"Friends and physicians
Exert their skill most faithfully,"
is not poetry—but plain, unsophisticated prose.
Too much space is allotted to "Critical Notices" in the December No. of the Messenger—and several of the Notices themselves are too dogmatical and flippant. This department of a periodical, on the plan of the Messenger, is necessarily of restricted interest, and should consequently be of proportionate limits, except in extraordinary cases. It certainly should not be occupied by reviews of Reviews—a dish of hash newly warmed, and served up, in all its insipidity, to an already palled appetite. Such reviews as that of Mr. Fay's "Norman Leslie" will be read. Men—and Women likewise—will always be attracted in crowds to behold an infliction of the Russian knout or to see a fellow-creature flayed alive. And Mr. Fay—who, by the way, is a great favorite with us—fully deserves a "blistering" for putting forth such a book as Norman Leslie.
The "Messenger," upon the whole, reflects credit upon Virginia and the entire South. Indeed, several distinguished Northern journals place it at the head of periodical literature in the U. States; a most enviable distinction, when we recollect the eminent names that figure in our Monthlies, both as editors and contributors. Mr. White deserves the thanks of the people of the South for his untiring perseverance and industry, and we are glad to hear that he is receiving them in the most substantial form—to wit, paying subscribers. We hope his list will continue to augment, not only because his enterprise deserves remuneration, but because every additional subscriber enables him to make additional exertions to enhance the value of his agreeable and instructive "Messenger."
From the New Yorker.
The Southern Literary Messenger—We have long meditated a more extended notice of this elegant periodical, than we have hitherto found leisure to give—not more on account of our numerous Southern friends—with whom it must necessarily be a favorite, than of our literature generally, to which the Messenger forms a very creditable addition. And notwithstanding that our columns for this week are mainly bespoken, we must not allow the current number—being the first of a new volume—to pass from our table without a brief glance over its contents.
"Sketches of the History and Present Condition of Tripoli, with some account of the other Barbary States," is the opening paper, written by one evidently conversant with his subject, and whose chapters are calculated to add materially to the meager stock of popular information hitherto possessed with regard to the history and present condition of the Barbary powers.
"Scraps from an Unpublished Drama, by Edgar A. Poe," contains one or two stirring and many beautiful passages—but we are not partial to dramatic poetry.
Speaking of poetry, we find some that is commendable, and much that we deem, with all deference, well nigh execrable. Of the former class is "October."