I
!
fir
Yvr.
I HUH ilK i lltll.l.rul IIH'IIUU,
Tu viorM n bright ln fjre thte,
Jw '.minii! r flov.vn arc thine,
( f-ilui tiliie ky is o'tr thee,
'1 liy bosom, U iciurt's shrine.
Atiti thini the sun beam given,
From iiuSirr' moi-iiinf hour;
l'.ur, w&r.u, 14 hun lioru hcavciy
It burst tin t',tk-ir bower.
ihure in a vwg 'l M.rvovi,
I'tie dfnttiHlirgo of the gwy,
That tills, ere iLwn of moir;',
Those eharmn may melt away.
Tlut sun's bright beam be shaded)
That iky be blue no more,
Tu summer flower' faded,
And youth' warm promise o'er
Believe it not, though lonely,
Thy evening home my be,
Though beauty's bark can only
Float on a summer's sea.
Though Time thy bloom is stealing,
Tliert's Hiill, beyond Ins art,
Tbc uM-fl.mcr wreath of feeling,
The mil-beam of the heart. cm hi. a.
junket rr(i.
(Zttrinihian Ittguluttm for llifh Liuri vithout
meivu
3iipliilu of Sinope, in I'untus, says, that
There i u a notable law at Corinth,
Where, if a fellow outran reawn,
Peaw'.ng and junteUing at firicms cost,
The sumptuary justice call'd upon him,
Anil thus begun to sift him : " Van live wr!l
a But hiive nuii urll la fit.' You squander
froily!
" Have yon the wherewithal Where arc votir
funds,
" For theie outgoings ? If jsu kave g on f
"If yon have not, we'll stop you in pood time,
" Before you outrun honesty for he
" Who lives, we know not how, must live by
Lis vitt :
" Either he touches some fool's purse,
" Or is the accomplice of tme knavish gan ;
This, a well ordered city will not s-.uTc-r i
44 Such vermin we expl."
; is a My thai iful tulutaru rtrulat.on uf Co-
rtnt rf ru,t iwutated in thit ttu'itry ; vt thould
nal Utrrx ttJ II noir tit cast, pa.nptrtd pride and
if fteruncr, riultxf the liiiinwr uf hwtetl in-
lAternry TiXtrvicU, &c.
Variety's Uie very spice of life,
That gives it all its tlavor.
mo tat NaTH akciuca tmtw.
Wc have long been of opinion that
our n aive country opens to the adven
turous novel-writer a wide, untrodden
field, replete with new matter admira
bly :idpted to the purposes of fiction.
Our views on this subject have already
br-n partially developed, (N. A. Rev.
No. Jl ) and our conviction ha nut
been s aggerui by any arguments we
have heard opposed to them. That
nothing of the kind has hitherto Lcrn
accomplished, 'h but a poor argument
at best especially when taken in con
nexion with the fact, that nothing has
as yci been attempted. We arc told,
it is true, that there is among us a fold
uniformity and sobrittv of character ;
a sad reality and utility in our mam, en
and institutions ; that our citizens arc
a downright, plain-dealing, inflexible,
niatter-ot-fact sort of people ; in short,
that our country and its inhabitants
are equally and utterly destitute of al!
sorts of romantic association. We are
not so foolhardy as to deny the truth
of the theory on which these objec
tions rest, it is not enough that soli
tary exceptions may be found here and
there, it there be in fact great general
Vnilnrmit) pervading the mass of the
people. The chractcrs ol fiction
should be descriptive of lasses, ai d
r.ot - if individuals or they will seem
to want the touch f.f nature, and fail
in th.it dramatic interest which results
from a familiarity Wit.i tuc 1
and p lesions pourtraved, and a con
fciousness of their truth. Admitting
then, that the power of creating inter
est in a work ol hction, so lar as it
srists from development of character,
lies in this generalizing principle w hich
substitutes classes for individuals, we
rc triumphantly asked whether that
State t society is not best fitted to the
end proposed, in which this system o
classification is already carried to its
greatest extent j where order rises
above order in the most distinct and uni
form gradation each pinnacle stand
ing al oof from its neighbor, each sep
arated by its own impenetrable barrier
No certa.nlv not; if by these dis
tinctions wre meant the mere formal
divisions of society into lords, gentle
nun, and villains. It is not such arti
tuial and arbitrary distinctions which
give th . M-atest possihle varietv and
scope ! h.ca t r, or tlTcit that kind
of classification which is best adapted
fo t'.to tvar.s of the author. On the
contury, they are so many impedi
ments in hi way, forcing character out
of its natural development into con
strained and formal fashions, if such
principles were left to their own ten
dency, they would make ull men so
many flat-headed Indians j and when
the causes of these unnatural distinc
tions in human character had reused
to exist, we should look round in vain
for the model of the dull and uniform
monsters they had created. Not so
where men have sprung up in active
and adventurous communities, un
shackled by forms, unfashiontd by
governments, and left freely to work
out tbrirown way, pursuing their own
objects, with nothing to interrupt or
aflect them, but that mutual attrition
which has not always the effect of pol
ishing in the moral, as in the physical
world. When therefore, we are told
that the country whose society con
tains the moit abundant distinction of
classes is the chosen firy land of poe
try and romance, and that America can
never be such because it contains none,
w e are instinctively brought to remem
ber a certain forensic maxim, which
may be of use before more than one
species of tribunal, namely, where the
law is against you, always deny the fact.
