sumed to himself the liberty of introducing a plurality of heroes, and sometimes even of sacrificing the authority of criticism to what, in the present instance, may be, sarcastically, denominated the truth of history-but, nevertheless, written by a person of keen observation, pointed sense, and solid learning-qualities which are made to tell with double effect, from the happy vein of ironical humour which pervades and enlivens the whole work, and which, while it is divested of every particle of malevolence, is managed with a dexterity and address sufficient to convince every reader that, if ridicule be not the test of truth, it is the only certain and infallible exposer of absurdity, folly, and wickedness. Less various, and for that reason probably less amusing than the Sketch-book,' the work before us is more of a sustained effort; and if it betrays less versatility of talent, it unquestionably displays more power. The subject is not, indeed, shifted with the rapidity of the figures in a magic lanthorn, but presents itself to the eye with all the steady and dignified gravity of true history, which, as Dionysius Halicarnasseus has told us, is philosophy teaching and enforcing her lessons by examples: And, accordingly, that the keeping of his work might be as perfect as possible, the author has contrived, with singular skill and effect, to intermingle, with his burlesque narrative, the most profound reflections of political wisdom, and to speak out, from behind his mask, not a few of those harsh and unpalateable truths, which kings and governments should never forget, but which they manage somehow to remember as seldom as possible. Together with its predecessor, this book certainly forms an era in the history of Transatlantic literature, as it is the first indigenous effort of real taste of which America can boast, and as far transcends, in sterling merit, their boasted Columbiad, as the Principia of Newton surpass the physical vagaries of Sir Richard Phillips. Honest Diedrich Knickerbocker, at a moderate estimate, is worth a whole Congress of Joel Barlows. But his merits will be the less surprising, when we advert to the models on which he has obviously formed himself. He ap pears to have studied, and fully appreciated, the purest, most finished, and most classical authors of this country, and to have inspired a portion of the mens divinior, which glows in every line of their imperishable works; and, hence his style is, in a great measure, exempt, not merely from the flagrant faults, but even from the vicious peculiarities that appear in broad prominence on the works of his countrymen. Here and there, indeed, a stray Yankeeism peeps out to remind us of the author's "home and birth-place," but even these slips are wonderfully few-fewer, we verily believe, than the provincialisms that bristle in the works of some of our own most renowned literary dons; but, in compensation, we meet and are offended with no bombast-no affectation-no pedantry-no dogmatism-no perpetual labouring and straining to be fine, learned, witty, and sarcastic; on the contrary, the gentleman, the scholar, and the man of taste, of the world, stand out in strong relief on every page. If, therefore, wit without effort-humour without malice-irony without scurrility-sense without dulnessconscious power without vain glory— patriotism without parade or pretension-liberality without prejudicebe qualities estimable in an author, we entertain a tolerable confidence that the work before us will not discredit the warmest recommendation which we can bestow upon it. In common, we believe, with many of our countrymen, we did imagine that there was something in the constitution of American society unfavourable to the developement of literary genius; that the form of their government presented an insuperable barrier to the formation of a standard of taste among themselves, while their absurd and inveterate prejudices prevented them from studying our own classics, and endeavouring to transfuse their spirit into such compositions as they might afterwards undertake; that the establishment of an aristocracy, and a court, were indispensable to a national literature; and that, for ages to come, America, busied in draining her swamps, rooting out her immense forests, and cultivating her waste lands, would no more think of manufacturing her own literature than her own hardware, but would continue to take both, at second-hand, from us, who have been accustomed to think that we could manufacture the commodity cheaper and better than she could do for herself. How far some of these impressions may continue still unobliterated, we shall not very scrupulously define; but, this far we will go, that, if America will pledge herself to be forthcoming, every other lustrum, with a work of equal merit with the present, we, on our parts, will be content to fors wear many of our prejudices of oldest standing, and to concede that her capabilities are much more extensive than we had hitherto conjectured. The reader who expects to find, in the volume before us, a bona fide history of New York, and nothing more, is nearly as much to be pitied as the man, who, in order to study a system of lunar natural history, pored, night and day, over the celebrated theorem of Herschel, and when he found himself making but scurvy progress, betook himself to a close examination of "tides, madmen, and sea-crabs," the legitimate objects of lunar influence. The fact appears to be, that the book has been written for the purpose of throwing strong ridicule on the labours of the following highly meritorious classes of philosophers and authors: In the first place, the writer of this book, for reasons best known to himself, has launched the full