Page:The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register - Volume 011.djvu/262

246 of their own laws, which are administered by their magistrates; the Japanese having fortresses in the different islands, and exacting the payment of tribute money.

From this imperfect sketch of the national character and institutions of the Japanese, it will, at once, appear how admirable are the moral elements, of which the mind of this great people is compounded, and on what a towering elevation they would stand amongst the nations of the earth, did they enjoy the privilege of a free communication with the more enlightened countries of Europe. From its happy geographical position, the fertility of its soil, and the number, activity, and commercial spirit of its inhabitants, Japan would, in such an event, become the entrepot of the direct commerce between South America and Asia, and largely participate in the trade between Europe and South America.

The style of the Recollections, as well as that of the "Narrative," to which we have formerly adverted, is simple and inartificial, and such as would alone induce a conviction of their authenticity, excepting in the undiscerning minds of the conductors of certain Reviews.—One or two remarks will finally decide this question. Had Captain Golownin himself compiled his "Narrative" as a species of statistical romance, like De Foe's History of the Island of Formosa; or had it been a forgery attempted in this country for the base purposes of gain, how does it happen that his representations of Japan and its inhabitants, are corroborated by the concurring testimony of all writers (and there have been many of various nations) who have, during a period of 200 years, employed their pens upon the subject, without any connection with each other, and of the genuineness of whose relations no doubt has ever been entertained: or would, we ask, any one but a delirious impostor have presumed to state circumstances involving the public acts of the Russian government, and consequently the most easy and certain of detection, had those circumstances never actually taken place? Having thus noticed the hypercriticism to which Captain Golownin's former volumes have given rise, we shall close our observations on the present ingenious and entertaining work, by earnestly recommending it to the attention and perusal of our readers.

We took up this volume with a feeling of considerable interest. We were anxious to examine how far a youthful and enthusiastic imagination would be effected by an intimacy with, certainly, the greatest poet of the day: we mean Lord Byron; with whom, we understand, the author travelled as physician. We had noticed the influence of a lofty, but peculiar description of genius in the wide diffusion of the Lake school of poetry; and had been astonished that its defects should be the only bond by which its different members have for so long a time been united; as, however various the beauties of their compositions, they have ever agreed on being prolix upon trifles, and on not always choosing the most elegant subjects for their lyres. The age of poetry, which extended from the time of Charles the Second, when the models of France began to be imitated, until the beginning of the eighteenth century, is marked by a peculiarity, which will, we think, sufficiently account for the neglect, evident at the present time, of the poems of Dryden and Pope. We have, of late, been accustomed to violent excitement of the passions, and having been thus roused, have ceased to feel that interest in the writings of these poets, which their productions, considered in an abstracted point of view, would appear to deserve; owing, doubtless, to their complete deficiency in individual and personal representation. We do not mean, by such an affirmation, that there is a general colouring, though without a distinction of the person or situation described; far from it: for who could peruse the Eloisa of Pope, and, afterwards, hazard such an assertion. But we would be understood to say, that in the school in which they studied, despotism of government, and the no less general influence of society, destroyed those traits which might have served to distinguish, pointedly, the individual; who sacrificed all his own peculiarities, no less in his works than in his person, that he might conform with the usages of a coterie where no extraordinary flights of imagination were expected, and where the members seldom aspired to be any thing farther than witty, pleasant, and companionable. The French poets are generally elegant and polished; often ingenious, but seldom pathetic and still less frequently sublime. The reason is uk-