We extract the subjoined article from the _Norfolk Beacon_, believing
that it will be both new and interesting to most of our readers. That
paper has recently passed into the hands of Mr. Hugh Blair Grigsby, a
gentleman of fine education and literary taste; and as he has declared
himself a neutral in politics, we have a right to expect that the
Beacon will be frequently rich in other matter interesting to the
general reader. The eulogy upon Willis, or rather his vindication from
those ill natured aspersions, which are always cast upon aspiring
genius,--is honorable to the feelings of early friendship which
dictated it. We have suppressed one or two passages near the
commencement of the article, having reason to believe that Mr. Grigsby
would not have written them if the circumstance to which he alludes had
been better understood. That Willis is a man of genius and an admirable
writer both in prose and verse, will not be questioned we think by a
large majority of those who are at all familiar with his productions.
There are some it is true, who affect a sneer at his pretensions,--and
there are others doubtless, who without affectation, do not admire him.
The world is infinitely diversified; and there is nothing in which
diversity is more strongly exemplified, than in matters of taste.
Shakspeare, Milton, Pope, Byron,--nay, almost all the illustrious
votaries of the NINE, have occasionally had their revilers,--and it
would perhaps be rather an unfavorable indication for any writer, that
his works had never been censured or criticised. The unfavorable
opinions formed of Willis's reputation, as deduced from his habitual
idleness at college--his repugnance to mathematical studies--or his
eccentricities either in dress or behaviour--seem to us to rest upon
very unphilosophical grounds. What if the merits of the immortal bard
of Avon, were to be tested by his diligence in the early acquisition of
knowledge! Even Lord Byron was not remarkable either for industry or
attainments whilst at school. As to the mathematics,--we dare say that
the more bigoted disciples of Euclid and Hutton, would deem it evidence
of bad taste, not to be inspired by the beauties and mysteries of the
triangle and cone;--but what would they think of the learned and
eloquent Gibbon, of whom it is said that so great was his disgust or
inaptitude for their favorite science, that he could scarcely be
brought to comprehend or demonstrate the three first propositions in
Euclid. The truth is, there is an ethereal quality in genius, which
disdains to be trammelled by the rules and systems of human invention.
That it is so, is perhaps unfortunate,--yet the fact itself cannot be
controverted. We commend Mr. Grigsby's article to our readers, not only
because it is well written, but because also it is the testimony of a
fellow student in favor of a writer who, whatever be his merits or
demerits, has acquired acknowledged distinction in the literary world.
* * * * *
"Few men of his age have passed through so fiery an ordeal, and come
out of the flame with greater purity, than N. P. WILLIS. It is indeed
without a parallel in literature, that a young man of unblemished
virtue, of accomplished genius, and of a good heart, should be sought
out and hunted down with such an implacable spirit of vengeance.
* * * * *
"To those who knew Willis in his early days, it was evident that he
would become, what Edmund Burke said of Townshend, 'a first rate figure
in the country.' The first notice that the public had of his budding
genius was a little poem in six verses, the two first lines of the
first verse being
The leaf floats by upon the stream
Unheeded in its silent way.
We cannot recal the whole stanza; but our fair readers may remember
that their albums contained some time since, a beautiful vignette
representing a lady resting in her bower listening to the notes of a
pretty songster perched above her. This engraving was taken from these
lines in this poem:
The bird that sings in lady's bower,
To-morrow will she think of him?
"This little poem gained the prize awarded by the Mirror, but what the
prize was, we really forget. We have not looked over this poem since
the morning we first read it, near ten years since; and, with a little
effort, we think we could recal it. It was regarded at the time as a
very pretty production.
"Some of our readers, who are not wont to frown at the lighter efforts
of literature, may remember some poems under the signature of Roy,
which were republished in every paper in the United States, and
occasionally, it is said, in the British periodicals. Those were from
the pen of Willis.
"Every one who has a soul for poetry has read the scripture sketches.
Hagar--Absalom--the sacrifice of Abraham--Zepthah's Daughter, are all
the productions of a rich imagination. They have their faults, we
allow, and so has another piece which he has called 'better moments,'
and so with many others; but we will take either and all of these, and
will plead the splendor of his genius before any tribunal of taste
under heaven. Willis's poems have passed through several editions. He
also pronounced a fine poem before Brown University. But the fame of
Willis, however proudly it may rest on his poetry, is still more widely
diffused by his prose.
