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Article REVIEW OF LITERATURE THE DRAMA. &c. ← Page 2 of 8 →
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Review Of Literature The Drama. &C.
Ernest Maltramrs , and Alice ; or , the Mysteries . —Although it is no part of our bounden duty to make critical examination of all the current literature of the day , we should not have suffered these works so long to escape our notice , had we not been pressed for room in consequence of the copiousness of our Masonic intelligence . The established reputation of their author , ancl their intrinsic merits of style and compositiontogether with the interest they as works of fiction
, possess , render the task of comment ancl analogies sufficiently agreeable to our taste . But it is not on these grounds that we have felt it part of our duty to lay before our readers the following observations . Mr . Bulwer * unfolds a series of principles different from those which ordinarily govern society , ancl paints in glowing colours feelings very remote from those which obtain in the established social circles . AVe do not
assert , nor is the circumstance of moment , that he has brought out views perfectly new ; nor can we say that he has borrowed from the French and German schools all those modern moral vagaries which have been repudiated by the majority of John Bull ' s sons and daughters as affected and spurious . There is a mixture of the borrowed with the invented ; and even in that which he has derived from the sources in
question , we observe a fusion ancl amalgamation of the old materials which alter their more startling features , ancl disperse what has been generally considered their deformity . Mr . Bulwer , like many who in devoting their attention to romance , have studietl , or endeavoured to study , that incomprehensible subject—the human heart—believes he finds in the conventional and established forms of society the causes of much mental misery , and of numerous foibles , errors , and crimes . love
In our , in our matrimonial and friendly connexions , he perceives falsehood and hypocrisy ; and he strips off with unsparing hand the cloak of propriety ancl reli gion with which avarice and ambition unconsciousl y conceal themselves . He meets at every turn in the walks of life a shameful expediency of sideling justice from its direct path . Now , as far as we understand the theory of Bulwer , it has in it this , in common with many attempts before made to reform the social world
, that man is presumed to be capable of such a degree of perfection , that he can command ancl subject all prejudice to the operation of pure reason ; and that for woman , the wisest and safest is to follow the dictates of her own heart , always providing that it is under the guidance of that constant monitress which prompts her to love only the beautiful and true .
It woulcl be the deepest injustice to accuse him of approving indulgence in those miscalled dictates of the heart which arise from mere passion , vanity , or ambition . On the contrary , the aim of his writing is to ennoble ancl dignfy the human race by placing before us characters which though faulty , display indications of a loftiness of action and sentiment foreign to the herd of mankind , even amongst what are called the higher classes . Mr . Bulwer has received some smart this subjectwhere the
raps on , animosity of party spirit has been permitted to interfere with the criticism that has been , as might have been expected , unnecessarily and unjustly severe . An article in the Times in April last , otherwise well written , and shewing a clear appreciation of the faults of the novels , may be cited as an example . The author is naturally attacked also by
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Review Of Literature The Drama. &C.
Ernest Maltramrs , and Alice ; or , the Mysteries . —Although it is no part of our bounden duty to make critical examination of all the current literature of the day , we should not have suffered these works so long to escape our notice , had we not been pressed for room in consequence of the copiousness of our Masonic intelligence . The established reputation of their author , ancl their intrinsic merits of style and compositiontogether with the interest they as works of fiction
, possess , render the task of comment ancl analogies sufficiently agreeable to our taste . But it is not on these grounds that we have felt it part of our duty to lay before our readers the following observations . Mr . Bulwer * unfolds a series of principles different from those which ordinarily govern society , ancl paints in glowing colours feelings very remote from those which obtain in the established social circles . AVe do not
assert , nor is the circumstance of moment , that he has brought out views perfectly new ; nor can we say that he has borrowed from the French and German schools all those modern moral vagaries which have been repudiated by the majority of John Bull ' s sons and daughters as affected and spurious . There is a mixture of the borrowed with the invented ; and even in that which he has derived from the sources in
question , we observe a fusion ancl amalgamation of the old materials which alter their more startling features , ancl disperse what has been generally considered their deformity . Mr . Bulwer , like many who in devoting their attention to romance , have studietl , or endeavoured to study , that incomprehensible subject—the human heart—believes he finds in the conventional and established forms of society the causes of much mental misery , and of numerous foibles , errors , and crimes . love
In our , in our matrimonial and friendly connexions , he perceives falsehood and hypocrisy ; and he strips off with unsparing hand the cloak of propriety ancl reli gion with which avarice and ambition unconsciousl y conceal themselves . He meets at every turn in the walks of life a shameful expediency of sideling justice from its direct path . Now , as far as we understand the theory of Bulwer , it has in it this , in common with many attempts before made to reform the social world
, that man is presumed to be capable of such a degree of perfection , that he can command ancl subject all prejudice to the operation of pure reason ; and that for woman , the wisest and safest is to follow the dictates of her own heart , always providing that it is under the guidance of that constant monitress which prompts her to love only the beautiful and true .
It woulcl be the deepest injustice to accuse him of approving indulgence in those miscalled dictates of the heart which arise from mere passion , vanity , or ambition . On the contrary , the aim of his writing is to ennoble ancl dignfy the human race by placing before us characters which though faulty , display indications of a loftiness of action and sentiment foreign to the herd of mankind , even amongst what are called the higher classes . Mr . Bulwer has received some smart this subjectwhere the
raps on , animosity of party spirit has been permitted to interfere with the criticism that has been , as might have been expected , unnecessarily and unjustly severe . An article in the Times in April last , otherwise well written , and shewing a clear appreciation of the faults of the novels , may be cited as an example . The author is naturally attacked also by