AMERICAN ECLECTIC

AND

MUSEUM OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.

JANUARY, 1843.

ALISON'S HISTORY OF EUROPE.

We cannot better illustrate the fulness and authenticity of Mr. Alison's history, than by quoting his own statement of the admirable plan on which he has selected and applied his authorities. His invariable rule, we are informed by his Preface, has been 'to give, on every occasion, the authorities by volume and page from which the statement in the text was taken.

cal opinion. Some readers may consider or the histories of the Peninsular war by them as beauties-many will overlook Napier, Foy, and others, without feeling them; and even the most fastidious must satisfied of the care and judgment which acknowledge that they are not such as ma- Mr. Alison has shown in constantly selectterially to interfere with the great plan of ing, where authorities differ, the most the work. Its merits are minuteness and probable and most authoritative statements. honesty qualities which may well excuse We have already hinted our opinion, that a faulty style, gross political prejudices, Mr. Alison's general style is not attracand a fondness for exaggerated and frothy tive. It is not, however, at least in the declamation. narrative part of his work, either feeble or displeasing. Its principal defect is the cumbrous and unwieldy construction of its sentences, which frequently cause them to appear slovenly and obscure, and sometimes render their precise meaning doubtful. We quote, almost at random, a single passage by way of specimen :-Mortier, following the orders which he had received to keep nearly abreast of, though a little behind the Not only are the authorities for every par- columns on the right bank, and intent only agraph invariably given, but in many in- upon inflicting loss upon the Russian troops stances also those for every sentence have which he knew had passed the river, and been accumulated in the margin. . . . . conceived to be flying across his line of Care has been taken to quote a preponder- march from the Danube towards Moravia, ance of authority, in every instance where was eagerly emerging from the defiles of it was possible, from writers on the oppo- Diernstein, beneath the Danube, and the site side to that which an English historian rocky hills beneath the towers of the casmay be supposed to adopt ; and the reader tle where Richard Cœur de Lion was once will find almost every fact in the internal immured, when he came upon the Russian history of the Revolution, supported by two rearguard, under Milaradowitch, posted in Republican and one Royalist authority; front of Stein, on heights commanding the and every event in the military narrative only road by which he could advance, and drawn from at least two writers on the part supported by a powerful artillery.'-(v. of the French, and one on that of their op- 444.) We have purposely selected a senponents.' We feel convinced that Mr. Ali- tence obscure merely by its length and inson has acted up to the spirit of this candid volution, and not disfigured by any tangible and judicious system throughout his whole solecism; and we believe we speak within work. We cannot, of course, pretend to compass when we say, that it would be difhave verified his statements by constant ficult to select half a dozen consecutive reference to the writers from whom he has pages, from any part of Mr. Alison's work, drawn his information. The events which in which one or more passages of at least he records are of such recent occurrence, equally faulty construction might not be and such deep interest, that the enormous found. But there are not wanting offences mass of details published respecting them of a still less excusable nature. Whenever may well defy the curiosity of an ordi- the historian warms with his subject, he is nary reader. But we are bound to remark, constantly hurried into the most singular that whenever we have been led to com- verbal blunders-some puzzling, some lupare the conflicting accounts of any impor- dicrous-but all of a kind which a careful tant event in Mr. Alison's history, we have reperusal could scarcely have failed to disalmost invariably found that his narrative cover. We quote three or four instances, steers judiciously between them, and com- not for the sake of ridiculing a few slight bines the most probable and consistent par- oversights in a long and laborious work, ticulars contained in each. We apply this but in order to draw Mr. Alison's attention remark more especially to his narration of to a defect which, comparatively trivial as the intestine commotions of the French it is, might give great and unjust advantage Revolution, and of the military conflicts of to critics less disposed than we are to treat the Empire-particularly those which oc- him kindly. Thus he speaks of the 'vast curred in Spain. No one, we think, can and varied inhabitants' of the French emread the various accounts of the troubles pire-a phrase which can scarcely be acwhich led to the Reign of Terror, as col-tually misunderstood, but which sounds lulected in the able work of Professor Smyth, dicrously inapplicable, considering that the

