Page images
PDF
EPUB

of

question his originality when they have a good foundation. It is literally find him recoining the paltry material true, that people are now diggingnewspapers-letters-romances.- have been, for years-upon desolate In the early part of these two vo- islands, in America, for money, which lumes we should never see any merit, the traditions of the country declare knowing as we do, the sources of to have been buried, with formalities, what he is there serving up, however which are terrible enough, to be sure. admirable were his new arrangement Irving is not indebted, as people supof the dishes; however great his im- pose, therefore, to a German storyprovement. book, for this part of his late work.The pirate-who goes off in a boatwhich one may see rocking, under the land-is decidedly the finest bit of Geoffrey, that we know of.-But he is only one of several characters wrought into old, moth-eaten tapestry, the weaving of his youth-which was not worth patching up.

A part of the book-a few scenesa few pages are quite equal to anything, that he ever wrote. But we cannot agree with anybody, concerning those parts. Irving is greatly to blame quite unpardonable, for two or three droll indecencies, which everybody, of course, remembers, in these TALES:-not so much because they are so unpardonable, in themselves-not so much on that account -as because the critics had set him up, in spite of Knickerbocker; in spite of Salamagundi ; in spite of the Stout Gentleman as an immaculate creature for this profligate age.--He knew this. He knew that any book, with his name to it, would be permitted by fathers, husbands, brothers, to pass without examination: that it would be read aloud, in family circles, all over our country. We shall not readily pardon him, therefore, much as we love him, for having written several passages, which are so equivocal, that no woman could bear to read any one of them aloud-or, to remember that she had-by reason of her great confidence in the author, been upon the point of reading one aloud. Irving has a good, pure heart. How could he bear to see a woman faltering over a passage of his-at her own fire-side-while she was reading to her husband; her children-daughters, perhaps or to the newly married? We hate squeamishness. Great mischief comes of it. We love humour, though it be not altogether so chaste. But we cannot applaud anybody's courage or morals-who under a look of great modesty-with an over-righteous reputation-ventures to smuggle impurity into our dwellings to cheat our very household gods.

The latter part of these TALES, we firmly believe, were old papers lying by. New cloth has been wrought into old garments-New wine, put into old bottles. The money-diggers'

[ocr errors]

One word of advice to him, before we part-in all probability, for ever.— No man gets credit by repeating the story of another: It is like dramatizing a poet. If you succeed, he gets all the praise: if you fail, you get all the disgrace.-You-Geoffrey Crayon

have great power-original power. We rejoice in your failure, now, because we believe that it will drive you into a style of original composition, far more worthy of yourself.Go to work. Lose no time. Your foundations, will be the stronger for this uproar. You cannot write a novel; a poem; a love tale; or a tragedy. But you can write another SKETCH-BOOK-worth all that you have ever written: if you will draw only from yourself. You have some qualities, that no other living writer has -a bold, quiet humour-a rich beautiful mode of painting, without caricature a delightful, free, happy spirit-make use of them.-We look to see you all the better for this trouncing. God bless you! Farewell.

JAY-JUDGE. One of the men who wrote the FEDERALIST. See HAMILTON: p. 56; a Judge of whom Lord Mansfield spoke, like a brother(while Judge Jay was minister to St James's)-after having had a consultation with him. His correspondence with our cabinet was able, and sharp. It may be found in the AMERICAN STATE-PAPERS.

JEFFERSON-THOMAS. Late President of the United States: now upwards of 80: the ablest man, we believe, in America: author of many celebrated STATE-PAPERS: of the NOTES ON VIRGINIA, (a small duodecimo vo

lume of no remarkable merit, written while he was young.

Prussian service: a lieutenant-general, we believe. He made prodigious efforts in the cause of America-put his head in peril, as a traitor: was, we conscientiously believe, sacrificed (we will not qualify the phrase at all)-to Washington :-treated shamefully :In short, he died of a broken heart.— It was well for America-very well, that he did not become the commander-in-chief- the leader, even for a month, of her armies. He would have been a dictator-a despot-or nothing

The famous DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE-the American MAGNA CHARTA, very nearly as it now stands, was the production of Mr J. He was one of the committee appointed by congress, for drafting it. After a consultation, they separated-agreeing that each one should bring his own ideas complete, in regular form, on a certain day. They met-each with his own Declaration' ready to produce. Mr J. was called upon (as the youngest man, we believe) to read first. He submitted-his paper was immediately accepted by his associates: they would not even read those which they had brought, after hearing his read. It was adopted by congress, with a few alterations; part of which, like the improvements of Pope, in his own poetry-were of a very question--Gratitude !-we know them better. able character.

