Plymley
thundered against BONAPARTE, in reference to the Anti-Jacobin jests of
CANNING: Tremble, oh! thou land of many spitters and voters, 'for a
_pleasant_ man has come out against thee, and thou shalt be laid low by a
joker of jokes, and he shall talk his pleasant talk to thee, and thou
shalt be no more!' In order that America may take its due rank in the
commonwealth of nations, a literature is needed which shall be the
exponent of its higher life. We live in times of turbulence and change.
There is a general dissatisfaction, manifesting itself often in rude
contests and ruder speech, with the gulf which separates principles from
actions. Men are struggling to realize dim ideals of right and truth, and
each failure adds to the desperate earnestness of their efforts. Beneath
all the shrewdness and selfishness of the American character, there is a
smouldering enthusiasm which flames out at the first touch of fire;
sometimes at the hot and hasty words of party, and sometimes at the
bidding of great thoughts and unselfish principles. The heart of the
nation is easily stirred to its depths; but those who rouse its fiery
impulses into action are often men compounded of ignorance and wickedness,
and wholly unfitted to guide the passions which they are able to excite.
We want a poetry which shall speak in clear, loud tones to the people; a
poetry which shall make us more in love with our native land, by
converting its ennobling scenery into the images of lofty thoughts; which
shall give visible form and life to the abstract ideas of our written
constitutions; which shall confer upon virtue all the strength of
principle and all the energy of passion; which shall disentangle freedom
from cant and senseless hyperbole, and render it a thing of such
loveliness and grandeur as to justify all self-sacrifice; which shall make
us love man by the new consecrations it sheds on his life and destiny;
which shall force through the thin partitions of conventialism and
expediency; vindicate the majesty of reason; give new power to the voice
of conscience, and new vitality to human affection; soften and elevate
passion; guide enthusiasm in a right direction; and speak out in the high
language of men to a nation of men.'

THE NORTH-AMERICAN REVIEW for the January quarter is one of the best
issues of that 'ancient and honorable' Quarterly which we have encountered
for many months. It contains eight extended reviews, five brief 'Critical
Noti