average size of the French conscripts is Figurative illustrations are as fatal to Mr. stated, a few pages before, at only five feet Alison as they are, indeed, to most writers English.-(ix. 105.) In 1800, the French who are at once careless and ambitious. armies appear to have unjustly seized some His opinion of the age of George III. is exEnglish vessels at Leghorn, an acquisition pressed by an astronomical metaphor, which which,' in the singular phraseology of Mr. he has contrived to distort with a perverse Alison, speedily recoiled upon the heads of ingenuity rarely surpassed. Bright,' he those who acquired them.'-(iv. 381.) In says, 'as were the stars of its morning light, the campaign of Austerlitz we find the Aus- more brilliant still was the constellation trians defeated by Murat,' who made 1800 which shone forth in its meridian splendor, of their wearied columns prisoners, (v. 406) or cast a glow over the twilight of its even-a capture which, supposing the statement ing shades.'-(vii. 3.) The simile would to be literally true, and the columns of have been perfect of its kind, if Mr. Alison average size, must have embraced nearly had but added that his constellation had disthe whole male population of the empire. appeared, as constellations are wont to do, And shortly after, we are informed, that the in the darkness of the ensuing night. In French army celebrated the anniversary of the same manner, he speaks of a narrative Napoleon's coronation by the spontaneous as 'tinged with undue bias,' (Pref. xxxi.)— combustion' of their huts.-(v. 474.) We of a historical work as 'closed with a ray will not go farther with examples of this of glory,' (Pref. xxxviii.)—of a truth as 'prosort, but we cannot forbear soliciting Mr. claimed in characters of fire to mankind.' Alison's attention to two crying defects; (viii. 7.) We cannot omit the two followhis profuse and unscrupulous use of the ing sentences, which we consider to be almost barbarous Scotticisms, and the con- most unique. The first contains a simile fused and even ambiguous arrangement of which to us is utterly unintelligible-the bis antecedents and relatives. With all other an elaborate confusion of metaphor, these imperfections, Mr. Alison's history which nothing but the most patient ingenuhas merits sufficient to atone, even to those ity can unravel. In 1787,' says Mr. Alireaders who consider only their own amuse- son,' 'Goethe, profound and imaginative, ment, for the want of an easy and polished was reflecting on the destiny of man on style. The stirring interest of the events earth, like a cloud which “turns up its silver which he relates, his judgment in selecting striking traits of character for preservation, his earnest seriousness of manner, and his obvious honesty of purpose-all combine to make his narrative on the whole both interesting and impressive.

lining to the moon."-(vii. 103.) In Linnæus she (Sweden) has for ever unfolded the hidden key by which the endless variety of floral beauty is to be classified, and the mysterious link is preserved between vegetable and animal life.'-(viii. 612*.)

We cannot speak so favorably of the dis- Mr. Alison does not wear his borrowed quisitions on political events and charac-plumes with a better grace than his original ters, which abound throughout his work. ornaments. The following is an instance With all our respect for his merits as a his- of a fine thought carelessly appropriated torian, we are bound to declare our honest and thoroughly spoiled. The British Bard opinion, that the attempts displayed in them in Gray's famous ode speaks of the banners at impassioned and declamatory eloquence, of his victorious enemy as ' fanned by conare generally very far below mediocrity. quest's crimson wing.' Mr. Alison has We have already noticed some of the blun- adorned a passage of his history with this ders into which he has been betrayed in the easy and spirited metaphor; but he has course of his ordinary narrative. Few most unskilfully transferred the ventilation writers soar more easily or more securely from the banners to the minds of the conthan they walk; and Mr. Alison's oratorical querors, and assures us, that 'it is not while digressions abound in examples of pointless" fanned by conquest's crimson wing," that anti-climax, of quaint and ungrammatical the real motives of human conduct can be inversion, of the carefully balanced antithe- made apparent.'-(ix. 104.) A similar and sis of synonymous ideas, of periods rounded still more painful example of bad taste is to with sonorous pomp, yet constructed with be found in the very next page. All the slovenly obscurity. But we are in haste to springs,' says he, which the world can dismiss this ungracious part of our task, furnish to sustain the fortunes of an empire, and we shall therefore content ourselves were in full activity, and worked with conwith pointing out a few individual blem-summate ability; but one (query three?) was ishes, the removal of which we are particu- wanting, without which, in the hour of trial, larly anxious to effect. all the others are but as tinkling brass—a

to see.