Now wc do most seriously deny, that
tliTe is any sulIi fatul uniformity of
character among us, as is herein above
supposed ; we deny (bating the for
midable division into king, lords, and
commons,) that there is not in this
country a distinction of classes pre
cisely similar in kind, and of extent
nearly equ d to that which exists in
Great Hnuin ; nay, we boldly insist,
that in no one country on the face of
the globe, can there be found a greater
variety of specific character, than is at
this moment developed in these United J
States of America. I).j any of our ichitecturc, or It.dian scenery. While
readers look out of New-Kngland and 1 for thee reasons, which do not ptcu
doubt it? Did anv one of them ever li-rk afFrrt ourselves, we have; no iir-
j I
cross the Potomac, or even the Hud-!
son, and not feel himself surrounded
by a dilferent race f men ? Is there
any assimilation of character between
the high minded, vain-glorious Vir
ginian, living on hi plantation in bar
onial state, an autocrat among his
slaves, a nobleman among his peers,;
and the active, enterprizing, money-j was a nation whose history, studied
getting merchant of the Kast, who i with that view, affords better or more
spends his days in bustling activity abundant matter of romantic interest
among men .nd ships, and his nights -than ours. When you ask us how we
in sober calculations over his ledger1 are to get over the newness ai d quic
and day-b( o' ? Is the Connecticut tude of every thing among us, )our
pcdlcr, who travels over mountain and question points only at the present
moor by the sid- c f his little red wag-, time a thing in itself utterly destruc
on and half-starved poi.y, to the utmost tive of romance in a!l quarters of the
bounds of civibzation, vending his globe. What should r think cf a
'MSijHi at the very ends of the earth, historical romance, for instance, in
the same animal with th- long shaggy which the duke of Wellington should
boatman, c.V ;r fr:m Krnt-u i? who win the hatde of Waterloo, and the
wafts himself ovt the Mississippi, or marquis of Lcncioi deny be made the
the Ohio.? Is there nothing of the secretary of state for foreign affairs?
Dutch burgomaster yet sleeping in the And yet if their lordships should meet
blood of his descendants ; ro trace of w ith anv different fortune or fate, how
the prim settler of Pennsylvania in ewr excellent the plot, however spir
hcr rectangular cities and trim farms ? i:ed and well sustained the characters.
