advantage to the Blind to be associated with the Deaf; the Deaf could lead the Blind, they could explain many appearances of things which the Blind can not get a knowledge of by handling, and in the work department there are many articles which the Blind could readily make, all to nice finishing, which requires sight; this might be done by the Deaf

mutes.

CHEAP LITERATURE:

ITS CHARACTER AND TENDENCIES.
BY A SOUTHRON.

Much has been spoken and written of late, concerning the recent system of cheap publication, so extensively adopted in the larger cities, and from thence, radiating into all sections of our Union; and varied, as the minds and characters of the In conclusion, we must say, therefore, that we hail with pleasure the announcement that attempts writers, have been the speculations to which it has are being made to unite in this country the instruc- given birth; and we only venture to contribute our tion of the Deaf mutes and of the Blind, because, mite, because we entertain some peculiar views we believe that by such a union, the instruction of upon the subject, which we desire to submit to the We dispassionate judgment of the public; for which, both classes will be materially facilitated. trust that the eminent philanthropist who first broke the writer of this article, and not the Review must the ice in this undertaking will not be discouraged be held responsible. by the difficulties which private interest and dogmatical ignorance are sure to throw in his way, but that he will pursue the noble course which he has so well begun until success crowns his efforts and fulfils his most sanguine expectations. Virginia Institution for the Blind. Staunton, 1843.

That this movement has been productive of important results, no thinking man can doubt-and infinite has been the self-laudation of enterprising publishers, who first set the ball in motion; and proportionably bitter their assaults upon the " grasping Book-Barons," whom they charge with the crime oflèse-majesté against the Sovereign people!the privilege of acting as the high priests of literature, being considered ample reward for them; and the desire of profit, unworthy of their high vocation.

Time

Wisdom" now, literally "cries aloud in the streets, and no man regards her;" if the ragged urchins who throng the thoroughfares, and dog the footsteps of strangers, vending cheap publications, Books are thrust may be regarded as her heralds. before you as you walk the public streets, or, plunged in dreamy reverie, inhale the fragrance of your mild Havanna on the balcony of your hotel; the shrill cry of the news-boy rises above the din of the crowded streets, blends with the splash of the steam-boat paddles, and even the swift whirl of the locomotive cannot bear you beyond it. was, when books were so valuable for their rarity, as to be chained like criminals to the desks of libraries, which became shrines of pilgrimage to the earnest votaries of thought; but the order of things has been totally reversed; men do not seek books now, but are happy to escape from the venders of them; and beholding these things, the glad public 66 new era claps its hands and cries aloud, that a has dawned upon the world, when knowledge, so long the privilege of the few, has become the property of the many !" and that the intellectual millennium has at length arrived. And if, amidst this exulting uproar, a dissenting voice is raised, it is either totally disregarded, or scoffed at, as inimical to the great interests of the people. Unpopular as the avowal may be, we yet do not hesitate to declare that our sympathies in this matter are with the minority; for we not only believe, that this system tends to lower the standard of excellence among the educated few, but go still further, and openly assert as our belief, that it is calculated to

lower and debase the minds of the great mass of And in the third place, because the character of the people. This assertion may seem to involve a the works which have had the most widely extendstartling paradox, since it would appear, that the ed circulation, is such, as to taint and corrupt the multiplication of books at almost nominal prices, youth of our land, by their open and shameless would naturally tend to diffuse information among licentiousness. Such are a few out of the many all classes of the community, and to spread the charges which might be preferred, but these are light of knowledge as well "into the huts where sufficient for our purpose, if we can prove them, poor men lie," as into the luxurious mansions of and this we now intend to do, as far as such charges the rich; but there is one important consideration are susceptible of positive proof. In an article usually lost sight of, and it is this, that to ensure recently contributed to the Democratic Review, a healthy state of mind, as well as of body, more care should be paid to the quality, than the quantity of food provided for it. "All knowledge is not nutriment;" far from it! there is a knowledge of evil, as well as of good;;—a philosophy of vice, as well as of virtue, and woe to that people, who are dependant for their mental food, upon the foul jackalls of literature, who revel only in its garbage and corruption.

