MISCELLANEA.

MACASSAR OIL SUPERSEDED.

Lord Pem, a rich and accomplished English nobleman, and distinguished at Paris by his horses and plate,· wears a wig and dreads any one knowing it. No peruquier has sold any one of those forests of hair which luxuriate upon his head; he has recourse to a thousand artifices to establish the genuineness of his capilliary system. Lord P. has thirty wigs, one for every day; that for tomorrow is longer by the twentieth of an inch than that of to-day, and so on increasing from the first of the month to the thirtieth.This wig chronology is to imitate the growing lengths of hair, that at the end of the month, he may, with unblushing impudence, say before his friends "my hair is too long-I must get it cut!" and the next day he begins with No. 1. His head is an almanac !

Nothing fills the ranks like success.-Buonaparte.

LIVERPOOL MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.-The Liverpool Mechanics' Institution is by far the most extensive and splendid institution of the kind in the kingdom. The building of the institution cost no less than £15,000. It contains upwards of 3,300 members, 850 pupils in three day schools, 600 pupils in fifteen or sixteen evening classes. It has fifty teachers regularly employed, whose salaries amount to £5,000 a year, a library of 7,000 volumes, with 1,300 readers, and daily distribution of 200 volumes, and public lectures twice a week, attended by audiences varying from 600 to 1,300.-London paper.

CURIOUS INSTANCE OF ATMOSPHERICAL REFRACTION.

THERE is a singular instance of atmospherical refraction recorded in the Philosophical Transactions, by William Latham, Esq., who, when living at Hastings, was surprised by seeing a vast number of people hurrying down to the sea-side. Upon inquiring the reason, he was informed that the coast of France was plainly to be distinguished with the naked eye. He, therefore, went down immediately, and found that, without the aid of a telescope, he could plainly perceive the cliffs on the opposite coast; which are at least between forty and fifty miles distant, and not at other times to be discovered with the best glasses. They now appeared to be only a few miles off, and extended some leagues along the coast. He walked along the shore eastward, by the waterside, conversing with the sailors and fishermen on the subject. They could not, at first, be persuaded of the reality of the appearance; but soon became so thoroughly convinced, by the cliffs gradually appearing more elevated, and approaching nearer, as it were, that they pointed out and named the different places they had been accustomed to visit-such as the Bay, the Old Head, or Man, the windmill, &c., at Boulogne, St Vallery, and other places on the coast of Picardy; which they afterwards confirmed when they viewed them through their telescopes. They also observed the places appeared as near as if they were sailing at a small distance into the harbours.

Having remained on the shore nearly an hour, during which time the cliffs appeared to be at sometimes more bright and near, at others more feint, and at a greater distance, but never out of sight, he went on the eastern cliff, or hill, which is of a very considerable height, and from thence a very beautiful scene presented itself. Dergeness, the Dover cliffs, the French coast from Calais, Boulogne, &c., to St Vallery, and, as some of the fishermen affirmed, as far to the westward even as Dieppe, were visible. By the telescopes, the French fishing-boats were plainly to be seen at anchor; and the different colours of the land on the heights with the buildings were perfectly discernible. This curious phenomenon continued in the highest splendour till half-past eight o'clock, when a black cloud obscured the face of the sun for some time, and it gradually vanished. At Winchelsea, and several places along the coast, it was equally visible. The weather had been remarkably fine and clear, not a breath of wind was stirring the whole of the day; but the small pennons at the mast-heads of the fishing-boats

in the harbour, were in the morning at all points of the compass.Philosophical Transactions.