"It was a cold morning in the winter of 1824-5, before sunrise, in a
division room of Yale College, that Willis gave the first sample of
that mellifluous prose which has since attracted such general
admiration. He was then commencing his sophomore year; and the student,
who had tried a freshman hand on the translations from the classics,
was now called to essay an original composition. We were class-mates,
but were not in the same division. It was not our good fortune,
therefore, to hear his first composition; but we never can forget the
merriment which it produced in college. If we mistake not, the theme of
his first essay was the dilemma of an old man who had lost his wife;
and was in sad perplexity about the plant which he ought to place at
the head of her grave. One suggested that an oak sapling was best; but
the old man contended that it would not in its infancy protect the
grave from the sun and rain; and when it grew up, it would produce no
good fruit, and would, moreover, with its spreading branches, _rot the
shingles of his house_. Plant after plant, and tree after tree, were
mentioned, the merits of which Willis scanned with great felicity of
thought and language. At last, after a due reflection on the useful and
the becoming, the old man resolved to plant a _cabbage_ on the grave of
his wife. The cold blooded critic, who delights to fasten his fangs on
rising merit, may pronounce the theme a very unfit subject for
merriment; but fellows of eighteen are no philosophers; and we doubt
whether any composition read within the walls of old Yale, ever
produced such a happy effect as the one we have just noticed.
"It has been urged against Willis that he spent his time idly at
College, and was totally unversed in those studies which are supposed
to test with the greatest severity the powers of the understanding. If
the meaning of all this be that he is not a profound mathematician, we
readily admit the charge; and declare that we would confide as little
in his judgment, as we would in that of Moore, Rogers or Campbell, in
case either or all united should attempt a new edition of the
Principia, or a full translation of La Place--but as we never heard of
any such intention, we must in candor believe that the objection has
some other meaning. If it were to appear, however, that he is not well
versed in mathematics, we are willing to assign him any punishment
which any one will declare that a boy of seventeen, who has failed to
plunge head and ears into the mathematics, ought to receive.
"At the same time we are free to declare that the system of teaching
pursued at Yale College, is the most defective the wit of man ever
devised. We mean, of course, the tutorial system. A few raw lads, who
have passed through the collegiate year, and rusticated for a
twelvemonth afterward, are called to preside in the division rooms, and
to perform all the most important duties of education. These gentlemen,
if they went forthwith to supply their great and glaring defects, and
to qualify themselves to perform their delicate and honorable duties
with credit to themselves and honor to the university, would command
our respect; but no sooner do they accumulate a sum of money, than they
bid farewell to the cause of education. And herein rests our chief
objection; which is not that the tutors are _young_ but that they are
utterly insensible to the dignity and importance of their office, which
we deem the most honorable on earth; and merely consider teaching as
the drudgery to which they must submit, to obtain money enough for
their advancement in their various modes of life. In this aspect the
whole system is faulty, and requires thorough amendment. We said that
we did not object to the youth of the tutors--we rather deem it an
advantage, when teaching is to be the great object and end of pursuit.
We think that superannuated generals and professors rank in one and the
same degree. The mind, after a certain time, clings to its ancient
convictions, and shrinks from the field of experiment. And as the
splendid example of Napoleon has opened the eyes of the world on the
subject of old generals; so ought the example of Bichat, the younger
Gregory and the lamented Fisher, to produce a similar result on the
subject of old professors. The spring-time of life is illumined by a
warmer sun than ever lights up the breast of the old man. Youth is the
time of pure aspirations, of lofty daring and successful achievement.
The heart yet untouched with the sickening lusts and cankering cares of
the world; alive to the finest impulses of our nature, and glowing with
the desire of immortality, is a noble thing; and we verily believe that
such a heart is rarely to be found unless in the bosom of youth.
"We have blamed freely the tutorial system of Yale College; but we have
given the dark side only. There are advantages accruing from the
system; but they are, in our opinion, utterly inadequate to
counterbalance its great and ruinous defects.
"While however, we freely denounce the tutorial system of Yale College,
we would not be unjust to the able men who preside in the institution.
