doubtless something which might well move a smile. It is the universal law, that whatever pursuit, whatever doctrine, becomes fashionable, shall lose a portion of that dignity which it had possessed while it was confined to a small but earnest minority, and was loved for its own sake alone." - p. 380. That this will be a work of extraordinary popularity may be considered as already settled. There is a charm in its pages which no reader will be able to resist, and to which all will be glad to yield themselves, unless some cherished view or fancy of their own be disturbed by it. There is a fulness of information, a strength and accuracy of judgment, and a grace of style, which wellnigh complete our ideal of what history may be. The author does, indeed, suppose a good degree of historical information in his readers, even when he deals with his own defined period and leaves the summary of what preceded. He seems also to aim to connect with his pages those pleasures of sustained interest and surprise which are chiefly ministered to in a romance. Of course, he could not make his work serve for the whole historical furnishing of a reader, unless he expanded it over a much larger number of volumes. We apprehend, however, that some of his readers who may not know the fate of Dr. Oates would have been relieved, had he told them that the creature did not die of his merciless whipping, but lived to receive honor and a pension again, though a second disgrace succeeded. And how many of Macaulay's readers will know, while admiring his lively character of Lord Churchill, that he is afterwards to present himself to them as the famous Duke of Marlborough? We have noticed a score of places where a phrase or a line more from the author would have largely increased the value of his work to the less-informed reader. That the author of this history will escape the critics and meet only compliment and praise in the arduous task before him, he himself best knows cannot possibly be. He has to cross many debated fields, and to turn up the bones of many dead strifes, the ashes of which are still alive. His general views are those in which the sterling minds of the equally cultivated and liberalized will fully accord. His views of man, of life, of law, of great interests, and of the methods of Providence, are his portion of the common stock of the world's intelligence. On side issues, and on two or three strongly defined positions which he takes, there will be a contest opened with him. But the final decision upon the 1849.] Remark concerning Puritans. 265 general and the specific merits of his history will be deferred till it is completed, and the exciting glow of interest which its perusal rouses shall have subsided. we Two animadversions if that be the proper word feel compelled to utter. Those of our readers who peruse many of the daily or weekly papers, with which no land or neighbourhood is so liberally supplied as our own, have seen in very many of those sheets "Mr. Macaulay's Character of the Puritans," and have doubtless smiled or sighed over one smart and flippant sentence in those paragraphs. Now, if we would have Mr. Macaulay's whole opinion of the Puritans, we must unite three different passages in his volume, in which he sums up his views of them with a different aim, and from a different point of observation or criticism. They present a different figure in history according to the circumstances under which they appear, and the changes in their own fortunes. But the one smart and flippant sentence to which we refer is found in a passage in which he rebukes the excessive and destructive zeal of the Puritans. After pronouncing, certainly with no lack of severity, upon their asceticisms and scruples, he refers to their hatred of all vicious and trifling amusements. He then adds, that "Bear-baiting, then a favorite diversion of high and low, was the abomination which most strongly stirred the wrath of the austere sectaries. It is to be remarked that their antipathy to this sport had nothing in common with the feeling which has, in our own time, induced the legislature to interfere for the purpose of protecting beasts against the wanton cruelty of men. The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. Indeed, he generally contrived to enjoy the double pleasure of tormenting both spectators and bear." p. 151. We Any future writer upon rhetoric, who may have occasion to speak of the risk of offending against right and charity to which an epigrammatic or antithetical style may tempt an author of fair intentions, will find a signal example to enforce his warning in the sentence which we have Italicized. do not suppose that Mr. Macaulay had malice in his heart when he penned it, but that he was aiming for point, for a happy turn, and he took up with a most unhappy one. The objection of the Puritans to bear-baiting, cock-fighting, and like sports, did recognize the tortures to which such trials subjected the creatures given to man for use, and not to exercise his wanton cruelty. We could quote many a Puritan rebuke founded upon this reasonable plea. But suppose the whole objection lay where Mr. Macaulay places it, — “ in the pleasure which it gave to the spectators." We are not sure that this would not be, to a reasonable and humane person, the strongest and most effective objection to such sports. A religious man, of any complexion of faith, might well deny the lawfulness of that pleasure which they afforded to spectators. Indeed, Mr. Macaulay's account, farther on, of the feelings and habits which characterized the times, furnishes full proof that there was a ferocious and cruel spirit then indulged, which it was very desirable should be softened and humanized. If the reader will revert to the long extract which we have given from his comprehensive view of the state of society in 1685, and note particularly what he says of the prevailing fondness for brutal and sanguinary scenes, we think the Puritans will stand acquitted from all blame, on Mr. Macaulay's own showing. We have no doubt of the literal truth of his painful sketch. While