Page:The Ladies' Cabinet of Fashion, Music & Romance 1832.pdf/59

 

Fancy, unaided, could never have found her way thither ; but, once there, she alone is privileged to enter ; and , once beyond the threshold, she is at home. Whence have we derived our most lively and lasting impressions of chivalry and the feudal rule ? From HALLAM or from WALTER SCOTT? Who that recollects his impressions, as he first turned over the pages of " Ivanhoe," and sat down in imagination, among the stalworth barons of the twelfth century, to witness the " Gentle and Free Passage of Arms of Ashby-de-la-Zouche" -who, with such recollections fresh upon him, will hesitate a moment for the answer ? But the author of the " Middle Ages," is more trustworthy than the author of " Ivanhoe." Is he so ? It follows not, as a matter of course, merely because the one is called a historian and the other a novelist. Both may be accurate, or both may be inaccurate. Which has the most thoroughly imbibed the genuine spirit of the olden time ? That is the first question . And the second is, which has succeeded in conveying to us the more correct, ay, and the more vivid and attractive picture, of that which both seek to place before us ? The more attractive ! There are those who will put in a demurrer here. The more correct, that is well ; but the more attractive ! Ought not everything that is true and useful to be attractive- is it not always attractive-to a justly-balanced mind ? Even if it be, how many justly-balanced minds does this motley world contain ? And is it certain that the most faithfully cultivated intellect will find the same interest in a cold and abstract dissertation, or a severe narrative of general facts, as in a picture that starts from the canvass , and speaks direct to the heart, glowing with the brightest colours of fanciful reality ? Is it natural that it should ? Be this as it may, the world may be led, it cannot be driven. While it is a prostitution of talent to pander to men's prejudices, it is a waste of talent to disregard them. When the Grecian orator declared that manner was the first, the last, the sole requisite of his art, he uttered, with exaggerated extravagance indeed, a wholesome truth. To what purpose shall we speak, to those who will not listen ; or write, for those who refuse to read ? A book unread is but a bundle of waste paper ; and he who publishes useful truths, or conveys moral lessons, in a form that shall attract thousands, justly merits the praise of tenfold success, compared to him who puts forth the same in a form that shall command the attention of hundreds only. If, through the attractive pages of " Jacqueline of Hol-