While Mr Jefferson was the Secretary of State, and subsequently, he produced a number of REPORTS, and PAPERS, which are distinguished by extraordinary temper, foresight, wisdom, and power. Among these, are his REPORT ON THE FISHERIES: a system, for the regulation of WEIGHTS and MEASURES: a paper, upon the ACCOUNTABILITY of PUBLIC OFFICERS: a correspondence with our cabinet, concerning the IMPRESSMENT of AMERICAN SAILORS, which, by the way, was the real cause of our late war with America. Mr Jefferson is a fine scholar a liberal thinker: and a truly great man. See our vols. for 1824, p. 509: 622.

:

JOHNSON, JUDGE an able man: has written lately the LIFE of GENERAI. GREENE, one of the revolutionary officers. Greene was another Washington; the only man able to take his place, if he had fallen; or if he had been overthrown by the cabal, in Congress. General Charles Lee was a better captain-the best, we believe, in the armies of the revolution: but he was too adventurous-too bold and peremptory-too dangerous for the place of commander-in-chief. One word of him, by the way-now that he is likely to have no sort of justice done to him among the pcople, for whom he sacrificed himself. He was one of those, to whom the letters of -Junius have been ascribed: he was a British general: an officer, in the

if he had: But we see no reasonthere was none-why he should have been so cruelly sacrificed; or so bitterly slandered. We mention this now, with more emphasis, because THE REPUBLIC is all in commotion about LA FAYETTE-pretendingshame on such impudence !-that all this uproar comes of their gratitude.

But, even while we speak, the fashion is over-we have no doubt of it-we put our opinion, therefore, upon record, with a date (Jan. 1, 1825)—we say, that already the fashion is over, in America; that, already, they have done pursuing the "Father of their country," as they profanely call him, after Washington, with outcries and parade.-Gratitude!-We know them better.-They talk of gratitude, while the surviving men of the revolution are dying of want :-while General St Clair-who literally starved, in his old age, upon the precarious bounty of a "single state," is hardly cold in his grave-while the very man, with whom Burgoyne treated, before the surrender (Wilkinson), is living upon the charity of Maryland :—while Baron de Kalb, Lord Stirling, (also a traitor in the cause of America)— Pulaski, (a Polish nobleman)—with a score of others, each one of whom did as much for the republican side, as La FAYETTE-and risked much more.We know the character of this people; we know that of the Marquis-But he was a boy, a mere boy, when he volunteered in the armies of America: and we say, positively, that all this uproar is not because of their gratitude, in America, for what he did, in the day of revolution (for he did but little-and, of that little, they knew nothing)-but chiefly, because he, La FAYETTE, is a nobleman, of whom they have heard much talk lately, and all at It is curiosity-not gratitude.

once.

Gratitude is consistent. Curiosity is not. Gratitude is the growth of knowledge, in a case like this: Curiosity is the growth of ignorance.-A few years ago, (we have not forgotten it,) James Munroe, the President of the United States, made a tour through New England. Before he went among the Federal party, there was no language too offensive-no usage bad enough, one would have thought from their papers, for James Munroe. When he went away, they pursued him as they did La Fayette."-Every house -every heart had been open to him -every voice followed him with flattery. Why was this?-Was it because they had been wrong?-No. Was it because they were ashamed of their behaviour; or had come to understand his plain, homely virtues? No. It was only because he, James Munroe, was President of the United

[ocr errors]

States of America. These republicans are curious: they secretly revere rank, more than we do: they had never before seen a PRESIDENT.

LOGAN-JAMES: a quaker: a chief justice in Pennsylvania: died about 1750:-author of several works in Latin, which have been republished in various parts of Europe: a great scholar, for the age-familiar with many languages-a good mathematician: a translator of Cicero's De Senectute, published with his notes, by Dr Franklin. His "Experimenta Melatemata de Plantarum Generatione," was published in Latin, about 1740-in Leyden, translated afterwards, and republished, by Dr Fothergill, at London. Several of his papers may be found in the Transactions of the Royal Society. We look upon him as altogether an extraordinary man.

WADD ON CORPULENCY.-WADD'S NUGE CHIRURGICE.* BYRON, my dear fellow, said we to him one day, you are inclined to corpulency.

Not at all, was the reply; it is entirely against my inclination, but I cannot help it.

This was very well for a joke; but he could help it, and did so-for by taking, as we advised, a raisin and a glass of brandy a-day, and abstaining from all other food, solid or fluid, for the course of a month, he lost flesh vastly, and was nearly as thin as ourself when he died. At the time we spoke to him, he must have been rising eighteen or nineteen stones.

