Text: Edgar Allan Poe (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), August 30, 1845, vol. 2, no. 8, p. ???, col. ?

[page 122, column 1, continued:]

The Edinburgh Review. No. CLXV. For July 1845. American Edition — Vol. XXIII, No. 1. New York: Leonard, Scott & Co.

The most interesting papers in this number are “The Vestiges of Creation,” “The Oregon Question,” and Mrs. Norton's “ Child of the Islands.” “The Vestiges of Creation” is slashingly condemned. The reviewer says:

Everything is touched upon [what is the meaning of “touched upon?” ] while nothing is firmly grasped. We have not the strong master-hand of an independent laborer, either in the field or closet, shown for a single instant. All in the book is shallow; and all is at second hand. The surface may be beautiful; but it is the glitter of gold-leaf without the solidity of the precious metal. The style is agreeable — sometimes charming; and noble sentiments are scattered here and there — but these harmonies are never lasting. Sober truth [column 2:] and solemn nonsense, strangely blended, and offered to us in a new material jargon, break discordantly on our ears, and hurt our better feelings.

These opinions are just. The “ Vestiges” is merely a well-written and very suggestive romance; — but bad English does not look well in a Quarterly, and “hurts our better feelings.”