Are all the remnants of her ancient who wuid not throw down a book with
puntanism swept out of the corners of a nuul u'uc cstemli tr.iLi sic, mcred-New-Kngland
i Ii there no boll pe- uius td ? Since then the pr.eterper
tuliaritv in the white savage who feet is our onlv romantic tense, wc re-
roams over the remote hunting tracts
.f the West : and none in the red ra -
tiveofthe wilderness that crosses Iiim 'newer but nut so quiet as they are
in his path ? It would be hard indeed' now. It is no new principle in the
out f such materials, so infinitely di-1 laws cf imagination, that remoteness
versified, (noi to descend to the mimi-nn
ter distinctions which exist in each
tion of the country,) which, similar in
kind but far leas various, have in other
countries been wrought successfully in-,
to every form of the populir and do- ject, only because it carries you per
mesiic t.d-, at once ami sing and in- force into remote antiquity, ard stig
siruetivc, if nothing can be fabricated 'gests on its very fr tit the moated cas
on this dertnerate soil. li t with all its battlements and towers
Hut where are yo tr materials for
he higher crdrr cf fictitious ccrr.pc -
sition : hat have vou of the heroic
nu the magnificent? Here are ro
'rgrniis palaces and cloud r.ippt d
towers; no monuments ot tnnhic
pride, mouldering in solitary grandeur j
no mysterious hiding places to cover
deeds of darkness from the light ol
the broad sun; no cloistered walls,
which the sound of woe can never
pierce ; no ravages of desolating con
qiests ; no traces of the slow ard
wasteful hand of time. You lork r.vt-r
the face of a fair country, and i: tell
ycu of r.o tales that are gone by. Yen
sec cultivated farms, and neat villages,
and populous towns, full of health, ard
labor, and happiness. You tread vmir
streets without fear cf the midnight
assassin, and you perceive nothing in
their quiet ;nd orderly inhabitants to
remind you of misery and crime. How
are you to ret over this fm Tnritv i
things, yrt i't-sh in their newest gloss :
You gfa to your mighty lakes, ycur vast)
cahracta, your stupendous mountaluS,
and your measureless forests. Here
indeed you find nature in her wildest
and most nugnifirent attire. But these
boundless solitudes are not the haunts
of fierce banditti ; you have never peo
pled these woods and waters with im
aginary beings ; tliey are connected
with no legendary tales of hoary anti
quity ; but you cast your eye through
the vista of two short centuries, and
yoa see them as they now are, and you
see nothing beyond. Where then are
the romantic associations, which arc to
plunge your reader, in spite of reason
and common sense, into the depths of
imaginary woe and wonder.
If we arc asked with reference to
the good old fashioned romance, and
are to construct a second castle of
Otranto, to amaze our reader with
mysteries, like those of the far famed
Udolpho, or harrow up his young blood
with another Fatal Revenge, we an
swer, that in ou? humble judgment, it
matters little in regard to these mere
creations of the brain, in what earthly
region the visionary ager.ts are suppo
sed to reside ; the moon, for aught we
know, it has been elsewhere said, may
be as eligible a theatre of action, as
any on ;his earth. Not that we would
speak disparagingly of the wildest
creations of romar.ee, or have it thought
that we are less affected than others,
by those masterly efforts of a bold im
agination, left to l.ixuriite in its own
ideal world. But w e are not ambitious
that scenes so purely imaginary, should
be located on this side of the Atlantic,
when they cannot from their very na
ture, partake any thing of the charac
ter of the soil and climate which give
them birth ; although we are by no
means sure that a first rate horror, of
the most imaginative kind,might not be
invented without the aid of Gothic ar
- ? ------ j-
titular longing after this species of
American casik- building, we do hope
to see the day, when that more com
modious structure, the modern histori
cal romance, shall be erected in al! its
native elegance and strength on Amer
ican sou, and of materials exclusively
our own. Th! truth is, there never
'ply, a little paradoxically perhaps, go
lback to the davs when things were
point of time attaches romantic as-
sec-,sociations to objects which l.avc them
not in themselves and these, so noon
as they are created, become heightened
by contrast, A ruin is a romantic ob-
jstanding in proud proportion, a stately
;pilr thit -emed to bid drfianc-e to thr
ravares ol time r,d storm, i ou look
at an elrgant modern edificr, with a
iStack of ch.mnevs for its minarets, and
a smiling cornfirid for its court yard,
and U t;ggests iv thing of itself, but
the tir.romtnuc notion cf peace and
comfort, which are reigning: within.