belief in God, a sense of duty, and a faith We do not think it necessary to apoloin immortality.' The celebrated passage gize for having dwelt so long upon a subfrom which Mr. Alison has here borrowed ject which we have already admitted to be an illustration, is familiar to all our readers. of secondary importance. If we believed It is that in which St. Paul compares the that Mr. Alison had failed in one branch of eloquence of an idle declaimer to the tink- his history from real want of ability, we ling of a cymbal. The original phrase is should have thought it ungenerous to morone of such admirable point and force as to tify the author of a valuable and laborious have become almost proverbial. But how work, by cavilling at the false taste of its has its merit survived Mr. Alison's appro- embellishments. But we cannot imagine priation? He seizes on one half of the that this is the case. It is impossible that simile, severs it from the other, and tacks a man of Mr. Alison's talents and knowit to a new object with which it has no na-ledge should be deliberately blind to the tural connexion whatever. Nothing can be defects and the nonsense we have been more apt and lively than the comparison of quoting. Most of these blemishes are such unmeaning verbosity to the empty ringing as a little reflection would induce a sensible of metal, as every one who studies Mr. schoolboy to strike out of his theme. We Alison's specimens of declamation will al- are apt to think that Mr. Alison has nelow. But how does such a comparison glected these parts of his work; that he express the inefficiency of a mechanical has sketched them when fatigued and exforce? For aught we know, a spring may cited by his labors; and that he has left be of brass, and of tinkling brass too, and the first rough draught unaltered for pubyet be sufficiently strong and elastic. Alication. We are unwilling to deal harshly better illustration, or a worse adaptation, with such errors. There is something both of the apostle's forcible image, than the striking and gratifying in the spectacle of passage just quoted, we do not expect again a writer who is scrupulous of historical truth and justice, but negligent of his own Tedious self-repetition, the most invete-literary fame-who lavishes that time and rate fault of careless and declamatory wri- trouble in ascertaining his facts, which he ters, has been carried by Mr. Alison to an omits to employ in polishing his style. We almost unprecedented extent. We have are confident that Mr. Alison might, with a neither space nor time to extract some of little care and patience, correct more sehis digressions, in which the selfsame cur-rious faults than those we have noticed; rent of ideas is run through twice or thrice and should this prove to be the case, we in various language. But the mere recur- shall not be sorry if we have made him feel rence of favorite phrases cannot fail to a certain degree of regret for their comstrike and displease the most careless mission. reader. The bow of Esop, the small black cloud of Elijah, the boon of Polypheme to Ulysses, together with numberless less remarkable allusions and expressions, are applied three or four times each, precisely under the same circumstances, and almost in the same words.. Winds, waves, meteors, thunderbolts, earthquakes, and similar phenomena of all sorts, are constantly ready to be let loose upon the reader; nor, however frequently he may have sustained them, is he ever, for a single page, secure against their recurrence. As a proof that we have not exaggerated the frequency of this unpleasing practice, we must, in justice to ourselves, refer our readers to the first fifteen pages of Mr. Alison's eighth volume; within which short space they will find no less than thirteen similes and illustrations drawn from light and color, of which nearly one-half are crowded into twentyfive consecutive lines, and no less than four are expressed in the same identical phrase.

As a military historian, Mr. Alison has received general and merited applause. His narratives of warlike operations are well arranged, minute, and spirited; and display considerable scientific knowledge. He is particularly remarkable for the clear and accurate descriptions which he never fails to give of the situations in which the most important manœuvres of the war took place. His sketches are written with as much spirit as topographical knowledge; and he not only impresses on the memory the principal features of the scene of action, but generally succeeds in conveying a vivid picture of them to the imagination. He appears, indeed, to have been induced, by his strong interest in the subject, to visit most of Napoleon's fields of battle in person; and it is but just to say, that he has surveyed them with the feeling of an artist and the precision of a tactician.