MODEST ASSURANCE.-In the last week's Herald we published fifty-four columns of original matter, embracing the editorial reports, correspondence, and markets. This quantity of letter-press would make a book equal to 216 pages of Harper's Family Library. The whole of this Herald matter is sold for a shilling per week-the Family Library, not containing more, for fifty cents per copy. In point of utility, wit, and amuse

ment, the Herald for one week, at twelve and a half cents, is a dozen volumes of the Family Library sold for six dollars. We are thus driving all the literary booksellers from the field, and will, in a short time, entirely supersede the reading of novels or imported trash from the London stews and gaming houses. We are creating a real bona-fide, every day, original American literature. We have in our employ six to eight original writers; and our expenditure for literary labour alone, is nearly £3,150 per week! But what of that? The public patronize us beyond any paper that ever existed in New York. During the last week our advertising amounted to 122 squares, which, including the time, was equal to three hundred dollars for that week. By our cash book the sum total of last week's was about one thousand five hundred. Our patronage is now worth all the Wall-street prints. Thanks to the sensible men -the pretty women-the cash system-rising early a-mornings-and the sweet smiles of the ever Blessed Virgin, who looks down from heaven upon me at every full, clear bright moon, and says with a smile, "Go a-head, my son-go a-head, my dear boy."-American Paper.

INSTITUTIONS.

LECTURES FOR THE WEEK.

MECHANICS', MOUNT STREET.

This day, (Saturday) October 30, James S. Knowles, Esq.'s second lecture on the Drama. Wednesday, November 3rd, J. S. Knowles' third lecture on the Drama.

JUNIOR LITERARY & PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 8, TRAFALGAR ST. RUSSELL ST. Tuesday, November 2nd, the first of a course of Two Lectures on the Preparation and Properties of Nitrous Oxide.(Laughing Gas) by Mr. F. Weiss.

LITERARY, SCIENTIFIC AND COMMERCIAL INSTITUTION, ST. ANNE STREET. Discussion continued-" Are theatrical representations beneficial or injurious to society?

NORTHERN MECHANICS'.

This Evening, an Attractive Concert, Recitations, &c.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

W. H. must count the feet as he writes-some of his lines have too many and others too few. He is too young a poet yet to appear in print.

An Admirer will find his request attended to. We beg to remind him that we are liable to disappointments as well as himself.

Cerberus ought to commit to memory our poem entitled "the Poet and the Critic," vide page 39.

Our monthly parts will be ready immediately. Part one contains five numbers, and will therefore be charged tenpence,-those parts containing only four numbers will be eightpence.

Price of this paper, twopence per week, or two shillings per quarter in advance. Liverpool:-Printed at HUGH GAWTHROP's General Printing Office, Clarence Buildings, 34, North John-street. Published by CHARLES DAVIES, 32, North John Street.

No. 6.

CRITICS AND CRITICISM.

"Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss."-Pope. THERE are two classes of Critics essentially differing from each other—there are the generous and highminded, and there are the mean and waspish. It is our intention to notice both of these kinds and to describe the effects produced by each.

The first mentioned, namely the nobler class, are they who seek not so much for the faults of a writer, as for excellencies. Their aim is rather to encourage the deserving than to sneer down the unfortunate and weak. They are men who, possessing fine talents and superior judgment, are able to point out the defects and the merits of the works they criticise. They are men who when they find a work of a kind calculated to be serviceable to society, give the author all the credit of which he is deserving, in order to stimulate him to greater exertions, though they do not fail in a friendly manner, to caution him against such errors as youth, inexperience, or enthusiasm may have caused him to commit. They are always far more willing to applaud than to censure, except when the work they criticise be one dangerous to morality, or in any way having a tendency to produce injurious effects. They are men who possess sufficient genius themselves to be able to appreciate the genius of others, and that sound common sense which discriminates between true and false taste-between sterling gold and glittering tinsel.