(Jo back then to the day when its walls
were slumbering in their native quar
ry, ai d its timbers flourishing in the
living oak; when the cultivated farm
was a howling wilderness, the abode
of savrges and outlaws, and nothing
as to be seen in its borders but rapine
and bloodshed. Imagine some stern
enthusiast, voluntarily flying the blan
dishmtt !s of more luxurious abodes
or s mc accomplished courtier, driven
from the scene of his ambition and
intrigues or some gallant soldier
wearied cf the gay capital, and pant
ing anew for adventure nnd renown,
teiiTk-ssIy marching with his chosen
band into these dreary and dangerous
srolitudei ; follow him through the pir- j
lis and diliiculties he surmounts, and
witness the long struggle of civiliza
tion, encroaching on the dominion of
barbarism ; and you will then find that
romantic associations may become at
tachtd even to this familiar spot. Nei
ther need we revert to any very re
mote period of antiquity to rid us of
this familiarity, which forever plays
about present things with a mischiev
ous tendency to convert the romantic
into the ludicrous. It is astonishing
what changes are effected in manners,
customs, names, and outward appear- require us to conlmc our views to tne
ances, in the course of a single humnn colony of Massachusetts Hay, for in -generation
; and when we look at the j stance, what character would be more
days of the fathers of the oldest now i obsequious to the imagination than that
living, how little do we see that we re-! of the moody and mysterious lllaxton
cognize, how much that we wonder at !, who was found by the colonists, the
Not the least pleasing, perhaps, of the ; solitary lord ol the little isthmus o(
many admirable .productions of the Shiwmut, which he claimed and
great master of romance in modem was allowed to hold against them,
times, refer to a period hardly Sore jby the acknowledged right of estab
mote as that of which we speak ; and ! lished possession ; of whom histty
yet no one, not even they who live on j only tells us that he had been a clergy
the very spot, which is represented as ' nlan of the church of Kngland, that
the theatre of great and romantic ac- j he dissented equally from her canons,
. . r t c . c ! I . l L' I. ' - IV ! I t.
tion, complains of the familiarity of
those scenes.
There seem to be three great epochs
in American history, w hich are pecu -
liarly well fitted for histoi icd rom ince ;
the times just succeeding the first
settlement- the ;era of the Indian wars,
w hich lie scattered alonrr a considera-
ble period and the revolution. Each
of these events, all pre gnant with in-
tercst in themselves, v.il furiash the
fictitious historian with every variety of zed 4 seekers ot the Lord, and ar
character and incident, which the dull-1 raigned on a charge of suspicion o:
est imagination could dc-sire or the
most inventive deserve. What is there
for instance in the rebellions and wars
of the Scoith covenanters, to compare
with the fortunes ot tlioe sterner pu -
r'uans, who did not rise inarms against
tl tir prince ; but who, with a boblness
of adventure, under which th? spirit
of chivalry itself would have quailed,
leaving behind them all that is most
dear to men on earth, the comp r.ions
ol their youth, the graves of their fa-
.i .. - i . r.u
euers, e.iT uuuic ui men nraris, iioss-
ed a trackless ocean not for the visit
or a day, not cncrisning a latent nope
of future return, when they should
have amassed wealth, or acquired fame,
to raise them in the estimation of their
countrymen ; but with the humble hope
and film resolve to expend their lives ' v poetical people. Gradually reef
and their children's lives in the wilde r-1 ding before the tread f civ ilizatior,
ness, for the sake of worshipping their i XM taking from it only the nrincii i:
uou alter trie issnion oi tncir o-vn
hearts. The situation and character
of these men, who, 'had they been as
free from all sins as gluttony ;uid
drunkenness,' (so says one of t'irir
quamt historians) 4 might have been
canonied lor saints, are sn the mgr.- of ruin in the interior cf our continent,
est degree picturesque ; and moreover 50 extensive that they have hardly yet
afford a singular contrast to those cf,cc measured, so ancient that they
Iilt If.!.. Gin rreiirt in llu knr. i)i li.'-i.l-M I . . .. . I ' . L .1 - I
. .u.v j ji.va .w, ... llC i,ui CU ln i;i.i- ciu:e anu cover
ed by that man r,f adventure, wha had tj w'uh the growth of a thousand vear.,
challenged a whole Ottoman army in I forcing upon the imagination the ap
his youth, carrying off the heads ofj p-,',;, n thought of some great and flour
three Turkish champions at his saddle- j uhin, perhaps civilized people, wh:
oow, anu who was now soianng n!s,hae been m utterly swept from th
riper ye;.ts, sunUst the cares ot a cu-
lonial government, in the arms cf the
renowned Pccahor.tas. The gloomy
but sustaining spirit of fanaticism in
these, who had fled to the wilderness
for conscience' sake ; the disappointed
avarice of those w ho had come to it
for silver and gold ; tbc stern eclcsi is.
