IV.

THE TWO EVERETTS.*

WE have here three volumes of miscellanies by two accomplished brothers, American writers, whom in their sphere and with their individual talents, we should cherish as among the ablest of their class we can point to, albeit we may not rank that class very high, nor consider its prominent members as the astounding and immense (that's the favorite laudatory adjective of the day) prodigies of genius and scholarship certain hyberbolical eulogists claim them to be. We have unfeigned respect for the man who at an early age filled the chair of Greek Professor, which he resigned for the pulpit of a most desirable parish of which he was the idol, and which he in turn resigned for the editorship of the North American Review-after which, entering into political life, we find Mr. Everett, successively Senator and Governor of his native State, Ambassador to England, and finally, at the present writing (1847), President of Harvard University, the oldest literary institution of the country.

* 1. Importance of Practical Education and Useful Knowledge; a selection from the Orations and other Discourses of Edward Everett. New York, Harper & Brothers.

2. Critical and Miscellaneous Essays-first and second Series. By Alexander H. Everett. 2 vols, 12mo. Boston, James Munroe & Co.

Mr. Alexander Everett has gone through much the same course, and with almost equal eclat; we are not aware that he was a popular pulpit orator, nor that he went to Congress; but he has filled successively, the offices of Clergy. man, Editor, President of a College, and Diplomatist.

The volume of Edward Everett is filled with essays, ad dresses, &c., addressed to the audiences at the Mechanics' Institute and similar societies of Boston; where, in his Lectures, his aim always appears to have been the improve went of artisans, and of making labor intelligent, to stim ulate the invention of workingmen, to give them an ob ject above the supply of those common wants which render labor necessary, but which does not give it a character of refinement or elevation, such as science or philosophy imparts. The Miscellanies of Alexander Everett are truly such, being essays (articles in reviews) on topics of history, literature, manners, philosophy; sensible discussions couched in a clear, readable, and sometimes graceful style.

The leading trait in the addresses of Edward Everett is a graceful didacticism, somewhat trite and commonplace it must be confessed, both as to topics and the manner of presenting them; he is too fond of recurring to certain stereotyped instances of industry and perseverance; yet if superficial, he is always correct and pleasing, his matter tells far more effectually in a spoken address (most of the present essays first appeared in that form) than in an elaborate article. His personal presence, carriage, and action, make up for want of boldness of views, for an almost utter want of imagination and fancy, and power of thought. Force, Everett has next to none, nor has he any degree of fancy, beyond an occasional streak of ingenuity in illustration, the least possible satiric sting, a glimpse of pleasantry. These

papers are chiefly made up of facts and illustrations, very neatly compiled with care,

'All rang'd with order, and disposed with grace,"

to confirm some popular principle or to set off an obvious sentiment. The ground-work of his addresses into which these facts are woven, is very plain sense and very thin sentiment elegantly dressed up. His muse is an ordinary looking, economical, neat-handed housewife, with a pleasant voice, clean, dressed like a lady, and with agreeable manners.

Everett appears in his works, purely as a teacher, dogmatic and direct, his dogmatism (never obtrusive) and his didacticism being covered and wrapped up in the folds of his insinuating style. He is an accomplished rhetorician.

As a polished gentleman, man of business, diplomatist, and classical scholar, Everett stands "primus inter primos;" we speak only of the author and of the volume before us. We know little of Mr. Everett as the editor of the North American, but we presume he was at least the equal of the Sparkses and Palfreys who succeeded him.

Alexander Everett is generally considered a man of more varied acquirements, as to the languages, literature, and philosophy of the nations of Europe-equally a statesman. and man of business; originally, too, both Unitarians, and clergymen, and New Englanders; of much the same cast of mind and talent with his distinguished brother, only perhaps less airy and graceful in point of style. The brothers may be fairly considered as representing a particular phase of American literature, thus far, and as confirming certain established strictures upon it.

They represent the New Englandism of American writers; they represent the intellectual Unitarian sect, and the

large body of respectable prose writers of this country, the literary orators, lecturers, critics, scholars, translaters. They have carried taste, in its lowest form (cold and cautious), to its point of perfection, and they have exhibited all the marks of colonial writers; good and sensible writers, they are yet no more American (albeit Alexander Everett has written largely of American literature, and Edward Everett has dwelt on the physical features of the country), than if writing from Ireland or the Island of Jamaica, or any other portion of the British possessions.

We have a few words to say on both of these topics. New Englandism has certainly made our writers imitative, constrained, tasteful, and timid. That portion of our country, more English and as decidedly sectional, perhaps more so, than either the South or the West, is certainly far better educated, more intellectual and more desirous of literary fame than either. As a district, New England has (as a matter of fact) produced on a fair allowance two-thirds of the best writers we have yet to show. We say this, though native born New-Yorkers, and proud of Irving and Cooper, still the foremost American classics; we say this with a full knowledge of our best men here. The cause for this superiority lies in their exclusiveness and the sober qualities of the Yankee character, inherited from a peculiar race of men, earnest and vigorous; the absence, formerly almost entire, of public amusements, then held there in disgrace, and now little more than barely allowed; the fact of the establishment, in that part of the country, first of all, of universities and schools. We had no Harvards, Yales, or Berkleys. Our Dutch ancestors were not generally lovers of literature, either here or in the mother country (for though Holland was full of learned men, it has rarely had popular cosmopo

litan writers); commerce, thrift, comfortable living, quiet, chiefly occupied their attention, not the quarrels or the amen ities of literature.

The looking constantly to England gave its provincial tone to the writers of New England, and encouraged imitation, a trait in our writers almost universal. We have had American counterfeits of every English writer of this century, from Scott down to the conductors of the most scurrilous English Sunday newspapers. Too often, an inferior writer has been the model, and from being surpassed perhaps by his American copyist, some have come to place Ameri can literature on a par with, or above English.

The Everetts may be regarded as representing the force of the Unitarians who have yet much stronger men to boast of, and who, as including the most intellectual class of Amer icans, are entitled at least to respectful mention. They count among them now, Bryant, the Sedgwicks, Mrs. Kirkland, the Everetts, Dewey, Bancroft-and formerly Channing and the Wares, Emerson, Brownson, and a number of individuals less able and less well known, yet intelligent and accomplished characters. Rationalism, a love of dialectics and of speculative inquiry, together with much elegance of taste, variety of information and skill in writing, distinguish this sect, and these are qualities and tendencies that curb the fancy and check the flights of imagination. They have, hence, but one true Poet (we think) of their communion ; most of them are reasoners, critics, scholars, lecturers, essay. ists, speculative philosophers. They address the understanding or the moral sentiment; rarely appeal to the feelings; still less frequently to the imagination. Hence their writers are apt to be tame and cautious; they are accurate and neat, but cold and superficial. They have no passion, not much