of life, joy, and glory; deluding and destructive views of human action and character. Their influence is that of intoxication. They should be firmly denounced and condemned.

Of yet another description are those books, which are calculated to inflame those passions of our nature which are always ready to smoke and burn, and burst into excess, and which it is the part of reason and virtue to control and regulate, and not to incite. It is sometimes said in defence of such books, that they express and describe nothing which does not actually take place in the world, and has not an existence in the thoughts and bosoms of men. But because there are things which actually take place and exist, are we to receive pictures of all those things, and hang them up in our houses; or is he guiltless who paints them? Is it necessary, because there is sin and death in the world, that we should keep their forms embalmed in our studies and chambers? Is it safe thus to court infection? Have we not temptations enough, that we must voluntarily increase them? Must we harbour, not our own failings alone, but take the sins and lusts of others home to live with us, and thus make our last state worse than the first? What is meant then by the plea, that because vice is, we must therefore read and contemplate it, and that too in all the most seductive dresses with which it pleases abused and degraded genius to clothe it? It is not strange that licentiousness should defend and excuse itself by sophistry, but it is astonishing that such sophistry should be so effective as we often find it to be.

They whose duty, profession, or inclination it is to make themselves acquainted in some degree with all literature, must read, it is to be presumed, all manner of books, so far as to form some estimate of their character and be able to express an opinion concerning them. There is no call even upon them, however, to peruse some books which there are, of the very vilest description, which are so disreputably and unquestionably bad, that they are obliged to hide themselves, and creep about in darkness, and which challenge no opinion. But it is for the unspeakable interest of others, who have only a certain portion of time to give to reading, and can only read a definite number of volumes, to kill no hour of that time, and expose themselves to no temptation and spiritual danger, by dwelling on pages which they have reason to believe are

worthless, or of immoral tendency and influence. And all good men, and well-wishers to the peace and purity of society, ought to unite in forming a public opinion strong and decided enough to put such books down, and impose silence upon them.

An enlightened public opinion, however, is, we are fully convinced, the only force which ought to be employed to put down improper and dangerous publications, with the exception of those of the very worst character, against which, perhaps, the terrors of the law should be directed. Public opinion is, in fact, the only force which can put them down effectually; the only power which can banish those already existing from general society and favor, and check, if not prevent, the lawless invasions of future hosts and hordes of them upon the public weal. Penal statutes, restraints on the liberty of the press, the appointment of a system of licensing, will not answer the purpose. In an age and country like ours, people will not bear such impositions; and in darker times and lands those books are the most likely to be outlawed, which are the best calculated to disperse the darkness and overthrow the power of interested men. 'To choose a good book,' says Dr. Aikin, look into an inquisitor's prohibited list.' A correct moral taste and sentiment in the community, made correct by reflection, by comparison, by freedom, and by religion, will be the best prohibition of bad books. The man of pure moral feeling will prohibit them his company and friendship. The father and the mother will prohibit them the society of their children, and forbid them their house. Instructers of youth will prohibit them all intercourse with their pupils. Rulers, and governors, and elders will prohibit them their countenance. All who are interested in the public security and virtue, will, by a serious and fearless expression of their opinions, unawed by fashion, authority, or ridicule, prohibit them the favor of all within their influence.

The more this subject is considered, the more important it will seem in the eyes of reflecting men. We hardly know of a duty more incumbent on those, who, from any circumstances of situation, are able to affect the sentiments, the resolutions, the course of thinking and reading of others, than judiciously, firmly, and always with rendering a reason for it, to set their faces against the dispersion and favorable reception of

immoral books. There are those who have the power, not of law, or place, or station, but of truth and right, to sink a brand on the forehead of books, whether of disguised or open profligacy, whether stealing or rushing upon society, as the Adventures of a Gentleman, or the Adventures of a Highwayman, so that they may be known for what they are, and duly estimated, and speedily exiled and forgotten. And with this power they have another, which they also ought sedulously to exert, the power of recommending good books; the power of diffusing knowledge, both useful and entertaining; the power of purifying and elevating the taste, of increasing the wisdom and confirming the virtue of the community. This power, in various degrees, belongs not only to the legislator, the magistrate, the teacher of youth, the minister of the gospel, but to every master and mistress of a family, to every respectable man and woman, to every individual who has at heart the safety of those who are dear to him, the good of society, the interests of religion, the honor of human nature, the glory of God; to every one who knows light from darkness, good from evil, his right hand from his left. If all who have this power were conscious of it, and regarded it as a sacred trust, and would resolve to use it, what might not be expected from its goings forth? If all who possess it, would join together, not in formal associations, but in the unity of a holy spirit and a righteous cause, to exert it, why would it not be irresistible? We wish that

