portion as they recede from poetry their develop-| afterwards fitted into their appropriate places. In ment has been more or less retarded. The change other Philosophy, the works produced have been all in novel-writing, introduced by Sir Walter Scott, nearly of the same cast; much has been attempted, followed so close upon the resuscitation of poetry nothing satisfactorily achieved-they are in part that it might be almost said to have accompanied the highest and ultimate expression of an effete it. It was, however, of later growth, but its longer system-in part the menstruum in which float about continuance in a flourishing state may be attributed the timbers of an incipient structure; but to a still to its having been previously a less hackneyed greater extent they are subversive of every thing field, perhaps as much as to its more tardy develop-which preceded them.

which covers the ruins and crumbling foundations of a former world. I mean Historical Philosophy, and under this head I would include much of what Victor Cousin and his followers have produced, as well as the more obvious publications of Guizot and the recent Historical school of France. Even these, however, have not as yet built up any finished edifice-their efforts have been rather a vague tentative, from whose partial success we may form vast anticipations, and augur most favorably of the future, than either satisfactory in themselves, or initiatory of any permanent and sufficient system. But to this point we hope to have an opportunity of returning on some subsequent occasion.

ment. But every one who has studied the indica- One particular department has, indeed, of late tions of the literary world must have perceived years raised its head above the waters of the deluge that the palmy days of novel-writing are over, and that prose fiction is gradually losing its interest and its power, though we may not as yet be able easily to recognize its diminished hold on the public mind. Were it not that the true taste for works of fiction had almost expired, and been replaced by a prurient avidity for excitement without any reference to the artistic merits of execution, we might not have had to regret your abandonment of this department of letters. Bulwer, too, has withdrawn from the field and though Cooper, James, Marryatt still occasionally write, yet how much of their former spirit is fled; and as for the host of petty stars that still shine on, how unlike are they to the brilliancy that is passing away! That taste which The changes of Science are less easily observed appreciates excellence in novel-writing, and enjoys beforehand than those in the other departments of just in proportion as it appreciates, no longer exists intellect, on account of the general abstruseness of as the general characteristic of the reading public. the subjects with which it is concerned, and its The failure of the product and the failure of the confinement, for the most part, to the closets of a exciting cause are correlatives and consentaneous; few retired votaries. For the same reason it is the one may always be taken as evidence of the less liable to be affected suddenly by the revoluother. Novel-writing has run its race, and the lust tions which convulse the rest of the world, and is for novel-reading is already on the wane; not that, accordingly much later in receiving the permeating by any means, I would assert that novel-readers influence of a spirit of general innovation. But will ever cease to be numerous, or that I would that a disintegration is at this moment taking place deny the possibility of a revival in the department in the recognized systems of science, and a great of fiction, but before the latter can be feasible, mutation impending, is evident, if from no other there must first have been a new impregnating fact, yet from this, that numerous attempts have spirit which will render the succeeding literature of been made of late years to classify and re-organize romance a revivification of the present, rather than the physical sciences upon a new and more coma continuation of it. The old corporation has ex-prehensive basis so as to make them articulate intipired by the death or resignation of its members; mately with each other, and to fuse them into one it can not again discharge its legitimate functions until it has been re-chartered.

great, harmonious and homogeneous whole—a magnum integrum et unicum curriculum scientiarum. The present condition of Philosophy, Political, Some of these attempts have been rude and outré Moral and Intellectual, is scarcely less significant. enough; but their very existence, their very posEven Bentham and Mills, though infinitely more sibility of conception is significant of the general profound than the Scotch school to which they suc- consciousness of present imperfection, and of the ceeded, belonged, like them, rather to the by-gone vague desire of a radical and universal redintegrasystem than to any new one. They were the last tion. I do not allude here to the reformation of word of Paley's scheme; and though their works the science of optics, in accordance with the dismay be a rich mine of materials for subsequent coveries of Young and Fresuel, nor to the prospecstructures, though much may be discovered in tive adunation of Electricity, Magnetism, Galvatheir writings which the coming age will gladly nism and the cognate sciences, because as these seize upon and embody, yet even that will be found are either partial changes, or new discoveries, and there in a rude and chaotic state. At most, they as their immediate influence is limited to the deappertain to a season of preparation, when old partments in which they have arisen, they might fabrics are overthrown, their materials examined, exist and be carried on independently of any Great and fresh masses cut out from the quarry to be Instauration. (You will excuse me for so fre

quently employing Baconian terms.) But in sta- | been introduced. In the mean time, I have much

Very sincerely and respectfully,

Your obliged and obedient servant,
GEORGE FREDERICK HOLMES.

