this peculiarity belongs more or less to the great lengths to which this school car- every branch of American literature, we ries the notion of isolation and personal in- shall here pass it by, and content ourselves dependence. Such a sentiment, perhaps, with noticing one more national trait in lies at the foundation of all idealism, and this transcendentalism. Mr. Emerson is would seem to have actuated Berkeley and so great a republican that he would make his followers; who, marking a broad line nature a republican too. He maintains of distinction between the evidence that that all men, intellectually and morally, are

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