of the theatre. His predecessor, the memorable Robert Burns, is a still stronger illustration of the influence of misdirected genius. I would ask no better charm than an edition of this bard, by which to change the fountain of the human passions to the bitterness of the waters of Marah. Thus far has this class of writings escaped the reprobation they so justly deserve. Had argument, however weak, or reason, however fallacious, been the basis of their influence, long ere this their folly would have been exposed. But as they are an appeal to the passions, they possess a power which it is impossible to resist. True poetry is the music of nature-it is not the jarring discord of debanch;-true poetry is in conformity with the law of moral being-it is not an infringement upon the sanctions of our holiest affections. When man exchanges it for the vile commodity of vulgar minds, he ceases to regard the welfare of his species he takes away that moral and social harmony which is the pure spirit of poetry, which swells the soul with the loftiest conceptions, purifies the heart, and raises the mind to participate in the raptures of heaven.

Light is beginning to dawn upon the western continent. Her literary horizon reveals the glimpse of a new sun. For years we have groped in the darkness of a fearful delusion, upon which we tremble to reflect and yet dread to be undeceived. There are those who fear least the zeal that cor

rects the evil will abuse the good-lest in its extremity it consign them both to obscurity. Nothing can be lost-for if in the attempt to cure, we kill, we have the satisfaction of knowing, that it would have died without the attempt. Those who deny that any such evil exists have only to look at the present age. See the immense mass of intellect the world has lost through the pernicious tendency of a corrupt literature; and the immense mass that is worse than lost, perverted to unhallowed purposes. The literature of the present age is actually weltering in the fumes of this moral poison. It dare not even aspire to that high and noble standard which it ought to occupy; but it sinks into the low grovelling inspirations of the intoxicated writer. The senate and the forum have well nigh banished sober reasoning and lucid argument to make way for the vulgar jest and thoughtless raving of the infuriated sot. The orator gives us the vagaries of a brain excited by an artificial stimulant, the press flings it to the four corners of the globe, and the reader reads it under the influence of the same stimulant. The orator drinks and speaks, and the hearer drinks and admires; the author drinks and writes, and the reader drinks and admires. Look at the prose and the poetry of the present age! why even the press should blush to send it forth! It would seem as though Genius had descended from the altars of Heaven to light her torch at the flames

below. To deny the existence of this evil is an insult upon the human mind. It is too glaring not to be seen-too palpable not to be felt. It was not so in olden time. The harp of the captive Jew when he hung it upon the weeping willow, was not moistened with distilled spirits, but it was wet with the spray of the cold streams of Babylon. No tremors seized the hand of the afflicted Israelite as he "swept from its strings the heavenly melody of better days." The immortal Milton and the immortal Pollock drank at the exhaustless fountain of the sweet Psalmist of Israel, and every line they wrote seemed as if written with the diamond pen of inspiration. How unlike the bards of this enlightened century! who create an appetite wherever it is not, and strengthen its remorsless cravings wherever it is.

The free access of this vitiated literature into public and private society is owing principally to the concealment of its pernicious tendencies. The smoothness of its sentences, the roundness of its periods, and the interest of its detail, gloss over all its defects and give it an easy passage to the human heart. The stealthy insinuation of evil, whether in the form of truth or fiction, is to be dreaded far more than when it assumes an open and avowed character, inasmuch as judgment is deprived of its discriminating power, and suspicion keeps no watch over the heart. While every passion is quickened and brought into active exercise,

the moral sensibility and perception are gradually enfeebled till finally they are lost in the intensity of a lawless and artificial passion. When this is accomplished, the reader is prepared for the reception of any thought however gross, or any sentiment however vulgar; provided the feelings are first awakened by others less repulsive. Taking advantage of this frailty of our nature, the author carries the poison of his own corrupt heart into the bosom of his reader, while he hides it with the exuberance of fancy and the elegance of diction. The greater portion of the literature of the present day is well fitted for this purpose. Like the ignis fatuus, it deceives and allures poor weak human nature into the dark morasses of skepticism and error.

or human To suit

The minds of most men are so peculiarly constituted that they afford but a poor lodgement to the cold abstractions of philosophy. They must have either vivid pictures of real life, nature caricatured and exaggerated. these prevailing tastes there are two classes of writers well adapted both by nature and education. One of which takes for its model the celebrated Bulwer; the other the no less celebrated author of the Pickwick Club. Both of these individuals are equally eminent as the representatives of their own style of writing. Though occupying different stations and operating upon different minds in different ways, yet the tendency of each is

morally the same. Why need the delicate and refined female, sighing and weeping in all the sensitiveness of her nature over the fashionable inebriety of an accomplished hero, deny to the more gross and sensual, exhibitions of a more brutal and disgusting character? It is because she neither sees nor feels that both alike minister to a depraved taste, and both alike convey their victims to irremediable ruin.

Herein is the grand secret of the evil. Parents, especially mothers, are deceived. In their ambition to educate their children, they do not exercise that discrimination which is so essential to the correct performance of this high and important duty. While they are teaching by their own example and advice, they forget that they are providing for their children teachers which shall counteract it all. These false teachers acquire an increased influence, because they are cherished and caressed by those to whom the young are taught to look for an example and a guide. They meet the youthful mind in every change of its social condition, and in all its successive developements —they meet the youthful heart in its first unfoldings, and misdirect and blunt its powers and perceptions. In the house of his birth and at the fireside of his enjoyments, they are kindling emotions and creating desires that will eventually set at defiance every motive to purity of heart. Of what avail is the possession of all the wisdom of