Orangeburg, S. C.

ting this disorganization of Science, and its impulse pleasure in subscribing myself,
towards a reformation of itself, we are not left
solely to inference from facts, however pregnant of
meaning. Inference might be fallible though the
indications of the spirit it would suppose were
never so strong. But writers on Science them-
selves, the Levites of the inner Temple, a class of
men the last to recognize the approaches of any
universal change, have frequently and expressly
declared, in late years, their consciousness of a
revolutionary movement within their own borders.
Nay, Professor Whewell himself, in his late in-
structive works on the Inductive Sciences, has
composed and published two ponderous treatises in
a full reliance upon this faith, and has even at-
tempted, in imitation of Bacon, to assume the of-
fice of herald of the approaching change, though
seriously he can not be considered as much more
than the fly on the wheel.

TO A MOCKING-BIRD,

If any thing further were wanting to prove the chaotic state of the intellectual world at the present time, the proof is before us in all the grand departments of social life. It may be seen in the violent antagonism of political opinions, in the conscious want of a new spirit in legislation, with a concomitant ignorance, on the part of legislators as I well as others, as to the means to be adopted for giving practical form and accomplishment to their desires. It may be seen no less in legal changes; but more than all in the dissensions and convulsions which are now agitating the body of every organized ecclesiastical system. In the Church the elements are at work, and every thing portends a second reformation and a new birth in religion as soon as some Luther may arise to dispel the clouds which are now lowering upon us. I might dwell upon this subject-I might show how the Great Reformation was partial, how its principles were not fully seized by the Reformers themselves, how they have been perverted, misapplied and misunderstood by all subsequent churches styling themselves Protestant; but I am afraid I have travelled somewhat out of my path in noticing these phases of the moral world, and, moreover, the subject would demand a dissertation for itself. But I would

ask, can any stronger indications of the present disintegrated state of the intellectual world be required, any more convincing proofs of the revolution which is now in progress to end with a great Reformation in all Literature?

I have by no means exhausted my subject, but I have exhausted my paper, and perhaps your patience. I think I have shown enough, however, to prove in what point of view we should at the present moment regard Literature. I must reserve for subsequent communications the exposition of the many points connected with this subject, and of those reflections for the sake of which they have

HEARD DURING SICKNESS.

Oh! sing again, sweet bird, Oh! sing again,
Thou know'st not how thou cheer'st mine hours of pain!
The changing notes thou warblest out so clear,
Bring my forsaken woodland home so near.
Then, sing again! how oft I've heard that song,
In our green forests burst forth full and strong,

Whilst I have silent stood and breathless heard:

And now, each note seems like a household word.
Must I plead in vain? wilt thou sing no more?
Music's dream in thy heart perhaps is o'er,
Thou canst not sing in the city's scant shade,
For the lone deep forest thy notes were made.
Like thine, oh bird! my songs are faint and few ;
pine sweet nature's sounds to hear and view,
In all their majesty and winning grace,
Her glorious scenes, her beauties "face to face."

I remember one smiling summer morn,
When music and happiness seemed twin-born,
I early strayed the fields and groves among,
Whilst every grassy spire with gems was hung.
A dove was sighing in an elm's dark shade,
Beneath, a streamlet with the flowers played;
Those mournful tender accents thrilled my soul,
And tears, ah! not of grief, mocked my control.
Near to the lake, far down the verdant dale,

Where yet the mist hung like a silver veil,—
A swelling chorus suddenly uprose:
Now soft-now higher, up to Heaven it soars.
From which to trace this burst of minstrelsy.
Intent I stood, yet not a sign could see
But lo! the sun swept off the mist,—behold
The veil from the choristers is unroll'd.

Perched on each lance-like stalk a small brown bird

Poured forth the mystic music I had heard,
And sang and sang, as though they strove to fill
The air, which trembled with a rapturous shrill.

The vale I left, and climbed the green hill's slope,
When, buoyant as youth's fresh exulting hope,
A lark with mirth and music upward flew,
And singing, rising, vanished from my view.

