The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 3, November, 1834Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 3, November, 1834
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
the desire of immortality, is a noble thing; and we verily believe that
such a heart is rarely to be found unless in the bosom of youth.
"We have blamed freely the tutorial system of Yale College; but we have
given the dark side only. There are advantages accruing from the
system; but they are, in our opinion, utterly inadequate to
counterbalance its great and ruinous defects.
"While however, we freely denounce the tutorial system of Yale College,
we would not be unjust to the able men who preside in the institution.
For Doctor Day, Mr. Kingsley, Mr. Goodrich and Mr. Olmstead, we
entertain the highest respect; and believe them to be ripe scholars;
but we know the influence of ancient habit, and that miserable system
is so mixed up with the entire machinery of the institution, that we
have barely a hope of seeing it amended by the present administration.
Could Willis have found such a tutor as Mr. Jefferson has represented
Mr. Small to have been--one whose learning inspired respect, and whose
parental kindness melted the heart of the obdurate, and won back the
wayward--we should not have heard this grave charge against him; as it
was, while his classmates were calculating eclipses, moral and
mathematical, he passed with ease from beside them; and assumed an
honorable station in the literature of his country.
"But to Mr. Willis as a writer of prose. And one great source of wonder
with us is his uncommon acquaintance with the vocabulary of the
language. He moves over the spacious field with the ease and grace of
the most accomplished scholar. And then his sentences flow so sweetly
on, that you liken them to some limpid rivulet from the hill of the
muses flowing around and about the rich landscape before you, and if
for a moment concealed from the eye, it is only to burst upon you in
all its fullness and beauty. So much for the style of Willis, in its
mechanical sense. But there is something beyond this; and which is far
more important. It is the life of style. And here is the particular
forte of Willis. He reverses the rule of the logician; and instead of
advancing from general to particular, he paints the species with the
minutest care. The letter which we gave yesterday is a happy specimen
of the philosophy of his style. His theme is a voyage on the Hudson in
the summer season, when all are thronging northward, and to this
miscellaneous multitude he seeks to introduce us. He selects a few
individuals, and finishes their portraits with the greatest care and
the most consummate skill. But first observe the connection of the
trip. Whoever has travelled the Hudson in the summer season, will at
once recognize the group of passengers who have arrived '_just_ thirty
seconds too late;' and the striking description of a steamboat 'built
for smooth water, long, shallow and graceful, of the exquisite
proportions of a pleasure yacht; and painted as brilliantly and
fantastically as an Indian shell.' Then we have the Kentuckian to the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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