giveness, took out his pencil and wrote the answer | nevertheless, there is truth in the sarcasm. Law, to the written question thus: "It is the odor which flowers yield when trampled upon." What a volume of exquisite poetry and at the same time forcible truth is contained in it. as a system, even in this age of intelligence, is cumbered up with useless forms, absurd fictions, and unmeaning technicalities; serving only to strew with stumbling blocks the pathway to the temple of justice, which should ever be of safe and easy approach. The system of the administration of laws in this country, needs a thorough overhauling. The Augean stables were not half as much in want of the labors of an Hercules, as the departments of law of the labors of the modern reformer. And as the stables in the classic fable were cleansed by the turning of a river through them, so all that it wants I remember somewhere to have read of a tyrannical ruler, who is said to have publicly erected altars to cruelty and injustice. Many modern worshipers of the same hideous divinities are equally as zealous as this tyrant: but with the essential difference, that their altars are erected in private, within the penetralia of their own homes. Like the Egyptian priesthood, after having performed the most diabolical rites, they come forth arrayed in the white robes of innocence. And society is too apt, like the "ignobile vulgus" of Egypt, to greet them with the same reverence they did their priesthood. They, too, have their esoteric and exoteric theology-the it will thoroughly cleanse and purify the Augean one is their religion in private, the other abroad. This lively paragraph may be found in the memoirs of Gibbon; and the sentiment therein conveyed is no less beautiful than true; for after all, what is military glory and renown when compared with the fame of the distinguished poet, historian, or man of letters. The hero, after the lapse of a few centuries shines like a very distant constellation, merely visible in the wide expanse of history, while the poet and historian continue to sparkle in the eyes of all men, like that radiant star of the evening, perpetually hailed by the voice of gratitude, affection, and delight. "The lawyer," said Burke, “has his forms and his positive institutions, and he adheres to them with a veneration altogether as religious as the divine. The worst cause cannot be so prejudicial to the litigant as his attorney's ignorance of forms. A good parson once said, where mystery begins, there religion ends. May not the same be said of justice, that where the mystery of forms begin, there all justice ends." There is a great deal more truth in the above quotation from Burke, than is generally admitted by the followers of Coke and Littleton. The satire may be, perhaps, too broad, as the whole essay in which it occurs was a burlesque upon Bolingbroke; but, now in reference to the administration of law, is, stables of the law. The impudent man has wonderful advantages: he successfully assumes every talent, and pretends to every branch of learning; and passes the time, spent by others in recluse retirement and gloomy study, in making useful friends, and acquiring the habits of the world. Any transitory marks of distinction, or idea! honors, produce future regret, and often poignant grief. The beauty of the ball is little flattered, twenty years afterward, by that praise and admiration which is past and forgotten, any more than the collegian, who gained every literary prize, which vainly taught him to expect admiration, applause, and respect through life. Imprudence is so often the cause of misfortunes, that the Cardinal Richelieu used to say, that imprudence and misfortune were synonymous. Memory is productive of more misery than happiness. Misfortune leaves unpleasing vestiges, whilst the remembrance of pleasures past creates regret. Fortune, like the fickle female, despises the object of her power. She slights the very sighs that she creates; and whilst the suppliant is disregarded, she courts the hand which rejects her. Relentless and obdurate to her most passionate admirers, what she refuses to love, she often lavishes on indifference. SONNET.-THE MARINER. ABOARD his brittle bark, on the rough sea, Lo the bold mariner in safety rides, His guide the needle, pointing to the pole- W. A. REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS. The Blithedale Romance. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is evident, if what we have said be true, that the criticism to be applied to Hawthorne's works must take its rules of judgment from the laws to which his own genius yields obedience; for if he differs from other writers, not in degree but in kind, if the process and purpose of his creations be peculiar to himself, and especially if he draws from an experience of life from which others have been shut out, and has penetrated into mysterious regions of consciousness, a pioneer in the unexplored wildernesses of thought-it is worse than ridiculous to prattle the old phrases, and apply the accredited rules of criticism to an entirely new product of the human mind. The objections to Hawthorne, if objections there be, do not relate to the exercise of his powers but to his nature itself. His works are the offspring of that; proceed as certainly from it as a deduction from a premise; and criticism can do little in detecting any break in the links of that logic of passion and imagination, any discordance in that unity of law, which presides over the organization of each product of his mind. But we are willing to admit, that criticism may advance a step beyond this, and after conceding the power and