The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 2, January, 1836Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 2, January, 1836
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Mr. Latrobe is connected with a lineage of missionaries. He belongs to
an English family long and honorably distinguished by their exertions
in the cause of Christianity. His former work, "The Alpenstock," we
have not seen--but the London Quarterly Review calls it "a pleasing
and useful manual for travellers in Switzerland." The present volumes
(dedicated to Washington Irving, whom Mr. L. accompanied in a late
tour through the Prairies,) consist of thirty-seven letters addressed
to F. B. Latrobe, a younger brother of the author. They form, upon the
whole, one of the most instructive and amusing books we have perused
for years.
By no means blind to our faults, to our foibles, or to our political
difficulties, Mr. Latrobe has travelled from Dan to Beersheba without
finding all barren. His observations are not confined to some one or
two subjects, engrossing his attention to the exclusion, or to the
imperfect examination, of all others. His wanderings among us have
been apparently guided by a spirit of frank and liberal curiosity; and
he deserves the good will of all Americans, (as he has most assuredly
secured their esteem) by viewing us, not with a merely English eye,
but with the comprehensive glance of a citizen of the world.
To speak in detail of a work so subdivided as "The Rambler in North
America," would occupy too much of our time. We can, of course, only
touch, in general terms, upon its merits and demerits. The latter, we
can assure our readers, are few indeed. One instance, nevertheless, of
what must be considered false inference from data undeniably correct,
is brought to bear so pointedly against our social and political
principles, and is, at the same time, so plausible in itself, and so
convincingly worded, as to demand a sentence or two of comment. We
quote the passage in full, the more willingly, as we perceive it dwelt
upon with much emphasis, by the London Quarterly Review.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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