doting father, it will be remembered, gives this verdict as a
flattering compliment. We have sometimes been amused, where the _quo
animo_ was apparent, with similar compliments at the hands of reciprocal
critics of literature. Pleasant examples in this kind have been furnished
lately. A very voluminous critic, very far 'down east,' spoke recently in
a metropolitan journal of GOLDSMITH's '_Deserted Village_' as 'a very
common-place poem, at the best, and only saved from utter and most
contemptuous forgetfulness by two or three pleasantries about 'broken
tea-cups,' etc., and by one single passage that smacks of sublimity!' Of
the poetry however of the author of '_Man in his Various Aspects under the
American Republic_,' he expresses in the same columns quite a different
opinion. 'There has been,' he writes, 'no English poetry better than his,
within the memory of man!' A writer in the last number of the '_Southern
Literary Messenger_,' likewise voluminous in prose and verse, if we
rightly surmise, exhibits contrasts of judgment somewhat kindred with the
foregoing, although certainly less violent. The author of 'Man in his
various Aspects,' he tells us, 'has a _boldness_ that attracts;' his are
the 'strong and struggling conceptions which seek utterance in new and
original forms.' He dares 'to shun the beaten paths,' and is not afraid to
be obscure. His is not the poetry 'which takes the popular ear without
tasking the popular thought,' like 'the simple common-places of
LONGFELLOW.' Such 'criticism' as this we have cited must needs 'make the
judicious' laugh merely, being too impotent to make them 'grieve.' It is
not perhaps assuming too much to suppose, that GOLDSMITH's 'Deserted
Village' and LONGFELLOW's 'Psalms of Life,' _simple_ though they be, will
live and be cherished in generations of human hearts, when the volumes of
our critics and their client that yet survive the recollection of any save
their publishers, shall be 'forgotten and clean out of mind.' . . . IT is
related of the celebrated clergyman, JOHN MASON, that sitting at a
steam-boat table on one occasion, just as the passengers were 'falling to'
in the customary manner, he suddenly rapped vehemently upon the board with
the end of his knife, and exclaimed: 'Captain! is this boat out of the
jurisdiction of GOD ALMIGHTY? If not, let us at least thank HIM for his
continued goodness;' and he proceeded to pronounce 'grace' amidst the most
reverent stillness. It is