force of his derision against that formidable corps of sages, denoininated zaro, the creationists, who seem to believe that they possess, in their laboratories, the animu mundi, corked up and sealed, like Asmodeus in the magician's bottle, and who, if you take them at their own word, must have been of counsel during the whole of the six days' work. In the second place, he grins most bitterly at a very ingenious and convincing class of speculators, who, regarding the biblical story as by far too simple and intelligible for such sublime wits, set about proving it to be altogether fabulous, because, forsooth, it has not said one word of the wonderful comet, which, they allege, produced the deluge, and because it has most audaciously and falsely asserted that "God made of one flesh all the kindreds of men that dwell on the face of the earth"- -a most unpardonable and rash allegation, consider ing that one portion of men are black and another white, which makes all VOL. VII. the difference in the world. In the third place, Knickerbocker celebrates, with all his might, that invaluable class of writers, who, knowing that Noah had only three sons, and that the earth has four quarters, set themselves most laudably to explain, what history and even tradition are silent upon, namely, the manner in which the three great pillars of population, after having learned the languages at Babel, sallied forth and conducted their increasing and multiplying squadrons, to continents, islands, isthmuses, peninsulas, promontories, and creeks;-across vast oceans, dangerous straits, rapid rivers, rugged mountains, and all the other forms of physical difficulties that must have obstructed and impeded their course, as they proceeded to such remote, but delectable, quarters as Greenland, Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen, and Kamschatka; and, what is worse than all, without map, chart, or compass. In the last place, our author indulges himself, very improperly we admit, in a general tirade against the whole tribe of historians, chroniclers, and expounders of past events, whom he not only taxes with interminably prolix prosings about the physical formation and subsequent population of this unfortunate globe of earth and water, and with masses of learned nonsense on the affiliation of nations, but, when they do come to facts, with distorting and disguising them to suit some sinister and dishonourable purpose, dwelling on things of no importance, and huddling up those of real moment, so that no mortal can distinguish the truth; exaggerating, apologising, defending, softening, extenuating, not according to individual merit or demerit, but as the impulse of faction, or the love of the marvellous, may happen to decide. In the ample volume of subject thus unfolded, the author finds full scope for the exercise of his uncommon talents, and of his ironical humour; and as nothing grave, serious, or sacred, is, for one instant, the butt of his satire, but, on the contrary, the fooleries and absurdities of men, whether considered as writers, governors, citizens, or actors in the mighty drama of human life, we may be allowed to express the satisfaction with which we have travelled along with him in the execution of his plan, and the 3z pleasure we have derived from observing the tact, dexterity, and skill with which he has availed himself of every thing that promised to facilitate the furtherance of his object. Si foret in terris, rideret Democritus. Like the work of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. that of the redoubted Diedrich Knickerbocker contains some finished and graphical portraitures of the manners of the bon vieux temps, as contrasted with those of the present day. Without being exactly a landator temporis acti, honest Diedrich dwells, with much apparent satisfaction, on the primitive simplicity and still life that reigned undisturbed in the halcyon days of the olden time, when the sovereignty of Wouter Van Twiller, sirnamed Wouter the Doubter, was exercised in moderating the factious feuds of Tough Breeches and Ten Breeches, and in establishing his undoubted right to the glorious title of Father of his Country. But we must now introduce the author to our readers, and allow him to speak for himself. Our readers will please to remember, that as the learned Diedrich Knickerbocker has undertaken to write the history of New York from the earliest period of which we have any authentic accounts, namely, from the creation of the world, downwards in a direct line to the end of the Dutch dynasty, he is, therefore, in duty bound, to tell somewhat of that memorable era at which his researches commence. After reviewing a variety of world-building theories, all of them cunningly devised, (fables,) he proceeds to sum up the case, as the lawyers would say, and, after a word in passing to "that learned Theban," Dr Darwin, recounts the wants, necessities, and bountiful provisions of Providence in favour of philosophers. "But I pass over a variety of excellent theories, among which are those of Burnet, and Woodward, and Whitehurst; regret ting extremely that my time will not suffer me to give them the notice they deserve and shall conclude with that of the renown ed Dr Darwin. This learned Theban, who is as much distinguished for rhyme as reason, and for good natured credulity as serious research, and who has recommended himself wonderfully to the good graces of the ladies, by letting them into all the gallantries, amours, debaucheries, and other topics of scandal of the court of Flora, has fallen upon a theory worthy of his com bustible imagination. According to his opinion, the huge mass of chaos took a sudden occasion to explode, like a barrel of gunpowder, and