We were thinking of this the other evening, when Wadd's books, of which we had never before heard, came by chance into our hands-and yet the Essay on Corpulency had reached a third edition. So true it is, that one half of mankind does not know how the other half lives; and, moreover, they are pleasant and readable books,

as we shall evince by the time we get to the end of this our article. We, (i. e. not merely ourselves, but the world,) have now come to that state of refinement, or rather, we should say, of good sense, that what Dr Johnson truly called the most important operation of the day, is no longer undervalued. Dinner, with its avant-couriers, breakfast and lunch, and its running footmen, chasse café, and supper, is properly appreciated. We no longer pretend to the silly puppyism of despising what, from the earliest age to the present, and from the present until the day of the dissolution of this great Globe itself, must continue to be the most interesting topic of life. Our living literature bears the impress of this new feeling. Witness Dr Morris, Dr Kitchener, the Author of Waverley, Sir Morgan ODoherty, &c. &c. &c. Everybody, in short, of any mark or likelihood in this scribbling generation. All these

Cursory remarks on Corpulence or obesity, considered as a disease, with a critical examination of ancient and modern opinions relative to its cause and cure. Third edition. By William Wadd, Esq. F. L. S. Surgeon extraordinary to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, &c. &c. &c. London, Callon, 1819. Pp. 129. 8vo.

Nuga Chirurgica; or a Biographical Miscellany, Illustrative of a Collection of Professional Portraits. By W. Wadd, &c. London. Longman and Co. 1824. Pp. 276. 8vo.

great men display, either by direct allusion, by receipt, maxim, advice or by indirect notice, that they are perfectly au fait at all sort of culinary arrangements. In truth, great writers of almost all ages have been characterized by this attribute. Homer, to whom,

-"as from their fountain, other stars Repairing in their golden urns, draw light,"

rejoices in a banquet as in a battle, and describes the cutting up of a porker flourishing in fat, with as much gusto as he does the dissection of a Jove-nurtured hero. A collection of the moral and political sentiments the yra, as they are technically. called, of Homer-has been made long ago; a collection equally savoury could be made of his cookery prescriptions, his ideas of managing tipple, his magniloquent and unrivalled epithets of everything connected with the social board; and we strenuously recommend some adequate hand to perform this acceptable service to Grecian literature, and to the great cause of gourmanderie at large. Having thus cited Homer, we excuse ourselves from saying anything of the minor authors,-Plato, Horace, &c. whom we had marked on the margin of our paper, to be quoted on the occasion.

As then the value of feeding has been duly acknowledged, the consequences thereof must be worthy of attention-among the most prominent of which is corpulence. If we believe Wadd, this is a disease, (for such he considers it,) in a great measure peculiar to England. And why should it not? Is there any other country in the world which assumes for its national tune, OH! THE ROAST BEEF which delights in surrounding its monarch with officers, designated, contrary to all rules of orthography and etymology, by the jaw-stirring name of Beef-eaters-which finds matter of scorn for all its neighbours chiefly in the inferiority of their provender, looking, as behoves them, with contempt on the frog-fed Frenchman, the leek-eating Taffy, the oatmeal-swallowing Scot, the potatoe-devouring Irishman, the sourcrout German, the turnip-nibbling Swede, the garlickchewing Spaniard-and so on to the end of all the nations of Europe firmly believing all the while, that no

native of these countries ever uses, or has even heard of, other food than what they think fit to assign to them

which bestows the Knightly title on one joint of beef, and the Baronial on another; and, not to be bothering the public with a long induction of particulars, has preserved these attributes from the days in which Cæsar found them (barbarous, to be sure, but in the middle of their wigwams carne lacteq; viventes,) to the present hour. Without going farther, what a philosophical work, a History of the Lord Mayors of London, keeping an eye to this one peculiar and national point, could be made, if it were done by a great oesthetic genius of a comprehensive mind, capable of grasping many particulars in one grand philosophical sweep, such as Mr Coleridge!

that for one fat person in France or Spain, "It has been conjectured by some, leave others to determine the fairness of there are an hundred in England. I shall

such a calculation.