A little farther on perched o'er a glen,
So wild and lone 'twas seldom trod by men,
A giant of the forest stood alone
Half with the moss and lichen overgrown.

Its topmost bough was black with death; the rest,
No bird could wish a greener, thicker nest.

displays his wonted kindness and courtesy in some of his introductory paragraphs, to which I would call the attention of yourself and readers.

He states in the commencement of his article, that he

"Would not have ventured to have mingled in the controversy, had not the partizans of this legislative novelty in a spirit of wholesale defamation, charged the American people with an obliquity of moral perception and criminal indifference to the sacred rights of property, because they have been slow to embrace a scheme fraught with the most disastrous consequences to the cause of popular education and the interests of the American publisher."

Thus constituting himself the champion of the American people against the assaults of those "outside barbarians," E. D. and Mr. Simms, and winding up with a charge against my unfortunate self, of endorsing the stale slanders of British tourists, because I have ventured to hint that my countrymen had not quite reached perfection, and have alluded to some unfortunate facts which he himself in the next paragraph admits and deplores.

If an attack upon a few venal and hungry publishers can be construed into an attempt to hold up the American people to contempt, I must plead

TO THE EDITOR OF THE S. L. MESSENGER. Dear Sir,-The two last No.'s of the Messenger have contained a "Reply to E. D. and Mr. Simms," in the form of an able and elaborate Essay, evidently the production of a skilful and practised writer; and, as one of the parties inter-guilty to the charge, but not otherwise; since in

ested in the controversy, I must claim of your courtesy the privilege of a few words in reply.

It is neither my desire nor intention to enter into an elaborate discussion of the question of Literary Property upon which "J. B. D." has exercised so much labor and ingenuity; since the question, so far from being a new one, as he seems to regard it, is in fact a very hackneyed one; the arguments both pro and con, having been fully set forth and exhausted upwards of one hundred years ago in the celebrated case of Millar and Taylor, at the trial of which Lord Mansfield presided; where all was said that could be said on the subject by himself, the two assistant Judges, and Sir William Blackstone on the one side, and by Chief Justice Yeates on the other afterwards it was re-considered by the whole bench of Judges in the case of Donaldson and Beckett; from thence transferred to the House of Lords, and there fully discussed by Lord Kames, Lord Camden, and others of equal ability. In our own country it has been made the subject of one of the decisions of our Supreme Court, and ably discussed in several numbers of the American Jurist, published at Boston. It would, therefore, be next to impossible to say any thing new on the subject, and as I presume, most intelligent readers would prefer, in the words of Horace,

"Petere fontes, quam sectari rivos,"

to those sources I would respectfully refer them for information on the subject. But whilst acknowledging the courtesy and ability manifested by the writer of the "Reply," I must yet be permitted to correct some statements affecting myself, which that piece contains; nor do I think that " J. B. D."

lar class of publishers, the cheap ones, in contra-
my remarks, I limited their application to a particu-
distinction to the old established houses of Harpers,
much of "the argument of Epithet," I would
Carey & Hart, and others; and as J. B. D. talks
advise him to be certain of his position before
launching his thunders at the heads of those obsti-
nate individuals who can not be persuaded that
"Black's not black,

The great want of this country is a want of faith, we do not mean religious faith, but use the term in its most comprehensive sense of confidence in human integrity and honesty, without which enlarged views and liberal feelings can not exist among a people."

Which charges our countrymen only with being a suspicious people according to the definition there given of the term "faith." The meaning, however, might easily be mistaken.

And here I must be allowed in all good temper, to point out to J. B. D. an inconsistency of which he himself has been guilty, since he is so critical as regards others. In the commencement of his Essay, he pounces fiercely down upon Mr. Simms