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The meaner class of critics are thus spoken of by Brooks in his excellent work, the Fool of Quality— There is a set of men who at once dispense with common manners and common humanity. They go under the name of critics, and must be men of wealth that the deference paid to fortune may give a sort of stamp to the dross of their erudition. In the strictest sense indeed they may be called ' men of letters,' their study as well as capacity being nearly confined to a just or orthographical disposition of the alphabet. Their disposition is to reconnoitre the outworks of genius, as they have no key to the gates of nature or sentiment. They snuff faults from afar as crows scent carrion and delight to pick and to prey and to dwell upon them. They enter like wasps upon the garden of literature, not to relish any fragrance or to select any sweets, but to pamper their malevolence

1841.

with every thing that savours of rankness or offence. Happily for them their sagacity does not tend to the discovery of merit; in such a case a work of genius would give them the spleen for a month, or possibly depress their spirits beyond recovery. These critics paramount with the delicacy and compassion of the torturers of the inquisition, search out all the seats of sensibility and self complacence in order to sting with the more quick and killing poignancy."

It is our intention in this essay to notice a few of those whose pre-eminence as critics is universally acknowledged. Among the most eminent who have. ennobled the art of criticism and who have been instrumental in advancing literature may be mentioned Aristotle and Longinus among the Greeks, Horace, Juvenal and Quintilian among the Romans, Boileau and Dacier among the French, Pope, Addison, Johnson, Gifford, Hazlitt, &c., among the English. All these authors have done much towards refining and improving the taste of the people of the ages in which they wrote. Aristotle's treatises on Rhetoric and Poetry are so very excellent that every well-educated person makes himself acquainted with them and to the present day they are consulted as authorities.

Longinus has ever been considered the prince of critics, indeed so excellent a writer was he that he merited the following well-known eulogium

Thee, bold Longinus, all the nine inspire, And bless their Critic with a Poet's fire; An ardent judge, who, zealous in his trust, With warmth gives sentence, yet is always just; Whose own example strengthens all his laws, And is himself the great sublime he draws. Longinus flourished in the days of the emperor Aurelian, A.D. 278. While he was young he travelled through various countries, with his parents, that he might improve himself in Literature and converse with the greatest men of the age. Some time after he became a teacher of Oratory and Philosophy at Athens, where he soon gained such reputation for his ability in criticism, as to be publicly employed to determine which of the writings of the ancients were genuine, and which were not. Such was the defference deservedly paid to his opinion that such authors, and such authors only, as were by him praised were received as worthy of being considered Standard. Longinus' end has always been a subject of

regret and admiration, regret on account of his wonderful talents-admiration, on account of the great fortitude with which he met his fate. He was shamefully put to death by Aurelian for the zeal he had manifested in behalf of Zenobia, the Queen of the East. Of the many works he wrote, part of his splendid treatise on the sublime is the only one which has come down to us, yet small as the work is, it has always been considered by the most eminent judges, the greatest master piece of criticism that was ever written. In this work he directs the reader to such writings as contain the best specimens of the truly sublime, and contrasts them with those which are merely bombastic. His principal specimens of the sublime are taken from the works of Homer and Demosthenes. Of course it is needless to say that the criticisms of such a man, must necessarily be highly advantageous to Literature.

may

Horace by his Satires and Art of Poetry, shamed authors out of their vices and follies. Quintilian was an eminent lawyer, Rhetorician and Critic, born at Rome in the year 42. He taught Rhetoric, and enjoyed the highest reputation, formed many excellent Orators, among whom be named Pliny the younger. After he had taught about 20 years he obtained leave to retire, and then he composed his admirable book "Institutiones Oratoric,” the most perfect work of the kind which has been left us by the ancients, and which is designed to form a complete Orator. It abounds with the most excellent precepts, relating to manners as well as to criticism, it is a work well worthy the attention of any age. Juvenal was the most celebrated of Roman Satirists. He was exceedingly severe and acrimonious, but the lash was justly applied. His combat was against the vices and follies of mankind-against real objects of contempt and abhorrence. His principal fault is that of having scourged vices with so dirty a whip, that modern delicacy is offended at the weapon.