For Doctor Day, Mr. Kingsley, Mr. Goodrich and Mr. Olmstead, we
entertain the highest respect; and believe them to be ripe scholars;
but we know the influence of ancient habit, and that miserable system
is so mixed up with the entire machinery of the institution, that we
have barely a hope of seeing it amended by the present administration.
Could Willis have found such a tutor as Mr. Jefferson has represented
Mr. Small to have been--one whose learning inspired respect, and whose
parental kindness melted the heart of the obdurate, and won back the
wayward--we should not have heard this grave charge against him; as it
was, while his classmates were calculating eclipses, moral and
mathematical, he passed with ease from beside them; and assumed an
honorable station in the literature of his country.
"But to Mr. Willis as a writer of prose. And one great source of wonder
with us is his uncommon acquaintance with the vocabulary of the
language. He moves over the spacious field with the ease and grace of
the most accomplished scholar. And then his sentences flow so sweetly
on, that you liken them to some limpid rivulet from the hill of the
muses flowing around and about the rich landscape before you, and if
for a moment concealed from the eye, it is only to burst upon you in
all its fullness and beauty. So much for the style of Willis, in its
mechanical sense. But there is something beyond this; and which is far
more important. It is the life of style. And here is the particular
forte of Willis. He reverses the rule of the logician; and instead of
advancing from general to particular, he paints the species with the
minutest care. The letter which we gave yesterday is a happy specimen
of the philosophy of his style. His theme is a voyage on the Hudson in
the summer season, when all are thronging northward, and to this
miscellaneous multitude he seeks to introduce us. He selects a few
individuals, and finishes their portraits with the greatest care and
the most consummate skill. But first observe the connection of the
trip. Whoever has travelled the Hudson in the summer season, will at
once recognize the group of passengers who have arrived '_just_ thirty
seconds too late;' and the striking description of a steamboat 'built
for smooth water, long, shallow and graceful, of the exquisite
proportions of a pleasure yacht; and painted as brilliantly and
fantastically as an Indian shell.' Then we have the Kentuckian to the
life, 'sitting on three chairs;' and the Indian, who does not deign to
show the slightest curiosity, unless in eyeing the broad chest and
sinewy form of the Kentuckian--detecting with characteristic skill the
hardy dweller of Kentucky in the unnatural disguise of ruffled shirt
and fine broadcloth coat 'cut by a Mississippi tailor'--and the
Alabamian, whom the common eye would confound with the Kentuckian, and
who is a different species altogether; and next, the southern beauty
from the interior of Alabama, 'dressed in singularly bad taste;'
graceful as a fawn, but untutored in the mysteries of the dance. In
fine, the whole scene is painted before us almost with the distinctness
of actual life. We pass over the great excellence of this sketch in
other respects; but we are sure that he who reads the letter will long
retain its striking passages in his memory.
"It will be asked by that race of cynics who set a wonderful value on
the fabrics of their own manufacture, but show no admiration of the
noble structures reared by the genius of others,--it will be asked by
such, what good can such productions accomplish in the business of
life? While we heartily repeat the sentiment first uttered by Dr.
Johnson, and afterwards endorsed by Sir Walter Scott, that we hate a
_cui bono_ man, we will enter the lists in the cause, and declare that
they produce a right and proper effect on the general mind. Now we have
shown that the leading excellence of the writings of Willis consisted
in minute and exceedingly graphic sketches of the natural world in all
its varied aspect of mountain, plain, and river, and that still more
varied chart of instruction--Man. His pages then reflect like some
beautiful stream, with lights and shades, all the rich and stirring
variety of nature. And who will deny that nature hath not a voice and
eloquence that rightly speak to the bosoms of men? And herein resteth
the power of Willis.
"It may with propriety be inquired, if Willis could not select a more
extended field of fame? We believe that he might select a theme of
higher bearing, and that he is now preparing the path before him. His
present sketches are so many notes from which, in riper years, he will
strike a nobler harmony. We know that he has a fine ambition; an
ambition that looks far beyond the pages of the New Monthly, or the
Mirror,--and which stirreth within him a desire of a great and proper
poem, which 'men will not willingly let die,' and which will weave his
humble name with the destinies of his country."
For the Southern Literary Messenger.