Text: Edgar Allan Poe (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), November 15, 1845, vol. 2, no. 19, p. ???, col. ?

[page 286, column 1, continued:]

Critical Notices.

The Artist, the Merchant, and the Statesman. By C. Edwards Lester. Vol. I. New-York: Paine & Burgess, 62 John-street.

This book opens with a commentary on the chief portion of its contents, in a likeness of Mr. Powers. The Sculptor, whose name has recently grown into a worldwide one, by the success of his Greek Slave, has a square, firm head, un-ideal in its outline, but indicating quick observation, and great depth of purpose; deficient in proportion and geniality in the lower features, with a broad brow, and an eye rather steady than kindling in its glance. The countenance is a criticism on the autobiography of Mr. Powers, of which the book mainly consists. His discourse in these conversations with Mr. Lester, in which the autobiography is disclosed, is plain, sensible, in a judicious spirit of praise and censure, showing the practised and the practical eye, at times glancing off, Yankee-like, sharply to the main chance; independent, as is, or should be characteristic of an American, of old usage and authority, and leaving altogether on the reader's mind an opinion honorable to the sense and intellect of the artist.

The language of the Conversations is generally clear and simple, and such as a sculptor, used to a clear, round outline, might be expected to employ. Throughout there are dropped, from time to time, hints and suggestions likely to be of decided service to art, and to art, particularly, in the United States. The zeal of Mr. Powers for the embellishment of the country by fountain-pieces, statues and monuments, agrees with our own long-entertained sentiments entirely; and in his utter repudiation of the mongrel in monumental architecture, like the proposed Washington Memorial, with its subsidiary library, reading-room, &c., we heartily concur. The most sustained speculation in the Conversations, is that upon a proper monument of Washington; and, although we doubt whether at all points the ground is properly laid out by the artist, we give it at length:

A very laudable effort is now making, not by the Government, which ought to have done it long ago, but by some generous individuals in America, to erect a monument to Washington; and I hope it will be a monument. But a Public Edifice they propose to call a monument, which would have answered their purpose just as well, might have been had without the trouble and expense of building one. I should be sorry to see so great a name as Washington's associated in a monument with Institutions, Libraries, Rooms for Art, Debating Societies, &c.; all dignified by the name of a monument to our great Hero and Father. Almost as soon would I think of changing money in a church, or profaning the altars of God with traffic, as to convert Washington's monument into such a business-like place.

Monuments to the dead should never be made the habitations of the living; they should be resorted to, to teach us how to live and how to die, and an eternal Sabbath should be kept around their graves. Let some imposing but solemn structure be raised over the dust of Washington — single in its purpose and single in its [column 2:] form. Let it be made of the most durable and massive materials; and let it rise as high as a grateful nation can carry it — without spires, or turrets, or windows, or any other littleness to disturb the grandeur and solemnity of its design. Let it, in a word be in harmony with the character of the man.

The most appropriate monument is that which, as far as the nature of such a thing can do, illustrates this character. It should be something analogous. If a man of taste and literary pursuits, his tomb should be embellished with ornaments, and all its proportions should present a classic appearance; if a military hero, his monument should be in keeping with the spirit of loftiness, and breathe the soul of daring and glory, so that his character might be clearly known without reading the inscription. And such is the richness and fertility of the genius of the fine arts, as understood by great artists, their language is even more expressive in the hands of the master, than any other language in the world.

But a monument to such a man as Washington, who is not considered as a scholar, nor even so much as a military hero, or statesman, as one of those exalted characters that stand far above all other men, embracing all that is noble known to humanity, and even something we may almost regard as divine; one who never lived before, nor is likely ever to live again; — his monument should be as distinct from all others, as he was from all other men. A classic monument would not do for him, nor a military monument, nor any other peculiar style; for none of them can reach him. No little thing should be introduced in it; no petty parts or decorations; it should be distinct and unbroken, and rise in solemn grandeur, a simple mass of vast bulk and height, so that it might be seen across a plain fifty miles off, surmounted by his statue of such colossal proportions, it might be recognized, if possible, even at that distance as the statue of Washington. And this would not be so difficult as might appear; for such were his form and general proportions, so different from all other men, and so expressive of himself, that the most feeble attempt at his likeness never fails to be recognized. His person was as distinct from other men as was his character.

But of what form should be this monument, to express the durability of his fame, and at the same lime embody and illustrate that solemnity of character so peculiarly his own? Before answering this question, we should look for guidance, and enquire what human structures have stood the longest, and will probably descend farthest into coming ages. And at the same time what are the most expressive, and excite the greatest wonder over successive races of men.

