Text: Various, “Opinions of the Press,” Southern Literary Messenger (Richmond, VA), vol. I, no. 9, May 1835, covers

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF CORRESPONDENTS.

FROM EASTERN VIRGINIA.

Mr. Poe possesses an extraordinary faculty. He paints the palpable obscure, with strange power; throwing over his pictures a sombre gloom, which is appalling. The images are dim but distinct; shadowy, but well defined. The outline indeed, is all we see; but there they stand, shrouded in darkness, and frighten us with the mystery that defies farther scrutiny. Mr. Pertinax Placid has given us the best allegory in the language. Such things are commonly dull. But his “Content's Mishap” is ingenious and witty throughout. I have seen nothing of the sort so well sustained.

——

FROM LOWER VIRGINIA.

I think I see the traces of a new hand among your poetical contributors. I wish you joy of him. It will cost him nothing but the trouble of copying, to keep your Poet's Corner well filled. * * * I am truly glad that you are receiving abundant contributions. It will save you from having to publish trash. Tell your correspondents not to write carelessly. Whatever is worth writing, is worth writing well. With a little more pains they would do you a great service, instead of puzzling you to decide whether to offend them or the public.

————

OUR COTEMPORARIES.

We have not received the May or June numbers of the Knickerbocker, the North American Magazine, or the Western Monthly Magazine, at which we marvel not a little, having regularly transmitted to them the numbers of the Messenger. If they have ceased to exchange with us, it would surely have been no more than courtesy to inform us of the fact.

————

CRITICAL NOTICES.

The Southern Literary Messenger. — This monthly magazine has been so successful in its career, as to have surmounted all the difficulties ordinarily attendant upon a new literary enterprise. How many have we seen “but born to die” — “unwept, unhonored, and unsung!” Not so with Mr. WHITE'S monthly; it goes on at every stage of its existence, to gather new strength, and exhibit new energies. We can safely say, without yielding to the opinion of others, that it is altogether an exceedingly attractive book. And we must confess, that had we been consulted as to the practicability of the scheme of publication, we should have said, “desist.” Not that we did not believe the Ancient Dominion replete with that kind of talent supposed to be peculiarly appropriate for a work of the sort — a kind of talent especially cultivated in thickly settled societies, and scarcely thriving except in places where men's wits rub hard against each other, and run a race for the crumbs that fall from the tables of the great literary costermongers. No, we believe she had the talent — we knew she possessed the taste — and that there was abundance of “learned leisure;” — but we did not believe the changes where at all in its favor for an extensive support, considering the almost innumerable claims, “good, bad and indifferent,” upon the attention of the reading public. We should, therefore, have said, “you will fail in getting money, the very pabulam [[pabulum]] of literary support; the country is surcharged; wait till a few hundred ephemerals sink into oblivion — till a few “splendid failures” are announced; in fact, till your first number may have a literary obituary as long as its list of subscribers. It is not necessary for us to tell our readers, but the Southern [column 2:] Literary Messenger is “in the full tide of successful experiment,” and that few, or perhaps no periodicals, North or South, are more extensively patronised, or deserve better their patronage. — Georgetown (D. C.) Metropolitan.

——

Southern Literary Messenger. — We have received the seventh number of this periodical. We have only had leisure for a very partial examination of its contents, but believe it bids fair to sustain with uniform spirit and excellence, the reputation it has already acquired. A very lively and general interest has been manifested in this new enterprise of Southern genius and taste. Nearly all the talent of the South, has been, heretofore, absorbed in the angry and laborious contests of the forum and the bar, and it is time ti should receive a more refined and perhaps not less useful direction. It is the tendency of works of this description, to produce a wider and more polished developement [[development]] of our intellectual capacities; for this reason they merit especial encouragement from all those who have at heart the advancement of letters. We are principally indebted to our Eastern brethren, for whatever literary reputation we have acquired in the eyes of foreigners. Shall the South never have its writers, who can rival the rich and pungent humor of Paulding, the vivid and powerful description of Cooper, of the graceful and touching narrative of Irving? — Huntsville (Alabama,) Advocate.

——

Southern Literary Messenger. — This has become at the South the favorite magazine of the day. The Virginians, one and all, seem delighted with it. The editor of the Enquirer says, “it will do — nous verrous.” And so we believe. The last number sustains most amply the reputation it has already acquired, and fortifies our own previously expressed opinion of its sterling merits. We have read nothing but the magazines for the last fortnight, and out of seven we regularly receive, we have garnered up much delight and no little information on the popular topics of the day. We are now ready for the June numbers. — New York Spirit of the Times.

——

Southern Literary Messenger. — The eighth number of this work, reached us last week, but not in time for a notice in our last paper. It contains a great variety of interesting and well written original articles, in prose and poetry. We are gratified to find that this work is efficiently sustained, and trust that its circulation is constantly increasing. Many of the articles in the present number, would do credit to an English Review. — Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post.

——

Southern Literary Messenger. — This most beautiful work is rapidly acquiring for itself a character, which will elevate it to the highest rank in the republic of periodical literature. The eighth number is brilliantly adorned with “gems of purest ray serene.” The original articles, both of prose and poetry, will successfully compare with any similar number of essays, from either of the numerous cis or trans-atlantic Monthlies devoted to polite literature.

Professor TUCKER'S “Discourse on the progress of Philosophy, and its influence on the intellectual character of man, delivered before the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society,” is a learned and valuable paper. It lucidly and logically exhibits, in a neat and attractive style, the potent influence of philosophy upon the various relations of social, literary, and political life. Although there is a solitary, but yet prominent position of the learned Professor, from which we humbly and respectfully dissent, we cannot withhold our admiration of the general excellence of the performance, and the charming analytical method he has pursued in the treatment of his subject.

“MORELLA, a Tale, by EDGAR A. POE,” (like his “Berenice,” in the previous number,) is one of the best of those wild and gloomy exhibitions of passion, heretofore belonging almost peculiarly to the genius of the [inside back cover:] German school of romance. We cannot but think, that such over-wrought delineations of the passions are injurious to correct taste, however attractive they may be to the erratic mood, and unnatural imaginings of a poetically vivid mind. Mr. Poe is capable of higher and more useful flights; and will no doubt reach an enviable eminence, if he does not suffer the current of his genius to be choked by a morbid sensibility, or diverted from its natural channel by the destructive fresher of a superabundant fancy. . . .

“A Tale of a Nose, by Pertinax Placid.” — This is a nonpareil of humor, and loses nothing from its conveying a good moral, through a laughter-loving medium, irresistibly amusing. There is in it, a great deal of the broad, racy, and piquant humor which distinguishes IRVING and PAULDING, when they feel disposed to exercise our risibles, by introducing

“Mirth, that wrinkled care derides;

And Laughter, holding both his sides.”

We present to our readers, entire, this inimitable “Tale of a Nose,” confident that they will enjoy it with the deepest zest; for it is irresistibly comic and entertaining — Augusta (Geo.) Chronicle.

——

We cannot accord much praise to “Morella,” a tale, by Edgar A. Poe. It is the creation of a fancy unrestrained by judgment and undirected by design. The writer is truly imaginative and possesses great powers of language, while his production attracts and carries along the attention of the reader, it deals out to him in the end a sore and unmerited disappointment. — Charleston (Va.) Kanawha Banner.