tical oligarchy first established in the
east ; the worldly time-serving despo
tism e:f Smith and the succeeding go
vernors in the south ; the one punish
ing with banishment and death 4 that
damnable hercsie of aflirmiug justifi
cation by works ; the other promulga
ting in the new world the laws of the
; old 4 to prevent sectarie infection' from
j creeping into the pale of mother church ;
! the former dtnouncini: temporal pun
ishment and eternal wrath, against 4 all
idlers, common coasters, unprofitable
fowlers, and tobacco takers ;' the latter
formally enacting and literally execu
ting that salutary law, that 4 he who
will not work shall net eat ; the Vir
ginia colony importing irto the coun
try a cargo of negroes, to entail the
curse of slavery on their remotest pos
terity, in the same year that our first
fathers were founding the liberties of
America on the Plymouth rock, and
Winthrop, with his company of sturdy
Independents, extending along the
shores of Massachusetts the work
w hich had been so happily begun, while
'refiners, goldsmiths, ar.d jewellers,'
4 poor gentlemen, tradesmen, serving
men, libertines, and suchliie ten times
more fit to spoil a commonwealth, than
either to begin or maintain one,' as the
old writers inform us, were still flock
ing over to the shores of Virginia.
Such contrasts judiciously exhibited,
as, notwithstanding the distarfce of thi?
two colonies, they well might be, with
no v?ry unpardonable poetical license,
especially by the link of the New
Netherlands, while they supply at once
an infinite variety of individual char
acter to the author's hands, could noi
fail to confer on a work of fiction the
additional value of developing the po
litical history of the times, and the first
beginnings, perhaps, of those conflict
ing sectional interests, which some
times perplex us at the present day.
Or if more rigid rules of composition
and those of his non-conforming breth
ren ; but how or when he emigrated to
America, and built his humble hut on
1 a !Pt destined to become the seat of
! a populous and flourishing city, ittclh
I s not. What fchall we say to Sir
Christopher, the knight of Jerusalem,
a lineal descendant of the famous bm
p f Winchester, who with the Strang?
lady was revelling through the land,
! until he was stopped by the scandah-
, bigamy, ct :!i.i enormia, contra fxuvm,
; before such a judicial assembly as the
politic U iuthrop,tlic scholastic Cotton,
' the fiery and intolerant Dudley, witH
. Underbill perhaps for a witness, and
j Miles Standish for captain of the
' gu ird ? What would the author o:
Waverly make of such materials? W.
i we loroear to enlarge lortlitr on th.s
proht.c theme.
j The Indian wars, of which the fir:
. occurred soon alter the time of wl.i.
i . ...
i wc j1lvc just Spoken, and the last ft
I any nou. New-England, in the year;
1 72:2-25, arc fruitful of incidents, w hie'
mitrht. to treat advantage, be interwu-
' Vcn with the materials before noticul,
and it scarcely needs to be asserted,
; that the Indians themselves are a hi?h
0 d-;truction, thev seem to be fa ;
wasting to utter tlissolution ; and wc
i.hall one day look upon thtir history,
w ith such emotions of curiosity al.
, wonder, as those with which we row
survey the immen
JJfe cf the earth, that thev have n-t
lelt even a traditionary name bthir. .
th.-m.
At the present day, enough i.
known of our J i hints to afford t'rr
ground-work of invention, enough s
concealed to k-ave fall play for the
narmrM uTMijinaeion ; ana wc see n1 ;
why those suprrstitions of their?, which
have filled inanimate nature with a ne
order of spiritual beings, may not ht
successfully employed to supersede
the worn out fables of Runic mytho!
ogy, and light up a new train of glowing
visions, at the touch of sime future
wi,;ard of the West. At anv rate we
are confident that the savage warrior,
who was not less beautiful and bold ir.
his figurative diet;:::'., than in his atti
tude of death, the same who suffcrc-i
not the grass to j;row upon the war
path, and hastened 4 to extinguish th
fire of his enemy with blood,' tracking
l. foe through the pathless fore;-:,
with instinctive sagacity, by the falk'i
leaf, the crushed moss, fir the or,
blade, patiently enduring cold, hunger,
and watchfulness, while he crouclru
in the night-grass like the tiger expect
ing bis prey, and finally springing on
the unsuspicious victim with that war
whoop, which struck ter.orto the hear!
of the boldest planter of New-Engl.ir.'l
in her early day, is no mean instrument
of the sublime and terrible of human
agencv. And if we may credit the
flattering pictures of their best histo
rian, the indefatigable Heckewe'dcr,
not a little of softer interest might he
extracted from their domestic life.
The Indian name of the peninsula on W hie
Boston now Wni,