Are they solemn temples or sumptuous palaces, or lofty towers, or massive obelisks, or solid columns, or colossal statutes? The learned have spent ages in disputing about the site of Babylon, with her gorgeous temples, and Thebes, with her hundred brazen gates. The ruins even of Roman structures, reared less than two thousand years ago, have long been preserved with sacred veneration; and the temples of Greece are mournful heaps. But the Pyramids of Egypt still lift their awful forms over the desert, and have watched the rise and the fall of a long succession of Empires. Human knowledge gropes back through dim ages to find the era of their beginning, and still time strives in vain to overwhelm them. The obelisks lie scattered around the deserts, or have been carried away by distant travellers; and the Memnon lies prostrate in the dust. The great cities that once Mood upon the banks of the Nile, are levelled with the ocean of sand around them; and almost every vestige of the work of man has passed away in the flowing tide of ages. But the Pyramids still stand, and still rear themselves as vast as ever; stupendous beacons to the traveller from distant countries; piercing the clouds, where they catch the first blush of morning that flames on their summits, as fair as in the morning of Creation; defying the barbarous hand of the spoiler and the sweeping desolation of ages.

Why were they made? This question we may answer with certainty — they were raised for monuments. They contained the ashes of the dead, and a platform was left on their tops, we have good reason to infer, to receive colossal statues or figures in illustration of the dead beneath them. This would seem to be certain, for the science which built them never would have left them incomplete without an object. [page 287:]

And where is there anything in the universe human like them but the character of Washington, and what monument could we raise so appropriate to the Father of his Country?

Washington's fame we well know can never die — it would outlive the Pyramids, without a monument and without a line or eulogy. But a long line of generations is to follow us; and when they come upon the stage for their brief hour in the sweep of ages, each one to ask that distant Republic whose history will then have grown dim, what monument of gratitude she left to her Glorious Deliverer, let them turn to some pyramidal structure surmounted by a vast statue of Washington, of everlasting bronze:

“Like some tall cliff that lids its awful form,

Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm:

Though round its base the rolling clouds are spread,

Eternal sunshine settles on its head.”

As connected with another eminent American, of another day and an entirely different cast of character, the artist's interview with General Jackson is worthy of particular mention.

The general arrangement and spirit of the book are extremely creditable to Mr. Lester, although there are certain defects and blemishes which we regret to find marring the volume. One of these is the inharmonious and inartistical union, in the same volume, of two subjects with so little to connect them, (although they are brought together in the general title of the work,) as an autobiography of Hiram Powers, the Sculptor, and a Treatise on the Consular System. Of this the editor is acquitted by the modest requirement of the Sculptor, that he should not be left to stand alone, in his autobiogaphical disclosures, in a book by himself. To the style of the work, in Mr. Lester's portion of it, we might take some exception, in an extreme colloquialism which, although not offensive in the eagerness of a first reading, will injure it as a permanent record. There are great spirit and naturalness in Mr. Lester's use of this style; and we prefer it infinitely to the stilted assumption of a scholastic manner. We would have been glad to have found somewhere in the volume, or in Mr. Powers’ discourse, a recognition of his young contemporary, CRAWFORD, who, though of an entirely different school and faith from Powers, has labored too long and too truly, to be out of mind when the talk is of American Sculptors, who have honored their country in their labors. It is possible that Mr. Lester intends to supply this, and other omissions, in his second volume, which is to include, we are told, sketches of various American artists. On the whole, we are pleased with this work, in the part we have given our attention to, (of the other portion of it we may speak at length hereafter) and believe it will be of service in its province.

Mr. Powers we have been in the habit of regarding as one of the few representative Americans, ranking in art with Webster, Jackson, Forrest, and other strongminded and sturdy-working men in other departments. He has in him the true indigenous sinew and straightforwardness of the place — the freedom from petty ligatures of schools, and fashions, and tastes, with which old-world people are apt to be oppressed. He has had a long and hard fight with fortune, such as every original and un-conventional man may lay his account in sustaining; and he has come out of it, as every such man will, with a bright renown and an honor untouched through all its trials. We, for one, do not regret the learning of short-hand by Mr. Lester, as that seems to have enabled him to give us these excellent and judicious Conversations, and we shall look for his concluding volume of the Artist, Merchant and Statesman, with a good hope of profitable entertainment. [column 2:]

In paper, typography, and general appearance, the volume is neatly presented by the spirited publishers.