genuineness of a work of art, can still question the excellence of the spirit by which it is animated; can, in short, doubt the validity, denounce the character, and attempt to weaken the influence, of the kind of genius its analysis lays open. In the first flush of a romancer's fame, there is rarely any distinct recognition of the peculiar originality of his powers as distinguished from other great novelists, who equally fasten the interest and thrill the hearts of their readers. The still, small voice of analysis is lost amid thunders of applause. In the case of Hawthorne this mode of reception does but little justice either to the force or refinement of his powers. It is only when we explore the sources of his fascination, when we go over the processes of his mind in creation, that we can realize the character and scope of his genius, and estimate, on true principles, the merit of each succeding product of his pen. It is obvious to every reader that his mind is at once rich in various faculties, and powerful in its general action; that he possesses observation, fancy, imagination, passion, wit, humor; but a great writer can never be accurately described in those abstract terms which apply equally to all great writers, for such terins give us only the truth as it is about the author, not the truth as it is in him. The real question relates to the modification of his powers by his character; the tendency, the direction, the coloring, which his faculties receive in obeying the primary impulses of his individuality. This brings us at once to the sharpest test to which an author can be subjected, for it puts to him that searching query which instantly dissolves the most plausible bubbles-has he novelty of nature? Is he an absolutely new power in literature? It is Hawthorne's great felicity that he can stand the remorseless rigor of this test. He is not made up by culture, imitation, appropriation, sympathy, but has grown up in obedience to vigorous innate principles and instincts seated in his own nature; his power and peculiarity can be analyzed into no inspirations caught from other minds, but conduct us back to their roots in his original constitution. Thus he has imagination, and he has humor; but his imagination is not the imagination of Shelley or the imagination of Richter; neither is his humor the humor of Addison or the humor of Dickens; they are both essentially Hawthorneish, and resent all attempts to identify them with faculties in other minds. His style, again, in its clearness, pliability, In Hawthorne, on the contrary, persons are commonly and melodious ease of movement, reminds us of the style conceived in their relations to laws, and hold a second of Addison, of Scott, and of Irving, in making us forget place in his mind. In "The Scarlet Letter," which made itself in attending to what it conveys; but for that very a deeper impression on the public than any romance ever reason every vital peculiarity of it is original, for what it published in the United States, there is little true characconveys is the individuality of Hawthorne, and there is terization, in the ordinary meaning of the term. Tho not a page which suggests, except to the word-mongers characters are not really valuable for what they are, but and period-balancers of mechanical criticism, even an un- for what they illustrate. Imagination is predominant conscious imitation of any acknowledged master of dic- throughout the work, but it is imagination in its highest tion. This contented movement within the limitations of analytic rather than dramatic action. And this is the his own genius, this austere confinement of his mind to secret of the strange fascination which fastens attention to that "magic circle" where none can walk but he, this scorn its horrors. It is not Hester or Dimmesdale that really of pretending to be a creator in regions of mental effort interest us, but the spectacle of the human mind open to with which he can simply sympathize-all declare the the retribution of violated law, and quivering in the sagacious honesty, the instinctive intellectual conscien- agonies of shame and remorse. It is the law and not the tiousness of original genius. Hunt him when and where person that is vitally conceived, and accordingly the you will-lay traps for him-watch the most seeret haunts author traces its sure operation with an unshrinking inand cosiest corners of his meditative retirement-and you tellect that, for the time, is remorseless to persons. As never catch him strutting about in borrowed robes, gor- an illustration of the Divine order on which our convengeous with purple patches cut from transatlantic garments, tional order rests, it is the most moral book of the age; or adroitly filching felicities from transcendental pockets. and is especially valuable as demonstrating the superInimitable in his own sphere, he has little temptation toficiality of that code of ethics, predominant in the French be a poacher in the domains of other minds. school of romance, which teaches obedience to individual The justice of such a critism applied to Hawthorne would depend on the notion which the critic has of what constitutes excellence in kind. The ordinary demand of the mind in a work of art, serious as well as humorous, is for geniality-a demand which admits of the widest variety of kinds which can be included within a healthy and pleasurable directing sentiment. Now Hawthorne is undoubtedly exquisitely genial, at times, but in him geniality cannot be said to predominate. Geniality of general effect comes, in a great degree, from tenderness to persons; it implies a conception of individnal character so intense