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85

Tales of a Traveller. By Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Author of The Sketch Book," "Bracebridge Hall, Knickerbocker's New-York," &c. Philadelphia. H. C. Carey & 1. Lea.

1824.

In our last number, we undertook to discuss in the present, the merits of those tales of our author into which the humorous enters as a principal ingredient. The success of Salmagundi, of the history of New-York, and of the livelier stories centamed in the Sketch Book and in Bracebridge Hall. gave reason to believe, that the pencil of Geoffrey Crayon was particularly adapted to the delineation of the humorous incidents of humble life. He soon came to be considered as the very Teniers of storytellers, and no one sat down to the perusal of a tale with a quaint title from the papers of the late Mr. Katckerbocker,' without preparing his zygomatics for perpetual vibration. With these large expectations of laughter-moving narrative, no wonder if we have been disappointed with many of the stories rehearsed in the volumes before us. Not because they are not excellent of their kind, but because they are not of the kind we anticipated. They are all of them fine sketches, spirited ebauches, full of life, truth and genius. But we have, unfortunately, already seen finished pieces from Geoffrey Crayon's pencil; and we are therefore not likely to be satisfied with what are little more than croquis. And yet we are not sure but that this dissatisfaction is altogether the fault of our own unreasonableness. What right have we to expect that an author shall exhibit his productions in the order of their interest or value. Can we with propriety ask, that the publication of his writings be delayed until he means to write no more; or is he bound to withhold from the press a beautiful but unpretending composition, because it does not equal or excel the last product of his intellect? Will it be pretended that all the pieces from the chisel of Chantrey, produced since his Children' or his John Rennie,' are so many failures, because they are not equal to his masterpiece? Must Benvenuti give us nothing but such chefs d'œuvre as the Conte Ugolino, in order to sustain his reputation; and is Weber bound, under penalty of the forfeiture of his fame, to publish nothing inferior to the Freischütz? There is nothing so disgusting, we think, as the perpetual cant of tea-table critics about an author's falling off,' as they call it. Whenever these perspicacious dicasts are puzzled by a call for their opinions, they find an admirable refuge in depreciating generalities. Vol. II. No. VIII.

6

12

'Not so good as the last,' a failure on the whole,'' the author is writing himself out,' his reputation has injured him, we think,' and such like elaborate animadversions. In the opinion of these laudatores acti,' Sir Walter Scott has gradually' descended from Waverly to Redgauntlet, and if he were to write as many novels as would fill the shelves and cases of the Vatican, they would find the same degeneration pervading the whole series. The intellectual sense seems sometimes liable to a delusion, similar to that to which the blindfolded novice is said to be exposed, in being initiated into some of the mys teries of masonry. He is made to believe that he is descending step by step into interminable depths, and when the bandage is removed from his eyes, discovers that he stands upon a level with the place from which he started.

Another circumstance which has its effect in biassing the judgment of the critic, (and we speak of the critic who does not publish, as well as of him who does,) is the common propensity to apply, in the estimate of the merits of a second production, a standard of excellence derived from an examination of the first. In most of the imitative arts, few, we think, would be guilty of the palpable injustice of subjecting all the works of an artist, of whatever variety of character and object, to a test which is furnished by the study of his masterpiece, and of course, only applicable to the kind of which this may chance to be a case. And yet in imaginative writing, it seldom happens, we believe, that an author is judged, with a due regard to the object of his literary labor. In undertaking, for example, to determine the merit of the Tales now before us, some have gravely and solemnly applied a criterion of excellence, fitter to ascertain the value of an epic poem or a treatise on morals, than to furnish a correct estimate of the skill of the author, in the composition of a few lively sallies of an unpretending imagination. But how are we to know (it will be said) the design of the author, unless he avows it himself? We believe that at present, this warning is generally given by the writer in a preface, but as this is a part of his book which is seldom honored with a perusal, he loses, for the most part, the benefit of this explanation. At all events, however, the reader can ascertain the object, if object there is, from the general style, character and tone of the production; and is consequently bound to include a consideration of this intention in his estimate of the value of the work. That the value of the species of writing, of which the present Tales constitute examples, is inferior in practical utility and literary dignity, to others which have already exercised the talents of our author, we are willing to admit.

But in their way, a large proportion of them, are precisely what they ought to be-quaint, humorous and fanciful; full of kind thoughts and cheerful images; with no object in view beyond the calling up of gentle emotions and pleasurable sympathies; and abundantly successful in these humble pretensions, where the reader comes prepared to the perusal, devested of the unaccommodating gravity of fastidious cynicism. In every page there is much to attract, to divert and to amuse us, if we are only willing to be pleased. At every instant, we are presented with a new and sprightly similitude, gently disposing the features to a smile of mingled pleasure and surprise; or one of those happy illustrations, which give us a better insight into character, than the most elaborate portrait of a more unskilful delineator. How lively, for instance, is the description of the after-dinner conversation at the old Baronet's Hall.

"Some of the briskest talkers, who had given tongue so bravely at the first burst, fell fast asleep; and none kept on their way but certain of those long-winded prosers, who, like short legged hounds, worry on unnoticed at the bottom of conversation, but are sure to be in at the death."

With what life and effect the interrogatory gentleman is described as

"One of those incessant questioners, who seem to have a craving, unhealthy appetite in conversation; never satisfied with the whole of a story; never laughing when others laughed, and always putting the joke to the question; never enjoying the kernel of the nut, but pestering himself to get more out of the shell"

How graphic is that same whimsical twist, which the elderly gentleman with a knowing look could give to his flexible nose, when he wished to be waggish. And who does not see sitting before him, in almost palpable existence, the old gentleman, one side of whose face was no match for the other.

"The eyelid drooped and hung down like an unhinged window shutter. Indeed, the whole side of his head was dilapidated, and seemed like the wing of a house shut up and haunted. I'll warrant that side was well stuffed with ghost stories."

6

In the Adventure of my Uncle,' which we undertake to like, in opposition to those who have advised us to the contrary, nothing can be finer and more spirited than the few traits that portray the meagre and fiery postillion, with tremendous jack boots and cocked hat,' and the little Marquis, with his pair of powdered ailes de pigeon that seemed ready to fly away with his sallow thin visage. Who can possibly read without chattering the description of the old chateau, with all its for