1850.] On the Old Writers. 263 voyages to the Bowre of Blis, the description of Error, at the very opening, and the 'salvage man,' of whom it is said, For other language had he none nor speach, But a soft murmure and confused sound Of senselesse words, which Nature did him teach T' expresse his passions, which his reason did empeach,' — 6 and whose strange, poetical uncouthness brings Caliban to mind. "Though it be true that Spenser seldom makes us laugh or weep,' yet his Mother Hubberd's Tale is a delightfully playful satire, and keeps a smile about the mouth all the time we read. We are affected in the same way by Braggadocio, a fellow something between Pistol and Parolles, -a losel base; and Gule, too, he that us'd to fish for fooles on the dry shore,' amuses us exceedingly, when, by changing from a bird to a hedgehogge,' he escapes from the hand of Artegall. Malbecco in search of his wife, which Mr. Hazlitt refers to, is also ludicrous. His uxoriousness, forcing him into dangers which his cowardice makes him tremble at, joint and limb, renders him altogether a most pitiable, yet diverting object. It may seem singular, yet we are hardly willing to call Spenser's poetry mere fairy land, or to say that we wander among mere ideal beings in another world. True it is, he takes and lays us in the lap of a lovelier nature, by the sound of softer streams, among greener hills, and fairer valleys. He paints nature, not as we find it, but as we expected to find it, and fulfils the delightful promise of our youth.' "And it is just so. The is of a fresher green, grass the fruit hangs heavier and of a brighter gold, and the harvest is fuller,the sky of a richer glow, and the clouds more gorgeous and piled; yet we feel as if on the same earth still, only in a region of it more fair than we had before visited. The females are not precisely such as those we meet at tea-parties, nor the men just like those we talk with upon business and politics on Exchange. But when romantic boys, we fancied ourselves very much such heroes; and she whom our imaginations bodied forth and our hearts loved with earnest constancy, she that suffered with us in our fancied disappointments and sorrows, and looked happy when a brightness broke out on us in the close, - was no less beautiful than Florimel, nor less fond than Britomart. Spenser has placed his actors in scenes of nature pictured so truly, only a little more beautiful than we with our every-day eyes can see them,- has scattered through them so much of gentle and kindhearted affection and sentiment, that we forget all is so unreal, and feel a good deal relieved when the Red-crosse Knight has fairly slain the Dragon. "But it matters little whether this be true or not, whether, making due allowance for its being an allegory, he gives so much the impression of reality, or whether his strange forms, irontoothed dragons, and lighted castles seem to us mere things of air; if we would be filled with poetry in all its nativeness, and beauty, simplicity, richness, gorgeousness, we must study Spenser. Not to speak profanely, the Faerie Queene should be to the poet what his Bible is to the Christian. How carefully did Milton read Spenser! Compare the description of Sin with that of Error, and the voyage of Satan through Chaos with that of Guyon. How many, too, of his words and phrases, which are ever sounding in our ears and filling our hearts and minds with undefinable sensations and fair images, may be followed home to this work! "And not only has Spenser been the store-house of poetic language to our poets. For nothing is he more remarkable than for his unceasing action, his exhaustless productiveness and variety, motion upon motion, change upon change! You pass on from one scene to another, perpetual diversity keeping off fatigue, quitting the wild and gloomy for the cheerful and quiet, the large and desolate for little sunny nooks; from the close, shady forest you come out all of a sudden upon the bright, broad sea and open shore, and at every turn in the wood fall upon some new adventure, and meet some stranger face to face. You are in absolute wonderment that the earth should be so populous! And with what facility all this comes about! Every thing happens, nothing is made to take place. Let any one lay down the Faerie Queene, and, as well as he may, go through in order in memory with the different places, persons, and events, from the beginning to the end, and if their countless multitude and contrasting characters do not leave him in wonder and admiration at the intense life and prodigal productiveness of this old poet, it must be because wonder and admiration are states unknown to his mind. Is it too much to ask, whether, in these respects, Spenser has had a superior in any age or land? "That Mr. Hazlitt should bring the description of Lechery against Mr. Southey's character of Spenser 'Yet not more sweet Than pure was he, and not more pure than wise; can be accounted for only on the score of a sort of fatality which he labors under of attacking whatever comes from the so-called Lake School. No doubt there are passages in Spenser, which, taken apart, might put toys into young imaginations. But we should think that there was little harm remaining to be done to that mind that could read them in connection with the rest, and having in view their intent, yet find in them only incitements to loose thoughts. Some of the objects met with on the way to the 1850.] Mr. Dana's Genius. 