by one of the most vigorous and original thinkers of the day, the remark is made, that "the present tendency with us, is to the creation of a literature, which levels downwards and not upwards: instead of feeling it an imperious duty to instruct and elevate the mass, the tendency among us is to take our law from the mass; and to bring thought down to a level with the narrow views, crude notions, and blind instincts of the multitude." And he then adds, that "if this tendency is continued and encouraged, our whole intellectual world will become superficial and void, and American life too feeble a thing to be worth preserving!" This is a strong and by no means a flattering picture; but let any candid man look around him, and answer, whether it be not a faithful one; and if so, let him then decide, whether he will lend his voice to swell the popular clamor, or singly, if it may be, raise it to vindicate, what he believes to be the right; for our own part, the ground we have assumed, we are now prepared to defend. But before entering into the proofs which substantiate our first charge, it may not be amiss to trace the connexion necessarily existing between the tendency complained of and the want of a national literature; creating the relation of cause and effect, the latter being the cause, the former the effect.

That this point has already been reached by the American people, we are not prepared to assert; but that such is the inevitable tendency of the state of things now existing, we expect to prove to the satisfaction of all candid and unbiassed minds. The question, then, rests upon the inquiry, not as to the number or price of the books published and circulated, but as to their general character, and the influence which they are calculated to exert upon the public mind; thrown, as they have been, suddenly into the hands of multitudes of those, whose previous reading (to say the least) had been exceedingly limited. And here, in the outset, let us not be misunderstood,-the strictures about to be made, are applicable only to the "cheap publications," strictly so called; the reprints of standard works, which the old publishing houses have been recently driven into, to counteract (if possible) this movement, are neither, when collected, so It is admitted on all hands, that the first great cheap, nor as widely circulated as the penny publi-requisite of a free people'is the general possession cations of obscure publishers in New York and of an enlarged intelligence; an ignorant people elsewhere; the New World press, and a few others cannot possibly long continue a free people, because, also, deserve to have it said of them, that if they to ensure the maintenance of rights, the intelligence have effected but little good, they also wrought but to detect infractions of them is required; and this little positive harm; having been outstripped in is especially the case in a country like ours, where the race for public favor by more unscrupulous everything being dependent on the popular will, it competitors, who now have the field; and it is is of vital importance that that will should be guiagainst these " petty instruments of mighty mis-ded by the dictates of an enlarged and liberal reason. chief" that we now declare a war "even to the knife."

We arraign them then, at the bar of public opinion, because, in the first place, they have crushed the hopes of our American authors, and blasted our prospects of possessing a national literature! In the second place, because they have lowered the scale of national honor, by enticing our people to participate in, and benefit by a wholesale system of injustice and fraud, both against foreign authors and publishers, whose property they have fraudulently appropriated! often adding insult to injury, when the wrong was complained of!

The only certain mode of securing this desirable end, is by extending to the whole people the advantages of education; not alone by the more obvious means of primary schools and colleges, wherein the rudiments only are required; each man's education, properly speaking, only commencing at the period of his terminating his collegiate course; but by throwing open to the student a national literature, wherein works adapted to the "form and pressure" of the time and country in which he lives, may be found to teach him his rights and duties both as a man and an American citizen. For information on these points, he must turn over in