in that act exploded the vulsion, exploded the earthwhich in like sun-which in its flight, by a similar conguise exploded the moon-and thus by a concatenation of explosions, the whole solar system was produced, and set most systematically in motion! "By the great variety of theories here alluded to, every one of which, if thoroughly examined, will be found surprisingly consistent in all its parts, my unlearned readers will, perhaps, be led to conclude, that the creation of a world is not so dif ficult a task as they at first imagined. I methods in which a world could be constructed; and I have no doubt, that had any of the philosophers above quoted the use of a good manageable comet, and the philosophical warehouse chaos at his command, he would engage to manufacture a planet as good, or, if you would take his word for it, better than this we inhabit. have shown at least a score of ingenious "And here I cannot help noticing the kindness of Providence, in creating comets for the great relief of bewildered philosophers. By their assistance more sudden evolutions and transitions are effected in the system of nature than are wrought in a pantomimic exhibition by the wonder-working sword of Harlequin. Should one of our modern sages, in his theoretical flights among the stars, ever find himself lost in the clouds, and in danger of tumbling in. to the abyss of nonsense and absurdity, he has but to seize a comet by the beard, mount astride of its tail, and away he gal lops in triumph, like an enchanter on his hippogriff, or a Connecticut witch on her broomstick, to sweep the cobwebs out of the sky." "It is an old and vulgar saying, about a beggar on horseback, which I would not for the world have applied to these reverend philosophers; but I must confess that some of them, when they are mounted, on one of those fiery steeds, are as wild in their curvettings as was Phaeton of yore, when he aspired to manage the chariot of Phœbus. One drives his comet at full speed against the sun, and knocks the world out of him with the mighty concussion; another, more moderate, makes his comet a kind of beast of burden, carrying the sun a regular supply of food and fagots; a third, of more combustible disposition, threatens to throw his comet like a bomb. shell into the world, and blow it up like a powder magazine; while a fourth, with no great delicacy to this planet and its inhabitants, insinuates that some day or other his comet-my modest pen blushes while I write it-shall absolutely turn tail upon our world, and deluge it with water! Surely, as I have already observed, comets were bountifully provided by Providence for the benefit of philosophers, to assist them in manufacturing theories." PP. 47-50. After a most learned enumeration of the honours and appellations bestowed, by the grateful nations of antiquity, on the great Father of Navigation, whom the Chaldeans honoured under the appellation of Xieuthrus, the Egyptians as Osiris,-the Indians as Menu,-the Greeks and Romans as Ogyges, the Thebans as Deucalion, and the Chinese as Fohi, our author proceeds to unfold the reason why America did not come so early into the world as the other quarters of the globe." 66 "Noah, we are told by sundry very credible historians, becoming sole surviving heir and proprietor of the earth, in fee simple, after the deluge, like a good father, portioned out his estate among his children. To Shem he gave Asia; to Ham, Africa; and to Japhet, Europe. Now it is a thou sand times to be lamented that he had but three sons, for had there been a fourth, he would doubtless have inherited America; which of course would have been dragged forth from its obscurity on the occasion, and thus many a hard working historian and philosopher would have been spared a prodigious mass of weary conjecture respecting the first discovery and population of this country. Noah, however, having provided for his three sons, looked in all probability upon our country as mere wild unsettled land, and said nothing about it; and to this unpardonable taciturnity of the patriarch may we ascribe the misfortune, that America did not come into the world as early as the other quarters of the globe." p. 54, 55. The whole of book fourth, chapter first, we would, with all becoming humility and submission, recommend to the consideration of Mr Malthus, as being well calculated to afford him some new light regarding the principles of population, and more particularly on that most puzzling problem, the present distribution of men on the face of the earth. We have not forgotten that this learned and reverend author is more famous for having concerned himself about feeding and procreation, than about the postdiluvian wanderings of old Noah's paidoff crews; but, at the same time, we have no manner of doubt, that as the bee extracts honey from every flower, so Mr Malthus might find somewhat, even in the Dutch speculations of the eccentric Knickerbocker, to garnish a new edition of his much perused, much abused, and certainly highly meritorious work, which has at last, we perceive, called down the wrath of Mr Godwin, corked up in his phials for so many years, in a very thick unreadable-looking octavo, the look of which has, in truth, been enough for us. But what delights us most is to think how edified Mr Pinkerton must feel, when he discovers the notice taken en passant of his most satisfactory suppositions, and, above all, when he learns, that his ingenious and truly original device of a bridge of chains or pontoons over Behring's Straits, is not found to have been at all necessary to account for the population of the youngest quarter of the globe. While we are on this part of our author's performance, we must confess, however, that