and vivid, that the beings of the author's brain become the objects of his love; and this love somewhat blinds him to the action of those spiritual laws which really control the conduct and avenge the crimes of individuals. instinct and impulse, regardless of all moral truths which contain the generalized experience of the race. The purpose of the book did not admit of geniality. Adultery has been made genial by many poets and novelists, but only by considering it under a totally different aspect from that in which Hawthorne viewed it. Geniality in "The Scarlet Letter" would be like an ice-cream shop in Dante's Inferno. rator of the story, a person indolent of will, but of an ap prehensive, penetrating, and inquisitive intellect. This discerner of spirits only tells us his own discoveries; and there is a wonderful originality and power displayed in thus representing the characters. What is lost by this mode, on definite views, is more than made up in the stimulus given both to our acuteness and curiosity, and its manifold suggestiveness. We are joint watchers with Miles himself, and sometimes find ourselves disagreeing with him in his interpretation of an act or expression of the persons he is observing. The events are purely mental, the changes and crises of moods of mind. Three persons of essentially different characters and purposes, are placed together; the law of spiritual influence, the processes of thought and emotion are then presented in perfect logical order to their inevitable catastrophe. These characters are Hollingsworth, a reformer, whose whole nature becomes ruthless under the dominion of one absorbing idea-Zenobia, a beautiful, imperious, impas In "The House of Seven Gables," we percieve the same far-reaching and deep-seeing vision into the duskiest corners of the human mind, and the same grasp of objective laws, but the interest is less intense, and the subject admits of more relief. There is more of character in it, delineated however on some neutral ground between the grotesque and the picturesque, and with flashes of super-magnetism of soul on soul begins to operate; and the natural light darting occasionally into the picture, revealing, by glimpses, the dread foundations on which the whole rests. It contains more variety of power than "The Scarlet Letter," and in the characters of Clifford and Phebe exhibits the extreme points of Hawthorne's genius. The delineation of Clifford evinces a metaphysical power,sioned, self-willed woman, superbly endowed in person a capacity of watching the most remote movements of thought, and of resolving into form the mere film of consciousness of exhibiting the mysteries of the mind in as clear a light as ordinary novelists exhibit its common manifestations-which might excite the wonder of Kant or Hegel. Phebe, on the contrary, though shaped from the finest materials, and implying a profound insight into the subtilest sources of genial feeling, is represented dramatically, is a pure embodiment, and may be deemed Hawthorne's most perfect character. The sunshine of the book all radiates from her; and there is hardly a "shady place" in that weird "House," into which it does not penetrate. "The Blithedale Romance," just published, seems to us the most perfect in execution of any of Hawthorne's works, and as a work of art, hardly equaled by any thing else which the country has produced. It is a real organism of the mind, with the strict unity of one of Nature's own creations. It seems to have grown up in the author's nature, as a tree or plant grows from the earth, in obedience to the law of its germ. This unity cannot be made clear by analysis; it is felt in the oneness of impression it makes on the reader's imagination. The author's hold on the central principle is never relaxed; it never slips from his grasp; and yet every thing is developed with a victorious ease which adds a new charm to the interest of the materials. The romance, also, has more thought in it than either of its predecessors; it is literally crammed with the results of most delicate and searching observation of life, manners and character, and of the most piercing imaginative analysis of motives and tendencies; yet nothing seems labored, but the profoundest reflections glide unobtrusively into the free flow of the narration and description, equally valuable from their felicitous relation to the events and persons of the story, and for their detached depth and power. The work is not wihout a certain morbid tint in the general coloring of the mood whence it proceeds; but this peculiarity is fainter than is usual with Hawthorne. The scene of the story is laid in Blithedale, an imaginary community on the model of the celebrated Brook Farm, of Roxbury, of which Hawthorne himself was a member. The practical difficulties in the way of combining intellectual and manual labor on socialist principles constitutes the humor of the book; but the interest centres in three characters, Hollingsworth, Zenobia, and Priscilla. These are represented as they appear through the medium of an imagined mind, that of Miles Coverdale, the nar and intellect, but with something provokingly equivocal in her character-and Priscilla, an embodiment of feminine affection in its simplest type. Westervelt, an elegant piece of earthliness, "not so much born as damned into the world," plays a Mephistophelian part in this mental drama; and is so skillfully represented that the reader joins at the end, with the author, in praying that Heaven may annihilate him. "May his pernicious soul rot half a grain a day." With all the delicate sharpness of insight into the most elusive movements of Consciousness, by