LITERARY SPECTATOR.
UNAPPRECIATED AUTHORS.
DANIEL DE FOE was the author of Robinson Crusoe, and quizzed in the Dunciad : he was much more, but this is all that the world has cared to know of him up to this time, when Mr. WiLsox, in the History- of his Life,* renders a late justice to one of the noblest examples of ability, courage, and honesty, to be found in the list of British, authors.
Robinson Crusoe has served to save the works of DE FOE from shipwreck, and his name from oblivion ; but it has not obtained for him the fame due to his genius,—for this reason, that pro- ductions of the most extraordinary excellence, which early become familiar to youth, are seldom rated according to their merit. They are loved, but not estimated. The mind of the child never ranges from the performance that delights, to the author ; and with advancing rears his name passes into a mere signature to a toy of infancy. The pleasure is vividly remembered, without any con- sideration of the genius that has afforded it. Let any one call to . mind the history of his acquaintance with Robinson Crusoe, and his idea of DE FOE ; and the truth of these remarks will be ac- knowledged. For our own parts, we well recollect the intense delight with which we conned the pages ; but as for the author, our only sentiment respecting him was one of wonder that a man with so French a name should have written an English book. In our nursery copy, a likeness of DE Fox, in a flowing wig, faced the title-page ; and in token of our gratitude for the enjoyment we had derived from his invention, we thrust his eyes out. Years afterwards, an accidental perusal of the Memoirs of a Cavalier awakened our sense of his rare merits, and led us to read his , other works, and to appreciate the singular ability that had pro- duced them.
There are many other writers of first-rate merit, who, like DR
FoE, have not been justly estimated with relation to paxticularpro- duct ions, because they have become familiar to youth. Who cow siders the exquisite poetic fancy and appropriate simplicity of the French Fairy Tales, Blue Beard, Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood? ADDISON rescued the ballads of Chevy Chase and the Children in the Wood from the commonplace neglectful content or inadequate approbation ; but a critic is yet wanting to awaken people to a sense of the wit and felicitous turns of GAYS Fables. They are in every one's memory and mouth, but without a just perception of their perfections, familiarity having preceded judg- ment. In after years, with the Beggar's Opera comes the recog- nition of GAY'S genius. Gulliver 's Travels are read with zest when the mind is incapable of apprehending the intended satire ; and there are thousands who are completely familiar with the and for ever insensible to the principal merits. SWIFT'S fame does not stand on the basis of his best and most popular works. GOLDSMITH is an example of veiry. superior merit utterly undervalued. He had childishly weak points of character; was disparaged by JOHNSON; and has consequently been the subject of every blockhead's contemptuous sneer. But how great the merit of the Vicar of Wakefield, and the neglected Citizen of the World, —which is unlike all the other more esteemed essays in this respect, that its papers are apposite to every time, so wonderfully have they hit the everlasting. generalities of human folly! We could point out twenty papers in the collection which would seem written expressly upon the passing absurdities of the day ; and in ease, spirit, good-natured humour, as well as truth of observation, they are unequalled. To make amends for its careless _estimate of such authors as GOLDSMITH and DE FOE, and its no less -careless estimate of such . works as Gulliver's Travels, and the Fables of GAY, 110W pro- • digal has the world been in praise of the artificial STERNE, and . the tedious RICHARDSON! Thus, we may uniformly observe, that the books read at the riper age produce the greater fame. to their authors ; and that those which please childhood, though of the very first excellence, scarcely ever obtain a just estimate of their merits. The same remark applies to the classical forced reading. The excellences of Ceesea, Ovin, and XENOPHON, are overlooked ; VIRGIL, LIVY, and HOMER, read at a later time, are better consi- dered; while HORACE, TACITUS, SOPHOCLES, and EURIPIDES, are sifted to their minutest beauties. Should not these facts fur- nish some hints for education ?
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