we have met with nothing in the course of our reading for a long time past, half so pithy, rational, and decisive, as the following argument of that bluff old Jesuit, Charlevoix, who, it appears, had studied a system of logic astonishingly different from that taught by the more learned and orthodox metaphysicians of modern times. "The inhabitants of both hemispheres," says the dogmatical father, are certainly the descendants of the same parent. The common father of mankind received an express order from heaven to people the world, and accordingly it has been peopled. To bring this about, it was necessary to overcome all difficulties in the way, and they have also becn 66 overcome. With regret we prætermit much interesting matter relative to the voyages of that renowned argonaut Hudson, and his good ship the Goede Vrouw, also to the new right got up in modern times, and found in some late editions of Puffendorff, Grotius, and Vattel, called the right of discovery-to the bickerings and feuds of Tough Breeches and Ten Breechesand sundry other particulars illustra tive of the internal administration of government during the most smoking period of the Dutch dynasty. limits are narrowing apace, we must content ourselves with one short extract, which, we hope, will be read with advantage by some of the statecobblers among ourselves. As our "But as Peter Stuyvesant had a singular inclination to govern his province with out the assistance of his subjects, he felt highly incensed, on his return, to find the factious appearance they had assumed during his absence. His first measure, therefore, was to restore perfect order, by prostrating the dignity of the sovereign people. "He accordingly watched his opportunity, and one evening when the enlightened mob was gathered together, listening to a patriotic speech from an inspired cobler, the intrepid Peter all at once appeared among them, with a countenance sufficient to petrify a millstone. The whole meeting was thrown into consternation-the orator seemed to have received a paralytic stroke in the very middle of a sublime sentence, and stood aghast with open mouth and trembling knees, while the words horror! tyranny! liberty! rights! taxes! death! destruction! and a deluge of other patriotic phrases, came roaring from his throat before he had power to close his lips. The shrewd Peter took no notice of the skulking throng around him, but, advancing to the brawling bully-ruffian, and draw. ing out a huge silver watch, which might have served in times of yore as a townclock, and which is still retained by his descendants as a family curiosity, requested the orator to mend it, and set it going. The orator humbly confessed it was utterly out of his power, as he was unacquainted with the nature of its construction. Nay, but, said Peter, try your ingenuity, man: you see all the springs and wheels, and how easily the clumsiest hand may stop it, and pull it to pieces; and why should it not be equally easy to regulate as to stop it? The orator declared that his trade was wholly different that he was a poor cobbler, and had never meddled with a watch in his life that there were men skilled in the art, whose business it was to attend to those 6 matters; but for his part, he should only mar the workmanship, and put the whole in confusion Why, harkee, master of mine,' cried Peter, turning suddenly upon him, with a countenance that almost petrified the patcher of shoes into a perfect lapstone, dost thou pretend to meddle with the movements of government-to regulate, and correct, and patch, and cobble, a complicated machine, the principles of which are above thy comprehension, and its simplest operations too subtle for thy understanding, when thou canst not correct a trifling error in a common piece of mechanism, the whole mystery of which is open to thy inspection ?-Hence with thee to the leather and stone, which are emblems of thy head; cobble thy shoes, and confine Here, however unwillingly, we must stop, and we shall only add, that, although there has existed, both in this country and America, a feeling of mutual exasperation, which has been carefully cherished and embittered by the factious of both countries, and which has led to recrimination, detraction, and calumny, beyond what could have been credited in an age so enlightened as the present; yet we are delighted to think, that, with the return of peace, more liberal and generous sentiments have begun to manifest themselves, and that the rational and the intelligent on both sides of the Atlantic are now exerting themselves to diffuse a spirit of reciprocal forbearance and good will, and to prove to the people that their substantial interests are much more closely connected than interested, factious, and venal scribblers had formerly taught them to believe. There cannot, indeed, be a prouder testimony to the spirit of national liberality, by which this great country is distinguished, than the unexampled rapidity of the sale of these American productions; and it is with no slight satisfaction that we can lay claim to have been among the first journalists in this island who were sensible of their great merit, and who, without hesitation, predicted their success: If we had had room, we should have added to our present Number, from the second volume of the Sketch Book, some of those fine Christmas scenes which naturally at this time attract us, and which are so beautifully illustrative of old English manners. We shall, however, find room for them in our next, and they will not then be too late. The Christmas pye, we rejoice to believe, lingers on throughout January. At present, we must be satisfied with merely wishing our readers every happiness and blessing of the season! |