The lively coloring of Mr. Alison's descriptions of battles is, in general, as pleasing as the accuracy of the outline is praise

worthy. He has a strong and manly sym- tion. It is impossible not to feel animated pathy with military daring and devotion, by the fiery energy, and the graphic miwhich never blinds him to the sufferings nuteness of his descriptions. But his most inflicted by war, but which leads him to give partial admirers will allow, that the more warm and impartial praise to every brave fanciful and brilliant peculiarities of his action, by whichever party achieved. We style, are such as must make all attempts might easily fill our pages with interesting at imitation difficult and dangerous to an extracts of this nature; but we must con- unusual degree. Its fervent impetuosity tent ourselves with referring our readers to occasionally overpowers even its master, the work itself. There is scarcely an im- and it is unlikely to prove more docile in portant victory of the war which Mr. Alison less familiar hands. Colonel Napier's gehas not related in the fullest detail, and nius, if we may be pardoned the comparison, with the strictest impartiality. We may resembles those Indian figurantes described also remark the successful art with which by Captain Mundy in his amusing sketches, he occasionally pauses, in the most critical whose chief difficulty is to restrain within. moment of a great battle, to remind his graceful limits the superabundant supplereaders, by a word dexterously thrown in, ness and agility of their limbs. It is the of the mighty interests at stake. It is an luxuriant vivacity of the writer's imaginaartifice to which he has perhaps too freely tion, and his unlimited command of pointed resorted, but which he occasionally em- and original language, that occasion the ploys with marked effect. principal blemishes in his style. And it is impossible to deny, that when he gives the rein to his fancy, it occasionally hurries him across the fatal step which separates the sublime, we will not say from the ridiculous, but assuredly from the quaint and grotesque.

Still, Mr. Alison's finest descriptions are occasionally marred by the same faults which we have remarked in his political dissertations; by the same tendency to flights of poetical extravagance; the same wearisome repetitions; the same flow of sonorous verbosity. We forbear to recommence our reluctant strictures upon these faults of style; but there is a single error which we are unwilling to pass over, be cause we believe it to be peculiar to this branch of the narrative. We allude to the occasional substitution of the present for the past tense in the relation of events. It is one of the most unimpressive and unpleasing artifices which a writer can employ-rarely admissible in narrative poetry, scarcely ever in prose romance, and utterly inconsistent with the sober dignity of the historical style. Much of all this is, no doubt, to be attributed to the incorrectness of taste indisputably displayed by Mr. Alison in many of the more impassioned passages of his work; but much, we suspect, is owing to an injudicious and indiscriminate, though just and laudable, admiration for the genius of a rival historian.

Mr. Alison frequently speaks with warm and generous applause of the ardent military eloquence which distinguishes the style of Colonel Napier. Nothing can be more handsomely expressed than this feeling; but we suspect that it has occasionally betrayed Mr. Alison into unconscious, and not always happy, imitation. We appreciate as highly as any one the force and originality of the language employed by this great military historian. Among all his high qualities none is more conspicuous than the warmth and vigor of his narra

We are far from accusing Mr. Alison of caricaturing Colonel Napier's manner. We think his descriptions a softened, and in some respects an improved copy of those of his great original. But Colonel Napier's battle-pieces are in a style which will not bear softening-we had almost said, in a style which will not bear improvement. We know no description so appropriate to it as the quaint expression applied by Henry Grattan to Lord Chatham's oratory-that it was very great, and very odd.' Its eccentricity cannot be corrected without weakening its energy; it is either strikingly yet irregularly lofty, or it becomes tame, hollow, and exaggerated. With Colonel Napier himself the last is never the case.. His faults are as racy and as characteristic as his beauties; and in his boldest offences against taste, his originality and vigor are conspicuous.

Still, this lively melodramatic style, even when most successful, is not that which we prefer for historical narrative. We are no very rigid advocates for what is called the dignity of history. We have no doubt that thousands of interesting facts have perished, never to be recovered, by the supercil ious neglect of over formal historians. We would have all circumstances preserved which can add the least effect to the nar rative, however trivial they may appear. But we do not see the advantage of ornamental descriptions, however striking in