for expressing a jealousy of the designs of Englishment with a "petitio principii," and after very authors, yet, on the very next page, he himself liberally conceding to himself his own premises, attributes the excitement on the subject of Inter- proceeds to establish thereon his several proposinational Copyright to the "cupidity of English tions; which lead him safely and triumphantly to authors, who wish to engross our literary market; his conclusion; which is, that an International and hence their animosity against every man who Copyright would be unjust and inexpedient, would has the hardihood to question the validity of their work great injury to the American people, by claims to such a lucrative monopoly," although how causing the publishers to pay for what they now a "monopoly" could be created by placing American "appropriate," and would in fact be "granting a and English authors on precisely the same footing, monopoly to English authors," by allowing them would (I think) puzzle that proverbially acute indi- the fruits of their own labors; a process of reasonvidual, "a Philadelphia lawyer," to explain. I do ing which I confess myself unable to comprehend, not desire to appear captious in these strictures, and which reminds me forcibly of the old fable of more especially towards a writer, who has accorded the boys and frogs, the American publishers repreme more praise than is justly my due, and whose senting the boys, and the English authors the skill in the defence of a weak cause has proved how frogs, who will obstinately croak their dissent to ably he could defend a strong one; but I feel bound the "fun" of the publishers, and ungratefully refuse to justify myself from imputations I have not to accept puffs (on paper,) as a substitute for bread. merited; and really esteem it rather hard, to have braved the displeasure of a large and influential class, for (as I believed) the public benefit; and in return, to be held up to that very public as one of its traducers and maligners.

I well knew that it would have been a far more pleasant, as well as more popular task, to have pampered the vanity of the "dear public," and fed them upon the sugared words of flattery, in place of proclaiming hard and unpalatable truths; but I would scorn myself, could motives such as these deter me from openly expressing, and boldly proclaiming what I believe to be the truth.

My strictures upon the system of literary piracy, dignified with the name of "cheap publication," were severe; they were intended to be so. I believed that a corrupt and rotten system was to be attacked, one which had wormed itself, under false pretexts, into the confidence of the people, who were blind to its enormities-that a great moral reform was to be wrought-and that, in the words of the French statesman, "revolutions were not to be made out of rose-water :"-therefore, I spoke out plainly; and that my strictures were felt to contain some truth is evidenced by the fact, that they have returned to me in the newspapers from almost every section of the Union. This is the head and front of my offending; and, to use the words of a great man for a small occasion, "if this be treason, make the most of it."

And here I had intended to close this letter; but the skill displayed by J. B. D. in "making the worse appear the better reason," and the plausible manner in which he has arrayed popular prejudices against the rights of authors, induce me to venture to tax the patience of your readers a little further; though I shall be "curst brief," as Sir Toby Belch

has it.

J. B. D. is evidently a lawyer, (or should be one if he is not,) since his Essay is the most ingenious piece of special pleading it has been my fortune to meet with recently; he commences his argu

But to proceed to the main point on which this whole matter rests, the argument for an International Copyright is of a two-fold character, and is based both on its justice and its expediency; supposing the first ground to be universally conceded, the second was made the basis of my Essay on the "Character and tendencies of Cheap Literature," and I only incidentally touched upon the other, which, however, is much the stronger of the two, involving as it does the question of moral honesty.

Since, however, J. B. D. has voluntarily chosen this broad platform of right to stand on, I am well content to meet him there; and waiving immaterial matters, will devote the remainder of this letter to a reply to his argument on the right of Literary Property.

In order to explain fairly his views, I will state the question in his own words.

"The notion that the rights of authors as defined by the new school of Dickens and Carlyle, rest on the same principles of natural right with property in general, and should in justice be placed upon the same footing, has never been recognized by any government in practice, and if pursued sions; though E. D. contends that to deny it, would be to strike at the root of all literary labor,' and to make the very existence of Copyright a continued injustice." And again

to its legitimate results, involves the most startling conclu

"The position of the friends of International Copyright is, that this artificial ownership, thus cautiously limited, is not a mere contrivance of policy, but is analogous in all its features and incidents to other descriptions of property, and founded like them in the paramount laws of nature and justice."

And on this great question of the right of Literary Property, I join issue with him, since he expressly waives the question of expediency in the following just and forcible words, in the truth of which I heartily concur.

Expediency can never enter into the discussion of a just claim, except with those who make utility the basis of all moral obligation."

In the very statement of the case, he falls into

an error; since this "notion," as he contemptu- | only by the wealthy, or collected in public libraries ously terms it, is by no means the offspring " of the at great cost. Neither the opportunity nor temptanew school of Dickens and Carlyle," but has tion was therefore presented of filching literary obtained the sanction of such names as those of property; yet that the Romans attached the same Hale, Hardwicke, Mansfield, Blackstone, and other value to literary property, that they did to all other great English lawyers; and in our own country of species, is evidenced by many facts, such as the Madison, Story, Webster, Thompson and innumer-well authenticated sales of literary copies, for able others. It is not a "Yankee notion," but a recital, by Martial, Statius and Terence. good old English one; a genuine article, and no counterfeit.