"That we may, however, approach, or even exceed it, no one will doubt, who reflects on the

expensive plans For deluging of dripping pans, introduced by the modern improvements in the art of grazing, and the condescension of some of our physicians, who have added the culinary department to the practice of physic. One learned Doctor (vid. Institutes of Health) is of opinion, that the vulgarism of Kitchen Physic is one of those oracles of Nature, that deserves much more attention than ridicule;' another asserts, that no man can be a good physician, who has not a competent knowledge of cookery,' and ornaments Culina' with a Roman stew-pan; while a third apologizes for descending from professional dignity to culinary preparations, teaching us how to make' savoury jelly,' which may rally the powers of digestion in that fastidious state of stomach frequent after long fits of the gout. And it ought not to be omitted, amongst the great events of the present era, that the combined efforts of art and

nature, produced in the jubilee year 1809, the fattest ox, and the most corpulent man ever heard of in the history of the world.

"It is not a little singular, that a disease which has been thought characteristic of the inhabitants of this island, should have

been so little attended to. Dr Thomas Short's Discourse on Corpulency, published in 1727, with a small pamphlet by

Dr Fleming, and some occasional remarks in a few systematic works, will, I believe, be found to comprize all that has been said in this country, on what Dr Fothergill termed, a most singular dis

ease.'

"In answer to this, we may be told, that sufficient has been written, for any man to be his own physician in this complaint, and that "le regime maigre," and Dr Radcliffe's advice, of keeping the eyes open, and the mouth shut, contains the whole secret of the cure."-Corpulency, p. 5-7.

Which, however, is no answer at all.

"It is supposed, that a person weighing one hundred and twenty pounds, generally contains twenty pounds of fat. The accumulation of fat, or what is commonly called corpulency, and by nosologists denominated polysarcia, is a state of body so generally met with in the inhabitants of this country, that it may exist to a certain degree without being deemed worthy of attention; but, when excessive, is not only burdensome, but becomes a disease, disposes to other diseasesand to sudden death.

"The predisposition to corpulency varies in different persons. In some, it exists to such an extent, that a considerable secretion of fat will take place, notwithstanding strict attention to the habits of life, and undeviating moderation in the gratification of the appetite. Such a predisposition is often hereditary, and when accompanied, as it frequently is, with that easy state of mind, denominated good

humour,' which, in the fair sex,

Teaches charms to last, Still makes new conquests, and maintains the past.'.

Or when, in men, the temper is cast in that happy mould, which Mr Hume so cheerfully congratulates himself on possessing, and considers as more than equivalent to a thousand a-year; The habit of looking at everything on its favourable side;' -on such dispositions of body and mind, corpulency must, in a certain degree, attend."-P. 15, 16.

Part of this we are perfectly certain of. A good fat face is generally a pleasant object. It is most truly said, in Peveril of the Peak, that an ill-humoured-looking fat man is so rare an object, as to create in us the disgust which attends the sight of a monster. Look at the picture of Jack Powell, the butcher of Stebbing in Essex, who died in 1754, aged 37, (Lord Byron

and Raphael's age,) weighing 40 stones. What a good, thoughtless, beneficent hilarity is in his countenance! With what an air of complacent self-satisfaction he is wiping his unwigged head-how agreeably degagée his loose vestments hang around him! You feel it would be impossible to fret that man. Not a blackberry did he care about the Pope, the Devil, or the Pretender, or about the Family Compact, or Mr Pitt, or the balance of power in Europe. We venture to say, he had a vast ignorance of the works of Jemmy Thomson, or Sammy Johnson, or Davie Hume, or the Warburtonian Controversy, or any other of the flocci-nauci-nihili-pilifications, which, in his day, were engaging literary men. But if he knew not these trifles, we lay a rump and dozen that he had a perfect knowledge of a beef-steak-that it would be hard to puzzle him in a muttonchop-that Tom Rees's own Triponions are not deeper versed in the mysteries of a belly of tripe, than he was; and that, no matter who was the best singer of bob majors within the parish of Stebbing, few would beat him in disposing of their juicy attendant, the leg of mutton and trimmings.

To waddle back to Wadd. We shall skip some dozen or so of his pages at a slap, premising, that they contain cures, &c. for corpulency, one of which strikes us to be unutterably horrid. It is recommended as a remedy to devour Castile soap. What a tremendous abuse of the stomachic region! Sooner would we amplify ourselves to the dimensions of Daniel Lambert himself, than make a washing-tub of our paunch, and convert our gastric juice into suds. Vegetable diet is more palatable, though still highly objectionable; but as we intend to go at full length into that question very shortly, in a philosophical consideration of John Frank Newton's return to nature, we excuse ourselves from saying anything farther on the subject here.

There is a vast, miscellaneous collection of anecdotes of corpulency at the end of Wadd's book; pleasant to read, but arranged with a complete contempt of all regularity-very much in the manner of Miss Letitia Matilda Hawkins' new attempt at a Joe

« PreviousContinue »