PHRASE-MONGERY.
Oua contemporary the Examiner spends nearly three columns of his last number in showing that our allusion (on the 3rd of July), to the "polished diction" of Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH'S History of England, in the Cyclopmdia, was misapplied. Having paused and pondered over that little volume for three long months, after all the book-buyers in the kingdom have purchased it, he comes forward to deliver himself of an elaborate judgment on its demerits, and to tell the public that what cost them five shillings is not worth a halfpenny. Why did he keep the secret so long ? Why did he withhold the discouraging announcement until the work Was sold ?
Our contemporary attacks the learned author's language : Sir JAMES, it seems, writes in a slatternly manner ; he is accused of rigmarole, "phrase-mongeq," and many other faults too tedious to mention. We shall examine one or two of our contemporary's examples—not for the purpose of defending Sir JAMES MACKIN- TOSH, whose champion we do not profess to be ; but for the pur- pose of trying the spirit in which the Examiner sets about show- ing him up for the improvement of "boys and girls at school." In narrating the early history of Alfred's reign, Sir JAMES Macmyrosii has the following passage :— "The Danes broke through the line of defence at Chippenham, overran the country, drove many into exile beyond sea, and subdued the rest to their will. All,' says the chronicler, • but Alfred the King.' He, un- conquered, took a few noble Saxons, established himself in the centre of a morass, surrounded by bogs and forests, in a spot still called the Isle of Athelney, where he remained for a time seemingly forgotten, as much as deserted. He experienced one of those sudden and total eclipses of for- tune, which bestow a political lustre on heroism, and put genius to the test by reducing it to its own resources alone. Though he is said to have been obliged so to disguise himself as to be roughly reproved by the wife of a cowherd for neglect of the toasting of her cakes, he began, even in that condition, to revive the spirit of his followers by striking blows at small parties of the enemy, who, ignorant of his existence, looked at them as if they f.:I1 from an invisible hand. He is said, in the disguise of a harper, to have visited the Danish camp, remained in it three days, examined its approaches and its disposition, and ascertained the inatten- tion and disorder of which the impunity of his own visit afforded a suf- ficient proof. In a short time he burst from his fastness."
This passage our contemporary introduces with-
" Here is more accuracy, more polished diction; more exact wording ; more of that perfection of composition, right words in right places." And he proceeds to comment on it thus :— " His fastness ! Why, the author hadjust placed and left him a fugitive in a bog ! Sir James must have very odd ideas of fast and loose. For polished diction, we beseech attention to the account of the adventure of Alfred with the cowherd's wife:—' Though he is said to have been obliged so to disguise himself as to be roughly reproved by the wife of a cowherd for neglect of the toasting of her cakes, he began,' &c. He was not obliged so to disguise himself as to be roughly reproved, &c. The rough reproof was not the immediate or necessary consequence of the particular disguise. The employment was incidental to the disguise, and the reproof to the neglect of the employment. If we must use such polished diction, the passage should run thus :—He is said to have been obliged so to dis- guise himself as to be employed by the wife of a cowherd in toasting her cakes, for neglect of which he was roughly reproved. The structure of the sentence is incurably awkward, and the wording offensive to the ear, whose sense the author is generally studious to please." • We be the reader's attention to the conceit on "fastness ;" a word which any one who knows its meaning must perceive is employed by Sir JAMES with perfect propriety. But it afforded a temptation to play upon words and make smart allusions, which was irresistible. And -yet the critic talks- about Sir JAMES "phrase-mongery-," and of his "trusting to escape the judgment by tickling the ear !" In his zeal for correcting the words-, the critic loses sight of the sense of the passage on which he is so la- boriously censorious. It was not the author's intention to tell the anecdote of the cakes, or to describe with precision the proximate cause of the King's scolding ; he merely alludes to it to show how completely the dignity of the King was obscured. Had not Al- fred been so disguised as to hide his rank from the most pryinc, eyes, he might have burned the house instead of the bread with- out challenge. The scolding showed the humbled condition of the King; for it proved that his disguise was perfect. - Our contem- porary's amendment is not a whit better than the original : the employment was no more a necessary consequence of the disguise than the scolding was. Sir JAMES, speaking of the earliest of the Christian hermits, says- " But the Christian recluses sought a solitude more impenetrable than the Essenians, and adr,pted a system of self-infliction, of which the continu- ance was less dependent on themselves than the austerity taught by Plrilo to his Alexandrian followers." '- Every scholar will see, that in this sentence Sir JAMES alludes to a very remarkable practice of these. anchorites, to which, in a popular work, it might have been thought improper to do more than allude. But what says the Examiner 9- " A system of self-infliction, of which the continuance by the adopters was less dependent on themselves than the austerity taught by Philo to his Alexandrian followers ! We might as properly say that the continu- ance of Sir James Mackintosh's book was less dependent on himself than the political economy taught by Mr. Macculloch to his London stu- dents."
