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Report on General Literature. 



warm anticipations of it, have made too much allowance 

 for the past reputation of the author, and too little for the 

 generation's alteration of taste, and hence have willfully 

 deceived themselves. The book is probably not inferior 

 to any former one from the same pen, but, excepting in 

 highly sensational circles, the desire for eccentric compli- 

 cations of plot and for morbid characteristics of dramatis 

 personce, has, in a great measure, passed away, and sim- 

 plicity of style and of delineation are more sought for ; and 

 consequently, while we now c ndemn, we must not forget 

 that thirty years ago we would have as greatly applauded. 



Our own land has also been awakened into some enthu- 

 siasm by the California Sketches of Bret Harte ; a little 

 work of great merit for its accurate delineations of frontier 

 and mining life ; but in respect of which, it is to be feared 

 that the author, as in the preceding case of D'Israeli, may 

 ultimately suffer from the too precipitate praise of his 

 friends, subsiding by necessary reaction into indifference. 

 With unreasoning speed, the public, being pleased with 

 the genius herein displayed, have not paused to consider 

 that no one can ride into more than temporary fame upon 

 a series of short and fugitive articles ; and that, however 

 excellent such sketches may be, they can only profitably 

 serve as an introduction to greater efforts. The true posi- 

 tion of Bret Harte in English literature can only be ascer- 

 tained when he has attempted some more ambitious task ; 

 and should he not choose to do so, it may reasonably be 

 feared that the fickle public will avenge itself, by neglect 

 of the author, for their own haste in giving him a prema- 

 ture immortality. 



The field of art affords for us at least two striking little 

 works, Art Thoughts, by Jarvis, and Taine's Netherlands ; 

 both of them volumes replete with taste and culture, 

 though somewhat dissimilar in their scope. The former, 

 the work of an American author, deals more generally 



