Literary Destinies

The pervcrsilios of lito ra ry clnstiny are cortninly slnuige. Chnrlê Lflinb gpeut the better part of h8 life n pon the smninit ola lol'ty stool in a London office, copyinir words and liirui-cs into a series of folio. Miss Braudon is conducto! by inimitable fatë to the novclist's desk, tlierc lo equander a forty-clerk power ot' peisistent icnmanship in turniiiif romance inio ridicule, bhe has liitle imaginaiion, an indifferent taste, aud no humor; and yet ého has wrí.ttoii nearly two acoro óf novcls, which have been ïvail by hundrod of thüusaiid of readers, and ihe pages of whieh are unslaiiied, so far as we ara avarc,by aiiytliiiig worse ihan penwUiouiilisiu and vapidiiy. "W'iierc to look for a parallel to sucli a tour de i'orce we know ot. 'Otiida's" "success" isdue to her unfailing prurienoy : Balzac's 10 his inexhaiistible genius ; üeorge Elioi's to her inteUecmal synipatliy. Miss Bradduu, without the ud of eitherpruriency, genius, 01' inlellectual synipatliy, ia alinost as widely knovvn, and is perhaps more read tliau any oi the before-roentioned w rite ra. VVuora is tlie expLuuuioii of Ihis anornaly to besoughtï Tlieremust be a large class ot' minds which can lind repose neithcr in tkep, nor in wakmg idleness, but only in a BUjjerflciul mental movenient, which sliall ileceive the inind proper into faii&ying itself occupieu, and thus cnable it lo slcal soine actual vest. Now, undoubtcdly no mental inoveïnent can be moro superficial thanthat nroduced by an uncriiical perusal oí Miss liraddou's novéis, and tlierelore uo iuward calm more unrullied.