Boileau, a French poet born in 1636, wrote Satires in which he successfully exposed the bad taste of his times; he was extremely severe against vice and the corrupt manners of the age. His "Art of Poetry" has been declared by Dr. Warton, to be the best composition of the kind extant. Of him it has been said that he was superior to Juvenal and equal with Horace, and that his verses will be read even when the language, in which they are written is obsolete.

Dacier was born in 1651, and was an excellent critic. His principal works are translations of Horace, and Aristotle.

Pope ranks with the first of our second rate poets, his polished diction and sound judgment are unri

valled-he possessed that essential faculty to the critic-taste to descriminate between sterling ore and glittering tinsel-he saw immediately what ought to be admired and what rejected. His Essay on Criticism and Satires have done more towards improving the Literature of the country, than perhaps the works of any other author, they have not merely taught the poet to mend his line-they teach the critic also his duty.

many

"Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill
Appear in writing or in judging ill;
But of the two less dangerous is the offence
To tire our patience than mislead our sense,
Some few in that, but numbers err in this,
Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss;
A fool might once himself alone expose
Now one in verse makes many more in prose.

So pithy and correct is Pope generally that very of his lines are now axioms, and if the wounded aspirants to literary fame, desire to retaliate they employ his weapons. The gentle thus

Let such teach others who themselves excel And censure freely who have written well; Authors are partial to their wit 'tis true; But are not critics to their judgment too? The more excitable select sharper weapons and revenge themselves with such cutting couplets as the following.

All fools have still an itching to deride
And fain would be upon the laughing side.
Some have at first for wits, then poets passed,
Turn'd critics next and proved plain fools at last.

or, addressing the Muse, exclaim

O may some spark of your celestial fire,
The last the meanest of your sons inspire;
To teach vain wits a science little known,
T'admire superior sense and doubt their own.

The criticisms of Addison are remarkable for the mild gentlemanlike manner in which they are written. His beautiful papers in the Spectator, on the merits of the immortal Milton, are specimens of a correct style of criticism. In a masterly manner excellencies are mentioned and compared with those of a similar kind to be found in the productions of the greatest poets of antiquity-the faults are not passed over without censure, but just allowance is made for some, by taking into consideration the difficulty of the subject for others by glancing at the taste and peculiarities of the times, and for others again by acknowledging that perfection is not attainable by human genius. Did every critic make Addison his model-criticism instead of being so odious as inferior wits and the ill-natured have made it, would be encouraging to bashful genius, and point out the department in which his peculiar talent would enable him to arrive at excellence.

and impartial. Even faults, where the motive is evidently good, ought not to be handled too roughly. Criticism may be so severe as to defeat the very ob

Gifford was for some years the editor of the Quarterly Review, and to his just and eloquent criticisms and classic writing, that work owes great portion of its fame and popularity. Editors of other leading periodicals might be justly alluded to, as having aided literature by their elaborate criticisms, but to notice all of celebrity, would occupy more than the intended limits of this Essay will allow.

Hazlitt was a critic widely differing from all the preceeding his criticisms do not appeal so much to the head as to the heart-his refined sensibility enabled him to feel the beauties of those he criticized; and his nervous temperament, combined with powerful ideal faculties, led him to comment upon those beauties in such glowing language and warm enthusiastic manner as carries away the reader without allowing him time for reflection. If the term genius could ever be applied to any critic-that critic was Hazlitt. His irregularities, excentricities, and brilliant flights of fancy, his sensitiveness and tender-heartedness, are striking characteristics. The occupation of his pen was not so much to enquire whether an author possessed merit or not, and to lay the beauties and faults before the public eye, as it was to tell his own feelings to the world, and excite in others a kindred enthusiastic admiration. His practice was the very contrary of what too many critics consider a duty, namely to cavil and censure in a learned manner by the application of certain technical rules.