vain the classic pages of antiquity, or the produc- Dreadfully indignant were we, years ago, when tions of modern authors, living under forms of go- Sydney Smith sneeringly asked, "who reads an vernment totally adverse to our own. In all en-American book?” and if words could kill, immelightened times and countries, this matter of pos-diate would have been the death of that reverend sessing a national literature has been regarded by jester; yet the question might almost be reiterated sagacious statesmen as the one thing needful, to now, with the slight change of "who writes one?" cement the jarring and discordant elements, which for American authors are becoming, as a class, constitute a people, by a feeling which all could valuable for their rarity, and unless a favorable share-a feeling of national pride in the produc- change takes place, threaten to be soon extinct. tions of its own citizens, forming a kind of neutral We do not here mean to class as authors, the wriground, on which conflicting sects and parties, cast-ters for magazines and daily newspapers, though ing aside their differences, might meet in friendship, probably the greater part of the talent of the counas the tribes of Greece were wont to assemble at try is driven into that narrow channel; many of their Olympia. Not alone valuable on this account, them being men of great ability, who, under a since it is the most enduring, as well as the most better state of things, would be authors of high useful of a nation's possessions; for, embodying celebrity; but the fleeting existence of the jourthe choice thoughts of her most gifted sons, it is nals for which they write, and the ephemeral nabequeathed to posterity, as that nation's richest ture of their contributions, chiefly on matters of legacy; the undying portion of her, which is to local interest, do not permit them to be ranked preserve her memory intact, long after her feats among authors by profession. If then, so many of of war and state-craft have been interred in the these writers have evinced, even on the contracted "Limbo of Vanities," among other forgotten things. theatre they have chosen, abilities of no common For does not England owe a greater debt to her order, why is it, that none of them attempt susSpenser and her Shakspeare, than to her long line tained and elaborate works; works such as "Posof forgotten Kings? Does not the antiquarian, terity will not willingly let die?" because there is even now, seek to trace the records of her early no encouragement for literary effort; because the history on the vivid page of Chaucer, rather than public seeks amusement and not instruction! bein the musty tomes of the Domesday Boke, or cause even our authors, who have already gained a other ponderous folios, which slumber in the dusty continental reputation, fail to gain the ear of an innooks of old libraries? Well did that statesman different public; and in despair lock up their wriunderstand how deeply the character of a nation ting-desks, and hope for better times. is tinged by its literature, who asked "to have the making of the songs of a people, and he cared not who made their laws;" for he knew that the laws were engraven only on their memories, while the simple songs sunk deep into their hearts, and were transmitted to their children's children.

It is true, that there are a few illustrious exceptions, for Prescott, Sparks, Bancroft and a few other kindred spirits, to whom the love of histori cal research brings its own reward, still prosecute their useful labors; in the field of fiction, Cooper, like his own Leather-stocking, still treads with elasTried then by this test, what is the condition of tic foot the green sward and the prairie, while our own country. Does it not present the strange Simms, our Southern novelist, "abates no jot of anamoly of a thriving, energetic, and resolute peo-heart or hope," but perseveres in the career he has ple, whose physical wants are all supplied by their so well begun; Stephens has opened for us a wide own unaided efforts; who claim as their highest field of speculation by his discovery of ancient privilege, the right of governing themselves, yet cities in our new world; and an occasional burst of totally dependent on foreign nations for their in- melody from the Northern lyre, touched by the fintellectual food! thankfully receiving the crumbs, gers of Bryant, or Lowell, gives us the assurance, which fall from the tables of their German, French, that though unstrung, it is not yet shattered: yet or English masters? Well might Mr. Hillard ex- these are but "rari nantes in gurgite vasto," and claim, in that noble discourse delivered at Boston, the support and maintenance of American Literathat "A nation, skilled in all the arts that multiply ture now mainly depends on the zeal and honesty physical comforts and conveniences, but in which of a few of our best magazines, which have the the imaginative faculty lies paralyzed and lifeless, penetration to know and love the forcible and true, disturbs us with a sense of something, incomplete in thought and expression; and the integrity, and imperfect; it reminds us of a world without unawed by popular or party clamor, to publish and children!"-rather let us say, of a gigantic body, proclaim it! perfect in all its parts, but moved by a complex Where are our authors, and how employed? mechanism and not by a living soul; a monstrous Washington Irving, taking lessons in diplomacy at Polyphemus, with but a single eye, and that turned the grave Spanish court! Bryant, the editor of a only to the acquisition of sordid gold-blind to the party print, the most prosaic of all human occupapriceless treasures of intellect and heart, which tions; Halleck, turning his attention from bookconstitute the only true wealth of a nation. making to book-keeping, of the two, we doubt not,

far the more profitable employment; Cooper, al- while with another and better class, we will be acmost the only one who keeps the field, waging war cused of underrating the intelligence of the Ameagainst a pestilent horde of hornets, which have rican people; since many well-meaning persons do been attacking him, much to the delight of the not scruple to affirm, that for the diffusion of knowpublic, who however should recollect that, " Insects ledge our country is preeminent. The statement of have driven the lion mad ere now," and that it is one simple fact will answer these: by the recent an indication of a very unwholesome state of public census it was ascertained, that there were in the feeling, (to say the least of it,) when such attempts United States 540,000 free white persons over the are not frowned down by an indignant public. Where then is our literature, we ask again? and the only reply which can be given is, that it must be sought for in the ephemeral pages of Magazine or Review, or in the still more fleeting columns of the weekly, or daily newspaper; and in these fragile depositories, we often meet with bursts of eloquence, of pathos and of poetry, worthy of a stronger casket; and evincing the hidden germs of talent needing but light and culture to spring up in full life and vigor, and produce a boundless harvest.