He is mistaken, too, in supposing that "it has been recognized by no government in practice;" for it was not only recognized, but acted upon under the British Government, until the passage of the Statute of 8 Ann, which restricted and limited the exercise of the right to a certain specified time, as I am prepared to prove; it has been recognized and acted upon in Norway and Sweden, where the Copyright is perpetual; in Russia, where every author or publisher has the exclusive property during his life; and after his death, his children or heirs; with the additional privilege, that no printed or manuscript work can be sold for the payment of the author's debts; a similar provision to which was made by Louis XV. of France in favor of Crèbillon, proving that the same right then existed there.

It is true, that by the Roman law, if a person wrote any thing upon the parchment of another, the writing was considered to belong to the owner of the blank material, a rule which had reference to the mechanical operation of writing only, and which did not apply to works of genius and inventionas in painting upon another's canvass-in which case, the same law gave the canvass to the painter, as Blackstone well observes.

66

When in the fifteenth century the art of printing was invented, and an infinite number of copies could be speedily made of an author's work, Copyright first became of consequence. And it was the universal opinion, that an author had the exclusive right of printing his own work, and that he might transfer the right to others. John Otto of Nuremberg, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, is said to have been the first who made contracts for CopyThe Copyright is also perpetual in Germany, right, as publisher, and some years after there were and it certainly has not operated as a restraint two dealers who set up in the same way at Leipsic. in that country on the diffusion of knowledge. It (American Jurist.) In the very infancy of printwas one of the earliest acts of the French Revo-ing, Martin Luther thus proclaims the right: lution, to acknowledge Literary Property, on a com- "What does that mean, my dear gentlemen prinprehensive principle; and Dr. Lieber, whose eru-ters, that one robs so publicly the other, and steals dition and candor no one can doubt, states that "he from him what is his own? It is a manifestly undoes not remember any modern constitution which fair thing, that we shall sacrifice labor and expendoes not acknowledge it; if there are any they ses, and others shall have the profit of it, we must be in South America, and might be easily however the loss." And again, he calls the accounted for by the little attention this property piratical printing of his translation of the Bible, a may have yet attracted in some of these states." right great robbery which God assuredly will punBut J. B. D. in another passage comes out still ish, and is ill-befitting any honest Christian soul," more boldly, and proclaims that (quoted by Lieber.) I imagine that J. B. D. would find it rather difficult to discover the statute under which Luther claimed, unless it should be one written by the finger of Divinity upon the heart of man; yet no one then dared dispute his title to the rewards of his own labor. John Milton, too, This is liberal enough to the community, but the in his glorious "speech for the liberty of unlicensed unhappy author is totally lost sight of and forgot-printing," although an enthusiast for the liberty of ten, and to sustain his view of the matter, he refers the press, yet speaks of "the just retaining of each to the history of the past; yet from the very same source will prove to him that this right is coeval with all other rights; and has been restricted and cramped by the selfish policy of modern legislation far below its legitimate boundaries. Before the invention of printing, when copies of MSS. were slowly and laboriously multiplied by transcription, a licenser, all agreed, that literary property was not there was not the same facility in appropriating the the effect of arbitrary power, but of law and jusfruits of another's intellect, as there has been since tice, and therefore ought to be safe:" (4 Burr. Rethat momentous invention; and, therefore, the ports, 2,314.) question of Copyright was not apt to occur; such This would seem conclusive on the subject, and MSS. were then expensive luxuries, to be enjoyed for the proper understanding of Milton's precise

"Copyright is in truth the mere creature of legislation, produced and fashioned exclusively with a view to the interests of the community where it is established, and which should endure no longer than is consistent with those interests. It is a gratuity, a bounty," &c.

VOL. X-53

man his several 'copy,' which God forbid should be gainsaid." "And yet," as Judge Willes remarks, in commenting on this passage, "this Copyright could at that time (1644) stand upon no other foundation than natural justice and Common Law. Those who were for, and those who were against