such ferocity and cruelty abounded, we must think the Puritan excusable, if he objected to bear-baiting for no other reason than simply because it gave pleasure to the spectators." It was a pleasure of which it was right that they should be deprived. Mr. Macaulay seems to have been aware that his rhetoric was at issue with his conscience, and, unwilling to cancel his pointed antithesis, he adds a note to help it out. His note begins thus "How little compassion for the bear had to do with the matter is sufficiently proved," etc. And what is the proof? Why this, that on one occasion Colonel Cromwell, and on another Colonel Pride, came upon some bears, the former finding them "in the height of their sport," " on the Lord's day," and the latter meeting them reserved in a "bear-garden," and both ordered them to be shot; - which was perfectly right, because it was the method of mercy. Macaulay adds, that Colonel Pride "is represented by a loyal satirist as defending the act thus," etc. We need not say how, seeing that the representation is that of a loyal satirist, not of a Puritan. The other matter on which we would animadvert is Mr. Macaulay's depreciation of the integrity of William Penn. He has evidently formed but a low estimate of the character of that amiable and upright, but rather unfortunate man. He 1849.] Orthography. 267 questions those elements of Penn's nature and soul which the Quaker himself really thought were safe from censure, and which, after a fair investigation, we have found no reason to distrust. Penn did lack sagacity in reading character and discerning some traits of human nature. He did some small jobs, not merely to please others, but undoubtedly to gratify a harmless weakness of self-importance which beset him. But reproach or contempt cannot fairly be fastened upon him, and Mr. Macaulay's insinuations may pass for more with some readers than would a bald, specific charge. We are the more surprised at our author's low estimate of William Penn, because it is so unlike the high opinion formed of him, and the generous praise accorded to him, by that eminent statesman and moralist, Sir James Mackintosh, who speaks of Penn as "a man of such virtue as to make his testimony weighty." He commends his "sincere piety," though he admits the mistake in his policy. We might wish to specify two other qualifications of the perfect candor and justice of our author, if we were passing upon him a formal opinion. The spirit of censure, however, is not the mood in which we close this enchaining and instructive volume. None can appreciate more than we do the talents of the author, and the good use which he has made of them. May his six volumes grow to twelve. It is understood that the Messrs. Harper have purchased from the London publishers, or from the author, a copy of the sheets of this History as they shall be successively struck off in England, so as to afford to American readers an early opportunity to read the work, and to secure to themselves a large sale without rivalry. The proof-reader of the Messrs. Harper has altered the orthography in the American reprint, and has substituted Webster's emendation of the English language. So much has already been said in censure of this most unwarrantable proceeding in our best newspapers, that we need add nothing more, except simply the remark, that we regret and condemn it. But we cannot approve the project of a rival edition in Boston. The Harpers have purchased a certain privilege; by courtesy and fairness, they are entitled to its full enjoyment. They should have been allowed to issue another edition from their press, conformed in orthography to the English, without the interference of publishers in Boston or elsewhere. G. E. E. ART. VII. — RELIGIOUS POETRY OF MODERN GERMANY.* if WHOSOEVER studies the literature of Germany, as only that or any other literature should be studied, with a heart open to its inward life as well as a keen eye for its outward proportions, must receive, we are persuaded, the profoundest impression of the religious spirit of the German people. We use the phrase in no contracted sense, but in the widest and deepest. If by a religious spirit we mean a spirit reverently conscious of the presence of infinite, invisible power around and within us, singularly earnest in the expression of the wants which such a consciousness evokes, constantly open to the influences by which those wants must be appeased, this be a religious spirit, then is the spirit of the German people, and of German literature, most eminently religious. The cathedral of Cologne, that mighty consolidation into stone of the thoughts and hopes and fears of the Middle Ages, that wonderful architectural poem, every line and image of which is a spiritual promise or a spiritual threat, does not more truly express the intensity of the religious feeling from which it rose than does the grand edifice of German literature. Both in the cathedral and in the literature there are, indeed, many individual works imbued with quite another spirit, -gorgons, salamanders, hippogriffs, monuments of worldly pride and human decay, devices fantastic, superfluous, sometimes revolting; but one solemn power broods within the whole, subduing all incongruities, lifting us out of the sphere of our ordinary attractions, into the regions of lofty devotional aspiration. This mysterious, elevating power, we are persuaded, is especially felt by every student of those among the greater German writers who are most * 1. NOVALIS Schriften. Herausgegeben von L. TIECK und FRIEDRICH VON SCHLEGEL. Berlin. 1802. 12mo. 2 vols. The Writings of Novalis. Edited by L. Tieck and F. von Schlegel. 2. Gedichte von FoUqUE. Tübingen. 1816-1827. 12mo. 2 vols. Poems of Fouque. 3. Siona Stuttgart. 1834-1835. 8vo. 5 vols. Sion. [A Collection of Religious Poems.] 4 Summlung geistlicher Lieder. Basel. 1831. 8vo. A Collection of Spiritual Songs. 5. Geistliche Blumenlese aus Deutschen Dichtern von Novalis bis auf die Gegenwart. Berlin. 1841. 12mo. Flowers of Spiritual Poetry from the German Writers, from Novalis down to the Present Time. |