Criticism ought to be a liberal and humane artthe offspring of sound judgment and refined taste— it ought to have for its object the correction of faults and the encouragement of authors-to infuse a just discernment through the reading public, teaching it to discriminate between the faults and beauties of great authors, instead of, as is too often the case, confounding them together through blind and implicit veneration. To be of utility it should be good-natured

yet was the fortune, even of genius, to arrive at perfection in a moment. Perfection is a coy dame, and must be wooed and wooed again, before she is won. A young author appearing for the first time before the public, however great may be his natural talents, will, from his inexperience, be open to many faults. These nothing but time and attention will overcome. If they be gently pointed out by fair and impartial criticism, the chances are, that they will disappear quickly, On the contrary, although the criticism be just and impartial, yet if expressed in harsh terms— in severe language, the probabilities are, that the aspirant to literary honors will be abashed and retire in disgust from further attempts in his chosen vocation, without having advanced one step towards perfection. It is no argument against this position, to say that men have been found, who in despite of the severest criticism, have persevered and succeeded in attaining the highest honors of their profession. The success of these parties must be attributed to the possession of an uncommonly strong mind, or of a temperament that was not to be daunted by public comments, even though in the highest degree unfavorable. We must look at the other side of the picture, and enquire how many have been deterred from prosecuting their original intentions, by the satirical pen of the critic, even though they possessed talent, and the criticisms were strictly impartial. There are many talented writers, but who can say that their numbers would not have been augmented, had critics been less harsh. Men do not like to be held up to the ridicule of the public, which must necessarily be the case where criticisms are severe, there are to be found persons possessing such extreme sensibility, that they would not subject themselves to be so dealt with for any consideration. The exertion of the true critic is highly favorable, and even necessary for the interests of literature. He sweeps away the rubbish, and collects, preserves, and brings before public notice all that is really valuable.

LITERARY PROPERTY.-The manuscript of "Robinson Crusoe" ran through the whole trade, and no one would print it. "Burn's Justice was disposed of by its author for a mere trifle, as well as "Buchan's Domestic Medicine; " both of which produced immense incomes. "The Vicar of Wakefield" (the most delightful novel in our language) was sold for a few pounds. Dr. Johnson fixed the price of his "Lives of the Poets" at 200 Guineas, by which, the bookseller, in the course of a few years, cleared upwards of £25,000. Tonson and all his family rode in their carriages with the profits of the £5 epic poem of Milton. The copyright of Vyse's Spelling-book" sold for 2,000 guineas!

MR. STUART'S LECTURES.

HAMLET.

The Lecture which comes under our notice this week is upon the play of Shakspere, which has, of all others, occupied the critic's attention, and which has long stood pre-eminent among human productions for the amazing amount of learning and genius it displays. Every new commentator who approaches this subjeet finds in it fresh sources for exciting wonder and admiration. The warm expressions of general praise with which Mr. Stuart commenced his lecture are not extravagant.

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With fear and trembling I approach the sacred fane of Shakspere. His mighty works are the titanian offspring of the highest genius in dramatic poetry that ever graced the world. In the very infancy of British literature his mind walked forth gigantic and alone-time has rolled on and not produced even an approximation to his lofty song: is it not wonderful to reflect that in an age when letters had just began to emerge from the dark caverns in which monkery had so long enchained them, a being should step forth, at once, unconvented, uncolleged, to throw wide the book of nature, and in such strains as all succeeding poets have, in vain, toil❜d to produce, should stand alone-his own great equal—at once the Alpha and Omega of his class of lyrists; indeed as a powerful essayist (in Blackwood, for October, 1839) eloquently states, such great national writers as he, so entirely preoccupy their ground, that their is no room in the same language for an equal to themselves. You must overthrow them by one of those revolutions that sink the language itself in which they stand. You must bury them like huge fossils in their own buried soil, before the earth is free and the air open for such another out-growth, there must come a second deluge over all literature, and a second time the green earth must appear above the waters, before another Shakspere can have place."

