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Literary
SMITH’S WEEKLY VOLUME — The old “Waldie's Library” was one of the best periodicals ever issued, and its editor, Lloyd P. Smith, Esq., has resumed its publication, in Philadelphia, with a specimen number, full of readable matter. We think most readers prefer well selected gems of literature to ill-natured critical dissections, and therefore we foresee prosperity to Smith's exquisitely printed Weekly Volume. We would remark, by the way, that no better arrangement for periodicals could possibly be adopted by country readers, than to subscribe for the Weekly Mirror and Smith's Weekly Volume — the MIRROR furnishing a complete weekly history of the world's news, doings, fashions, opinions, politics and publications, and SMITH furnishing all the cream of the world's new literature. With these two the reader may keep up with the times.
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The “Southern Literary Messenger” has opened full battery upon the Literary Magazines of this country. The article on this subject is of a character, which, though severe, we heartily admire — philosophically attacking the evil, and not discharging venom upon the personal characters of those who are connected with it. The author speaks thus of the appetite to which our magazines minister: —
The lightness, the tenuity, the diversity, the contrariety of the numerous articles introduce confusion and sometimes stupor into the mind; while the habit of reading every thing over only once, and then, for the most part, in the most rapid and heedless manner, destroys the faculty of attention, deadens the memory, cashiers the judgment, and paralyses the thinking powers. Moreover, when a reader has accustomed himself to this negligent mode of perusal, and has trained his palate to a high relish for these highly seasoned trifles, he is not merely indifferent to more solid food, but he has lost the capacity for digesting it or even for swallowing it Hence a healthy literary taste is too apt to be destroyed by an immoderate devotion to Magazine reading.
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Notes:
This review was specifically rejected as being by Poe by W. D. Hull.
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[S:0 - NYEM, 1844] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Criticism - Literary (Willis ?, 1844)