If our contemporary knows what he is writing about, he must know that this tickling of the ear in order to escape from the judg- ment is unworthy of him ; and he must have a low estimate of the readers to whom he offers such " phrase-mongery" as the re- sult of three months' investigation. The most remarkable instance of unfairness is yet to come. Sir JAMES, speaking of Alfred, observes- " Some scenes of his boyhood are preserved by his artless biographer, Asser, a monk of St. David's, which interest us more than the conquest of Europe in the ninth century would have done. Though he had reached the ago of twelve before he acquired an art then so rare as that of read- ing, lie was delighted with listening to the Anglo-Saxon songs."
• On which the Examiner remarks- " Lastly, we have the mention of this extraordinary peculiarity in the child, that, though he had reached the age of twelve before he acquired the art of reading, he was delighted with listening to the Anglo-Saxon songs. With equal point it might he noted, that, though be had reached the age of eighteen months before be cut his teeth, he was delighted with spoon meat. There have been many hundreds of millions of children, less wonderful than Alfred, who have been pleased to hear before they were capable of reading."
Woulti Wet alik one imagine, that the sentence thus commented on, and which is quoted by the Examiner as the close of a para- graph, was the close of a paragraph in the History also ?—that the fact noticed by Asser, which interested Sir JAMES so much, was neither more nor less than that Alfred was delighted with listening to Saxon songs ? Let us turn to the volume from which the extract is made, and mark what follows : the whole passage runs thus- " Some sceries of his boyhood are preserved by his artless biographer, Asser, a monk of St. David's, which interest us more than the conquest of Europe in the ninth century would have done. Though he had reached the age of twelve before he acquired an art then so rare as that of reading, he was delighted with listening to the Anglo-Saxon songs. Judith, holding in her hands a volume of these poems, in which the beautiful characters
pleased her husband's Children, said to them, will give it to the one among you who first learns to read Will you ?' eagerly asked Alfred,
though the youngest. Yes,' said she with a smile of pleasure. He sud- denly snatched the volume out of her hands, and running to a school- master, in no long time read or recited it to her."
What comes of the observation of our trimestral critic when the case is thus stated ? He charges Sir JAMES with " rigmarole,"— what epithet must we apply to the deliberate garbling of a story, for the sake of a sorry jest about cutting of teeth and spoon meat? What Sir JAMES means and says, is, that although Alfred was long before he could read, his ignorance did not spring from a dislike to literature. lithe Examiner would fashion his witticism to the text it is meant to exemplify, he should change his spoon meat into crusts.
Our contemporary, not content with belabouring Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH, MIA also have a passing hit at the SPECTATOR. It was our inaccurate allusion, forsooth,—summoned from the repose in which it lay forgotten,—that suggested to the critic the service to be rendered to masters and misses at school. by the cutting up of naughty rhetoricians. We need not affect a very vehement concern on behalf of our impugned judgment. Such lucubrations as ours have fulfilled their destiny when they have lived their little week. Nevertheless, let the plain truth be stated, for its own sake. On the 1st of July (we think it was) the -first volume of Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH'S History was put into our hands, at a time of the week when our labours thicken upon us. It was the literary -novelty of the week, and, as a novelty of some interest, we laid it before our readers—with a caveat. We glanced at the book, liked what we saw, and said so. Whether we were more or less fortunate in our passing glance than our con- temporary in his fixed gaze, is of little consequence. We were net deliberately mistaken, nor did we make the slightest attempt to impose on our readers a guess at rather than a judgment on the merits of the work, as the result of minute examination. Our notice commenced thus :— • '11. Itis the =fortunate condition of journalists like ourselves, that we are compelled, from the insatiable demand for novelty on the part Of readers, to offer too frequently our first rather than our best thoughts to their acceptance. * • * • We must perforce content ourselves with a statement, and but a brief one, of the impression which a glance at rather than a perusal of the first volume of Sir James's History has left on our minds."
We have no particular liking for hasty criticism; nor do we say that had we pondered over Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH'S book until the third week of Septerhber, as the Examiner has done, we might not have discovered reasons for modifying the opinion which we expressed of it in the first week of July. We found our apology in such cases on the circumstances of our situation. The public expects from us (and our contemporary may be thankful that it is more indulgent to him) an account of the literature as well as the polities of the week ; and we must give both as we can. We can.; not give three months' judgments in three hours. It is sufficient that we honestly and plainly describe the character of the article ' we offer ; and this we did in the obviously hasty notice which our contemporary has after so long study and deliberation taken oc- casion to attack, with no more than his usual ingenuity, and much less than his usual fairness.
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