of

every good man was sensible of his power, even the power goodness, and would learn how to exercise it over opinion, unostentatiously but honestly. We wish that every man who can tell a good book from a bad one, and prefers the good to the bad, would let his preference be known and felt ; and that no such man would buy or read, borrow or lend a foolish or immoral book, whoever might be its author, or whatever might be its subject or style. Every single opinion is important; for it is the aggregated weight of opinions which must finally decide the character of literature. And let it be remembered that literature is an exchangeable commodity, and is exchanged widely and freely. The character and spirit of the literature of one country, have an effect on the reading population, and through them on the whole population of another country. As lovers of our country, then, as real patriots, it should be our earnest prayer and endeavour,

both that our national literature should be colored as little as possible with foreign impurities, and that its own stream should be so pure and clear of itself, as to carry none but the waters of healing and life to the ends of the habitable earth.

ART. VIII. An Essay on Junius and his Letters; embracing a Sketch of the Life and Character of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and Memoirs of certain other Distinguished Individuals; with Reflections Historical, Personal, and Political, relating to the Affairs of Great Britain and America, from 1763 to 1785. By BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE, M. D., Member of several Medical, Philosophical, and Literary Societies in Europe and America. Boston. Gray & Bowen. 1831. 8vo. pp. 449.

THE authorship of the Letters of Junius is well said to be 'the most artfully contrived secret of modern times.' For sixty years it has baffled the most diligent and cunning inquiry, and seems to be still as far from detection as ever. Many shrewd guesses have been made, and many ingenious hypotheses ingeniously defended; but no argument has yet been brought forward sufficiently guarded at all points to command the assent of the world. The man in the iron mask is known, and the writer of Ikon Basilike' has been dragged into day. But no one has been able to pull off the visor of Junius, or disperse the night in which he wrapt himself. Meantime, curiosity is not weary, and the investigation is going on with as much keenness as ever. It is not long since a volume on the subject was published in New York; a second made its appearance in Boston; a third we understand is in preparation in another place; and we have before us an ample essay from the pen of a veteran scholar, who, having lived through the whole period of the publication of the letters and the search for the writer, is enabled to speak like one engaged in the affairs and moving among the actors of a former generation. His candidate for the equivocal honor is Lord Chatham; and it is a little remarkable, that just as this work issues from the press, a pamphlet arrives from England supporting the same hypothesis.

To support this hypothesis, is not, however, as the reader may gather from the title-page of the volume, its only design. In the course of our discussion,' says the author, Junius may appear a primary or a secondary object; for the mere solution of a puzzling question is hardly worth the labor we shall probably bestow upon it.' Accordingly he illustrates every point of the subject by the collateral history of the times, and collects together a mass of instructive and entertaining story, relating alike to public affairs and individual character. In doing this, he treats particularly of the char acter and policy of George the Third, especially as affecting the fortunes of this country, and introduces many anecdotes and characters to illustrate the preliminary history of our independence. In fact, his book is a glance at the times, quite as much in their bearing upon the American question as upon the authorship of the Letters; and will be found full of pleasant things for those who love their country, though they may care nothing about Junius. We have no room to follow him over this wide range. We propose only a brief sketch of what he has done toward unravelling the great

secret.

The suspicion that Chatham was the writer of these letters first arose in his mind, Dr. Waterhouse tells us, upon reading the singular eulogium on that nobleman in the fiftyfourth letter; a eulogy so strangely conceived and so awkwardly expressed, that it has perplexed all readers of the book, and given rise to the most various remarks. The supposition that Chatham himself wrote it, seemed to Dr. Waterhouse to solve the enigma, and render at once-intelligible what is otherwise an unaccountable mystery.

In seeking confirmation of this conjecture, our author scrutinizes critically the history and character of the times, and the condition and fortunes of distinguished men, in order to learn who had been so placed as to gain the requisite minute acquaintance with affairs and men, who possessed the vehement and overbearing temper, the command of language, the motive to prompt him, the power to conceal himself, and a sufficient reason for inviolable and everlasting secrecy. All these postulates he seems to find in the Earl of Chatham, His vigor and impetuosity of mind were fully equal to what Junius exhibited, and his temper had the same character of overbearing and haughty sternness. The style of his 33

VOL. X.-N. S. VOL. V. NO. II.