age of twenty years, unable to read or white; and it was further proven by the same document, that 45,000 of these were to be found in the State of New York, the very centre and focus of this cheap publication. When we consider the natural repugnance men always feel at avowing their ignorance, we must be convinced that the number instead of being exaggerated falls far short of the reality, and the state of things it exhibits should be anything but flattering to our national vanity.

In the early stages of colonial existence, the It is a mournful thing to contemplate, when the people did not feel the want of a literature, because voice of a free and prosperous people can find only they were in fact too busy to read; their very exsuch an imperfect utterance as this; not naturally istence was but a continued struggle against cold dumb, but finding none to listen to its first imperfect and hunger; their time fully occupied in felling giutterances, and train it to clear and open speech! gantic forests, and contending against the wiles and It is a proof, that there must be something at bot-artifices of savage men, the supply of their animal tom radically wrong-what that something is, it wants, and the support of their wives and families behoves us to investigate. Let us see if we can left no leisure for the cultivation of their inteltrace it. It may be replied to this, that we have lects. The descendants of the Puritans, again, inherited a literature with our language, that the thought One Book all sufficient, they cared not for English literature, with its world-renowned names what was written in any other book, than the Book and priceless treasures of thought, is ours by right of God. Possessed with a gloomy fanaticism, of birth, and that we need no other; but is this they turned with sullen scorn from the accomplishtrue, can any one pretend, that the works of the ments, as well as the frivolities of their foes, the master minds of England, are familiar to the great Cavaliers, and despised the cultivation they had mass of our people; and their names regarded as never known. In the South alone was literature household words; alas! it is not so, and every edu- regarded; the descendants of the Cavaliers, absorbed cated man knows and deplores the fact. Some of in reverential love for Mother England, (no stepthem no doubt are familiar to the people, as Shaks- mother then,) acknowledged her literature, as well peare for example, but he is the property of the as her laws; both sufficed for them. Under such a whole civilized world; so too with Milton, and state of things, American Literature could not be probably a few of the more recent English authors; expected to take root; and accordingly, we first but to the great bulk of our people, the "well of find indications of a growing Literature, after the English undefiled," from which they are told to revolution, when a Literature peculiar to the men drink, is a sealed spring, and they are driven to and country sprang up, some relics of which we quench their thirst at the muddy and polluted streams still possess; such, for example, as Trumbull's of German mysticism, or French licentiousness."McFingal," Barlow's "Columbiad" and other Our very language has shared in the general dete- similar productions strongly imbued with the spirit rioration; it is no longer the bold manly Saxon and prejudices of the time. But they, too, were tongue which is spoken now, but a piebald jargon a busy race,-busied in framing constitutions and of mingled Latin, French and English. It has making laws; and for a long time the death strugbecome ungenteel to speak good English, it must gle between the Federal and Democratic parties conbe plentifully interlarded with scraps of French, or vulsed the whole country and absorbed the minds Italian, to please the fastidious ear of "good socie- of all intelligent and educated men; for some time ty," and the sweet and simple ballads which made subsequent to the Revolution, the facilities for obmusic of the English tongue, when warbled by taining education were limited to a few, and these some artless girl, have given place to Italian "Ca- chiefly became political leaders, but the excitement vatinas," and "Dolce Concentos." We know gradually subsided, and the long breathing-time of that these opinions may subject us to the charge of peace which intervened, gave leisure and opportubeing "Gothic" and " old-fashioned," and to such nity of mental culture, which was not neglected other elegant phrases of fashionable contempt; by the youth of the country. Education had al

ways been duly regarded by the early settlers, and it did appear somewhat unfair, that an editor, who Harvard and others had set the example of found-paid fifty guineas for an article of Macaulay's or ing colleges, and contributing a "bushel of books" to begin with; but now the school-master rose into importance, and by his humble, but useful labors, became an important element in the prosperity of the American People.