265 Bowre of Blis, which, had they come from a less pure mind, might have worked evil, partake so much of that abstract sense of beauty, in which Spenser's mind seems so exquisite, that they do not affect us so much like creatures of flesh and blood, as like fine transparencies or forms beautifully pictured within the poem. Spenser is indeed the Palmer who will carry us safely through all such dangers, if we are not lost through a headlong desire for our own wreck the spirit of Sir Guyon in us, and we need not fear stranding."- pp. 170-177. The essays in the second volume on Old Times, The Past and Present, and Law as suited to Man, are among the best evidences which Mr. Dana has given of the philosophical capacity of his mind. They are good illustrations of the difference between principles and propositions, the author's imagination and sentiment, as well as his understanding, being active throughout. They are characterized by the intensest spirit of meditation, and a calm, strong grasp, and close application, of principles. The introspective and retrospective elements of his nature, however, appear in these essays in their most refined operation. The past is subtly identified with its ideals, the present is criticized in the light of those ideals, and tested by their most exacting requirements. The result is a kind of despair for the present, and a lack of hopefulness in surveying the future. Democracy, especially, has little justice done to it. But still the most besetting sins and dangers of the country are exhibited in an original and forcible manner, without any appeal to the controversial passions, and the essays leave a profound impression of the author's depth of nature. From the exceedingly complex character of Mr. Dana's genius, we have been able, in these hasty observations, to give but an imperfect exhibition of that peculiar combination of mental and moral qualities which constitutes the life of his writings. The best criticism on the present volumes is that which most strongly directs the public attention to them, for they cannot be read without mental and spiritual improvement; and we trust that their circulation will be large enough to give a flattering idea of the estimate placed in the United States upon great and rare powers devoted to high purposes. VOL. XLVIII. -4TH S. VOL. XIII. NO. II. E. P. W. 23 ART. VI.—THE MIDDLE CLASSES. ALTHOUGH, throughout Christendom, there is a portion of the people designated as belonging to the middle classes, there would, doubtless, be very different definitions of this term given by different persons, and in the different countries where it is applied. Perhaps the simplest and most correct one is that which describes the middle classes as composed of those persons who possess a capital, either in money's worth or education, but are yet obliged to work for their maintenance. This body is distinguished from the aristocratic or privileged class, which lives, or can live, upon income from capital, without work, and from the laboring class, strictly speaking, which subsists by daily labor, and possesses little or no capital. If, with this definition of the middle classes in our minds, we take a glance at the different countries of Christendom, the first thing that strikes us is the immense difference in the condition of these countries, as to the proportion of the classes described to the whole population. Upon a second glance, it seems that this difference bears some proportion, or at least some relation, to the amount of freedom enjoyed in these countries; using the word in the sense of freedom from restraint in the labormarket, or open competition to the workers, whether with the head or the hand. Although this would appear to be the general rule, there are various discrepancies and anomalies discernible in the working of it, which are quite curious. In England, for instance, it is generally, and probably truly, thought, that the middle classes have gained a great accession of power within twenty years; and yet it is very doubtful whether (taking our definition) they have increased in number, during that time, proportionably to the whole population. The returns of 1831 show in Great Britain a body of small landholders, amounting to 355,890 persons, and a body of laborers employed on the land, numbering 887,167,-making together 1,243,057 men, twenty years of age and upwards, employed in agriculture, out of a population of that description of 3,944,511. A large proportion of this class of small "occupiers" 1850.] The Middle Classes in Great Britain. 267 had disappeared in 1841, owing to the system of the extension of great estates; and the individuals composing it had fallen into the ranks of laborers, or turned to other occupations. In the latter year, 1841, out of 4,761,091men of twenty years of age and upwards in Great Britain, only 274,305 are put down as comprised in the list of "farmers, graziers, surveyors, nursery-men, and florists," and 923,851 as men employed on wages in cultivating the soil; making only 1,198,156 men of age employed on the land;- which is less than the number so employed in 1831, although the population had meanwhile increased very much. Owing to the different mode of making the returns of 1831 and 1841, it is difficult to ascertain what the real progress of the middle classes in numbers, if any, has been; but the results shown are so curious and significant, that we shall pause a moment to examine them. 4,761,091 274,30 323,851 392,162 1,733.334 204,481 504,893 143,093 77,334 129,855 53,113 324,670 1,198,156 2.125,496 lor 25.17 per ct.for 44.64 per cent. 1,437,439 |