6

Hamlet, the Dane-begins his loved companionship with us in our fresh, early days-while life is in its spring-long ere the toils and buffets of the world pass with their blighting influence o'er the verdure of our hopes-and he-of all the high dramatic characters of our immortal poet, creates the strongest, most enduring impress on our minds. 'Hamlet,' says Hazlitt, is the one of Shakspere's plays that we think of the oftenest, because it abounds most in striking reflections on human life, and, because the distresses of Hamlet are transferred, by the turn of his mind, to the general account of humanity.' Where is the educated being whose mind is not possessed with recollections, sweet, of mental intercourse with the melancholy philosophic prince, whose well-selected speeches and ideas have been impressed upon our memories at school, while, in maturer life, they fill our souls with those eternal thoughts, which then become almost a portion of our being, and tend to raise and elevate our minds above the clod-like nature of this earth-bound life? Where is the spectator whose heart has never thrilled at witnessing a being of another world, unfolding to a son most dear, in the dead waste and middle of the night,' the tale of murder and of incest foul, by which a regal soul has been despatched from life—

Unhousel'd-disappointed-unanel'd—

No reckoning made, but sent to its account,
With all its imperfections on its head-

whilst clothed in robes of usurpation, steeped in brother's blood, the wretched fractricide remains on earth, possessor of the royal spoils, for which his hope eternal stand for ever forfeited-driven in misery to and fro by conscience, like Orestes by the furies of old-conscience, that with her agonizing pangs, more stinging and exulcerating far than whips, with scorpions armed, pursue the guilty wretch, and drive him from each hold of hope, so, that even

Pray he cannot,

Though inclination be as sharp as will."

We are early introduced to Hamlet, and Mr. Stuart read his first soliloquy

Oh! that this too, too solid flesh would melt, &c. in much the same manner as it is given on the stage, and thus continued.

"This is the melancholy frame of mind and gloomy train of thought in which he was involved, when suddenly his old associate and college friend at Wittenberg appears, and, on the witness of Marcellus and Barnardo, tells him that the barriers of the grave are burst-that, armed from top to toe-his beaver up with countenance more in sorrow than in anger-pale and fixed in gaze—with beard as in his life Horatio had seen it'a sable silver'd,' the shadow of his royal father nightly walks the platform of the regal halls which had so oft resounded with loud acclamations at his victories-troubled and shaken for a while by this most strange account, he exclaims, at last, I will watch to-night,

Perchance 'twill walk again;

If it assumes my noble father's person,

I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
And bid me hold my peace.

And soon we meet him at the plat-form with his friends, when, lo! before his princely eye-true to Horatio's account, cased in appearance of the warlike steel, in which he oft had quelled the Danish foe, speaking in tones, so lately of the earth, unto the son he fondly loved-the dear paternal regal shade having, with 'action courteous,' drawn his son out of the hearing of his friends and fellow-watchers to the extremest of the plat-form's verge-unfolds the tale of trecherous fractricide, and quickly wakes the prince to thoughts of retribution and revenge-for know, he says,

Know, thou noble youth,

The serpent that did sting thy father's life
Now wears his crown.

Thus does the horrid truth appear in all its awful circumstance-recorded by no mortal tongue, who, for unworthy purposes might frame the tale awrong, but by the purgatorial shade of the majestic victim, for this end by heaven permitted to return for a short period to the mortal scene. any filial heart feel a surprise that Hamlet should exclaimRemember thee?

Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds her seat
In this distracted globe.

Can

But never more to him can perfect faith in man return, with reason good

He has lost his confidence In man's bold age.

If 'gainst a brother's life a brother's faithless arm can strike a mortal blow, how shall he trust even his dearest friends in such a case of fearful, horrid speculation? No, evading all their questions as to what has passed between the ghost and him; he now resolves to use deceptive art himself, and put an antic disposition on, to make his personal safety sure, by wrapping his intentions in a cloud, embodied in a strange demean