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ascribed to him, and that he possess an assemblage of qualities, mental and moral, that rarely falls to the lot of a single individual. Let it be remembered, too, that to be worthily received, and have its due weight, advice must be sought; else it will be justly regarded rather in the light of an impertinent intrusion and voluntary censure.

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V.

NOTORIETY.

A WRITER Who could unite the philosophy of Bacon and the satire of Churchill, would be the author to undertake an essay on Notoriety. In the absence of any such extraordinary combination of talent, we venture to address ourselves to the subject; to revive certain moral sentiments of equal worth and antiquity, an abundant apology for which, if any were necessary, would be found in the very fact of the great excellence of the sentiments themselves.

Ancient fame has given place to modern notoriety. Solid repute is, nowadays, lost in fashionable applause, and the hero and bard, whose praise has furnished the theme of centuries, is cast into the shade by the idol of the hour. Of the different varieties of notoriety attainable by the arts of intrigue, the quackeries of impudence, or the settled fraud of a lifetime, we shall, after running over the titles of a few, confine ourselves at present, chiefly to notoriety in literature, to the means of making a reputation by cant, imposture, and the influence of fashion.

Notoriety is spurious fame; a desire of obtaining it, false ambition. One intoxicated with the love of public fame (in the lower view of fame), had rather be ill-known than unknown. At any sacrifice, he would make a name. He

would be talked of, if not cared for; had rather be in men's mouths than in their hearts. He would be well spoken of rather than trivially thought of. It is not that he would be always praised-nay, sometimes he would prefer abuse, as an object of attack, and to give him an opportunity of replying to it. It is the weak man's diseased ambition; the fool's fame; the knave's bane; the courtier's life; the fopling's breath; the wise man's detestation; the honest man's disgust.

Notoriety is attached to every calling and profession, art, science, trade or mystery. There is nothing in life which it may not affect; no face it cannot assume.

It haunts the pulpit, the university, the bar, the surgeon's hall; it is found in political assemblies and literary meetings; it rules supreme in the drawing-room, the theatre, the street, the watering-place, the tavern.

What ways and means are employed to accomplish the great end; what struggles and anxieties to appear what one is not; what endeavors to hide these very attempts! A private scandal, or a newspaper paragraph; an abusive letter written by the party in question to himself; a selfinflicted libel; a domestic quarrel; a course of libertinism made public; these are a few of the thousand baits to catch the public ear. A public official relieves a poor woman, the act is at once translated into the newspapers; a wealthy citizen has fallen ill, it is immediately chroni cled; a valuable shawl is worn by the wife of a celebrated statesman, it is universally made known. It is the whole business of the entire lives of most of the butterflies of fashion, to plot how they shall make themselves conspicuous from day to day. Absurdities in dress or equipage,

are getting to be stale devices; what we shall have next, we are wanting in imagination to conceive.

How to make a reputation in letters, is a nice problem for him to solve who has neither learning, genius, talents, nor enthusiasm. It is generally persons devoid of these fundamental requisites, that most affect the fame of author and scholar; though it must be confessed, their purposes are ulterior, and do not rest in the bare enjoyment of a name. They catch at the chance of reputation for the sake of an introduction into what is called (one would think from irony) good society, or for the mere gratification of seeing their names in print.

Cant in literature is, next to cant in religion, the most despicable thing in the world; the cant of the pretenders to literature is always so thorough.going as quite to obscure a really worthy but modest scholar. The quack will carry off by far the plurality of votes by the mere force of external display.

Fashion is never more absurd than in her patronage of letters. She inevitably mistakes pretence for performance, and fails to distinguish between merit and presumption. A fashionable author is, generally, a writer whose books are read only by people of fashion, and that only for a season or two. The fashionable author is made such, more by his manner and address than by any quality in his writings worthy of notice. He dresses well, therefore takes rank as an elegant poet: he can carve neatly, hence is granted station as a critic or philosopher. The true poet, the genuine philosopher, is never fashionable-except as an incident to his reputation—it being a peculiar quality of the servile crowd to join in wherever they hear a shout. The great author writes for the

whole world; the writer of fashion for a very circumscribed sphere or clique of readers. What is in cant phrase styled the "great world" of fashion, is, in fact, the most insignificant field of authorship. Fashionable people take more pleasure in creating reputation out of nothing, than in worshipping established idols, inasmuch as it gratifies their self-love. Of an inferior scribbler they make a genius for a season, and then cast him off, as they do their tailor or their hounds-whence the poor victim readily concludes, or should, that notoriety, like all matters of fashion, is merely a reigning folly, a current prejudice.

Somewhat connected with the subject of fashionable reputation, is the question of the public taste, more influenced by mere notoriety, than, perhaps, most readers imagine.

As a general rule, the public taste is vicious to a great degree. This is abundantly proved by the innumerable instances of ephemeral popularity, and consequent neglect of many, perhaps of most writers. Their works happen to hit a particular taste, or favor a prevailing fashion; they chime in with the prejudices, and foster the passions of the day, and are rewarded by a short-lived reputation. In judging of poetry, in particular, one can hardly be too fastidious, who recollects that at one time Jonson lorded it over Shakspeare: at another, Cato was esteemed the first of English tragedies and still later, Darwin and Hayley were thought great poets. How many schools are extinct, how many great men have proved in the eyes of posterity (that severe judge), very small persons indeed! How many philosophical systems have been consigned to oblivion, with their inventors and promulgators! What shoals of tragedies, epics, novels of every description, lives, travels,

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