Wilson's, expecting to reimburse himself by the circulation of his review, should thus be forestalled, by one who had not paid a cent for it, except the postage on his single number sent him by his "London correspondent:" but then the work was so cheap, With increasing cultivation and intelligence, a and the times so hard, that the public shut its eyes demand for native literature arose and American and gulped the dose. But the hole opened by one, authorship raised its lead; Paulding and Irving others thought they might creep through too. The in “Salmagundi,” proved to the people, that wit misfortune of encouraging an immoral principle, and humor were not confined to one side of the does not always appear in its immediate effects, Atlantic; and the publication of the "Sketch- but in the consequences to which it inevitably leads. book" convinced our neighbors, over the water, of Other publishers were smitten with the value of the same fact. C. B. Brown showed that Godwin the discovery and pressed on in the footsteps of might be rivalled, if not surpassed, in powerful de- their brother, the sympathies of the good-natured lineation of single passions, and delicate anatomy public were enlisted by the assurance that it was of the human mind. Edwards, in his acute and their interest the publishers had at heart in this powerful work" on the Will," proved that Ame- move, that they had long been grievously imposed rica possessed a metaphysician fully able to cope upon by the regular publishers, and as a proof, they with any in Scotland, or elsewhere; and Bryant could now procure from them the same works at and Halleck strung their lyres to notes of rival one tenth of the former price. The eager public sweetness. But the arts of peace were again ban- swallowed the bait so skilfully offered; dreadfully ished by the clash of arms, and, when that ceased, incensed were they against the mercenary pubby the contests of rival political parties, continued, lishers, who had so long, as they thought, been under different names, and with different princi- plundering them; and proportionably grateful to ples and watchwords, down to the present time; the public-spirited citizens who had opened their during which time Literature, though not very eyes to the fact. ardently cultivated, was yet slowly but surely pro- The newspaper press, too, which, in this country, gressing, as many names, eminent in history and in nine cases out of ten, follows, instead of attemptfiction can testify, when the death-blow was given ing to lead the public sentiment, took up the cry, by some of her pretended friends, under the pre- and Cheap Literature literally deluged the land. text of "introducing her to the Million." It is a In spite of Shakspeare's opinion to the contrary, curious thing, that, from time immemorial, there every day's experience teaches us, that "much is has seemed to be a natural enmity existing between in a name," and it was verified in this instance; authors and publishers, although from their close for the public did not pause to inquire whether this connexion one would suppose otherwise; in most literature was cheap or not, but took it for granted, other trades, between the maker of a commodity and proceeded to act accordingly; they did not reand the vender of the same, a friendly relation sub-flect that there is a kind of Literature which would sists; not so with authors and publishers; from the be dear at any price, or even at no price at all; time that the "learned lexicographer" knocked They did not consider that money is not the only down his bookseller, to the present day, the quarrel standard of value, though the most common and has been kept up, until the final blow has been obvious; and that even a gift, might be dearly paid stricken, which has brought Literature, (in this for, if the acceptance of it entailed a breach of country at least,) down to the "last stage of a de- moral honesty upon the acceptor; and, therefore, cline." Under a system of liberal remuneration to the wrongs sustained both by authors and publishers authors, and moderate profits to publishers, both of the pirated works, were not reflected upon; they parties were gradually progressing to the entire did not consider that this cheap system was founded satisfaction of the public; when the idea suggested in fraud and supported by injustice, and heedless, or itself to the mind of an "enterprising publisher" in forgetful of the true but homely adage, “that the New York, that this was but a slow way of getting receiver is as bad as the thief," each individual rich, and that a "good speculation" might be made shifted the responsibility off his own shoulders, by establishing a system of small profits and quick and profited by the fraud which he thus aided in returns; and inasmuch as piracy was more pro- sustaining. Nay, some of the publishers rendered fitable than free trade, he determined to reprint in bold by impunity, and the apparent sympathy of the a cheap form the popular English Magazines, for public, had the effrontery to tax with ingratitude which, as he paid nothing, he had but to reimburse the indignant authors, whose labors they had aphimself for the expense of paper and printing. propriated to their own profit, reproaching them This scheme was carried into execution; the moral with an indifference to fame, because they mursense of the public was, at first, a little shocked; mured at robbery; the American who can read with