The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 9, May, 1835Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 9, May, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
We in the south do
not do that sort of thing. We are not taught so to "raise the wind."
We are not up to perpetual motion, nor to the art of making our living
by taking our pleasure. We feel ourselves therefore under no
obligation to admire Mr. Rogers's poems, though he be a banker--nor
Mr. Bulwer's novels, nor himself, though he be a member of Parliament;
nor though his female _doublure_ Lady Blessington, "have the finest
bust," and "the prettiest foot," and be "the finest woman in London."
_We_ do not put the names of our fine women in the newspapers. The
business of female education with us, is not to qualify a woman to be
the head of a literary _coterie_, nor to figure in the journal of a
travelling coxcomb. We prepare her, as a wife, to make the home of a
good and wise and great man, the happiest place to him on earth. We
prepare her, as a mother, to form her son to walk in his father's
steps, and in turn, to take his place among the good and wise and
great. When we have done this, we have accomplished, if not _all_, at
least _the best_ that education can do. Her praise is found in the
happiness of her husband, and in the virtues and honors of her sons.
Her name is too sacred to be profaned by public breath. She is only
seen by that dim doubtful light, which, like "the majesty of
darkness," so much enhances true dignity. She finds her place by the
side of the "Mother of the Gracchi," and of her whom an English poet,
who well knew how to appreciate and how to praise female excellence,
has simply designated as
"SIDNEY'S SISTER, PEMBROKE'S MOTHER."
We much fear, that after all this, the author of the work before us
will have no reason to thank us for our praise. On the contrary, there
may be danger of involving him in the displeasure, which we may draw
upon ourselves from that same cabal, which has its members on both
sides of the Atlantic. "Ca me; Ca thee," is the order of the day. If
half the praise be due, which is lavished on the works that daily
issue from the press, we may live to see the writings which instructed
and delighted our youth, laid on the same shelf with Thomas Aquinas
and Duns Scotus. Men can no more read every thing than they can eat
every thing; and the _petits plats_, that are handed round
hot-and-hot, leave us no room to do honor to the roast beef of old
England, nor to the savory Virginia ham. But these are the food by
which the thews and sinews of manhood are best nourished. They at once
exercise and help digestion. Dyspepsia was not of their day. _It_ came
in with _French Gastronomy_. Are we mistaken in thinking, that we see
symptoms of a sort of intellectual dyspepsia, arising from the
incessant exhibition of the _bon bons_ and _kickshaws_ of the press?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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