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[page 109, column 2, continued:]
THE MAGAZINES.
WE have received No. 1. of the Aristidean, a Magazine of Reviews, Politics, and light Literature, for March, 1843, edited by Thomas Dunn ‘English, and published by Lane & Co., 304 Broadway. Price five dollars per annum.
The plan of this new Magazine is altogether admirable; we can conceive of nothing better in the form of a magazine, than a monthly miscellany that “combines the solidity of the Review and the lightness of the Magazine, with the political cast of the newspaper.” And then “the politics of the Aristidean is democratic,” “it sustains the abolition of the death punishment,” “it advocates equal rights,” “it labors to be just.” All these good things we pick out of the publisher's advertisement. They are true, of course. Nothing can be finer, nothing better suited to the wants of the public, but, we fear, nothing less likely to be accomplished. However, it is an important point to have a good aim, and Mr. English is certainly entitled to the consideration of the public for his good intentions, even though he should fall somewhat short of the mark he aims at. The first article in the Aristides[. advocates the annexation of Texas to the United States; a measure, to our perception, as little savoring of the spirit of Aristides as any that could be proposed. The next article is a drinking song as little Aristidean as the paper on Texas.
The last stanza runs thus —
“Old Sampson and Cesar —
Each man was a sneezer —
Tossed off, with a will, rosy wine;
While Ovid. the scamp. he
With Cato and Pompey,
Drank three bottles each when they’d dine.
So we tread in the steps of the famous in rhyme —
The jolly old Cocks of the gone-away time.”
What puzzles us most in this article is the difficulty of classing it; whether with the solidity of the review,” or, “the lightness of the magazine.” We don’t know which. Article III. is a notice of George Jones's Ancient America, the fairest specimen of an elegant book that we have seen in many a day. The notice is funny enough, and it has a little vignette by Darley, worthy of Punch. This article might have been written by .Aristides himself without casting a shadow upon his reputation. The “Mouse Trap,” “Hell and the Maelstrom,” and the article on Bishop Onderdonk, are not exactly in the ordinary magazine strain. Nobody will accuse the Aristidean of nam-, by-pambyism, let them accuse it of what other sins they may. Mr. English has had the courage to project a magazine different from the prevailing fashion in such publications, and we trust that he will receive the support that he deserves; probably he would ask for nothing more himself.
Magazine literature is the only literature that can flourish among us until we have an international copyright law; we therefore look with an eye of favor upon every new candidate that appears among us; and instead of taking them as they come out, and weighing them in the balance with Blackwood's Magazine, as our reading public are in the habit of doing, they should be received kindly, at least, and where we have no patronage to bestow, we should withhold our disparagements. A book, by itself, is getting every day rarer and rarer in our literature, and there being no other channel than the Magazine for our thoughts to flow in, the Magazine should be cherished until a better day dawn upon us.
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Notes:
This review was specifically rejected as being by Poe by W. D. Hull.
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[S:0 - BJ, 1845] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Criticism - Literary (Briggs ?, 1845)