which the romance is characterized, the drapery cast over the whole representation, is rich and flowing, and there is no parade of metaphysical acuteness. All the profound and penetrating observation seems the result of a certain careless felicity of aim, which hits the mark in the white without any preliminary posturing or elaborate preparation. The stronger, and harsher passions are represented with the same ease as the evanescent shades of thought and emotion. The humorous and descriptive scenes are in Hawthorne's best style. The peculiarities of New England life at the present day are admirably caught and permanently embodied; Silas Foster and Hollingsworth being both genuine Yankees and representative men. The great passage of the volume is Zenobia's death, which is not so much tragic as tragedy itself. In short, whether we consider "The Blithedale Romance" as a study in that philosophy of the human mind which peers into the inmost recesses and first principles of mind and character, or a highly colored and fascinating story, it does not yield in interest or value to any of Hawthorne's preceding works, while it is removed from a comparison with them by essential differences in its purpose and mode of treatment, and is perhaps their superior in affluence and fineness of thought, and masterly perception of the first remote workings of great and absorbing passions. The History of the Restoration of Monarchy in France. By Alphonse de Lamartine. Vol. 2. New York: Harper & Brothers. This volume deals with the events of "The Hundred Days," giving a graphic picture of the incidents which occured between the return of Napoleon from Elba and his final overthrow at Waterloo. It is much more minute than any other history of the period, and occasionally gives elaborate descriptions of persons and occurrences unworthy of being rescued from the oblivion of their unimportance. Lamartine evidently dislikes both Napoleon and Napoleonism. The leading object of the present | amount to a kind of genius; and the character is one of the volume is to prove that France was sick of him, and that best that Hood ever delineated. Her letter, describing the army alone was in his favor. One passage seems a the effects of a storm at sea, is perhaps the richest in the palpable hit at the usurpation of the "Nephew of my volume. "To add to my frite," she says, "down flumps Uncle." "If the people," says Lamartine, "did not the stewardis on her nees and begins shrieking we shall protest by civic opposition, they protested very generally be pitcht all over! Think I if she give up we may preby their sorrow and estrangement. History never recorded pair for our watery graves. At sich crisisus theres nomore audacity in the usurpation of a throne, or a more thing like religun and if I repeted my catkism wunce I cowardly submission of a nation to an army. France lost said it a hundered times over and never wunce rite. The on that day somewhat of its character, the law of its only comfort I had besides Christianity was to give Missus majesty, the liberty of its respect. Military despotism warnin witch I did over and over between her attax. At was substituted for public opinion. The pretorians made last Martha says she we are going to a world where there a mockery of the people. The Lower Empire of Rome is no sitivations. What an idear! But our superiers are enacted in Gaul one of those scenes which degrade history, always shy of our society, as if hevin abuy was too good and humiliate human nature. The only excuse for such an for servants. Talking of superiers there was a Tittled event is that the people were depressed under ten years Lady in Bed in the cabbin that sent every five minits for of military government, that the army was rendered frantic the capting, till at long and at last he got Crusty. Capting by ten years of prodigies, and that its idol was a hero." says she I insist on your gitting the ship more out of the For the Bourbons, Lamartine evinces a tender regard, wind. I wish I could says he. Dont you no who I ham, and narrates their flight from France in a style of mental says she very dignifide." The last touch is especially bombast which but ill rescues it from ridicule. The define. scription of the Congress of Vienna is very brilliant, and the sketches of Talleyrand, Fouche, and Wellington, discriminating and powerful. The sentimentality of the author gives, as usual, its peculiar perversion to the facts of the narrative; things are commonly represented in their relation to the opinions of Lamartine, rather than in their relation to each other; and occasionally gross fictions are introduced to add to the scenic effect. For instance, in the account of the battle of Waterloo, Wellington, at one stage of the contest, is said to have mounted his eighth horse, seven having been worn out or killed under him. He rode only one during the whole day. Again, in describing a charge of English horse, Lamartine represents the duke as causing brandy to be distributed to the dragoons, "to intoxicate the men with liquid fire, whilst the sound of the clarion should intoxicate the horses," and then launching them himself "at full speed down the declivity of Mont-Saint-Jean." This statement, likewise, the translator is authorized to deny. It is curious also that Lamartine, with his numerous additions, should have made one important omission of fact. Wellington was surprised at Waterloo; Lamartine represents him as negligent; but the truth was that he depended on Fouche, to give him intelligence of Napoleon's march. Fouche, with his usual felicity in duplicating his treasons, sent intelligence to Wellington of Napoleon's approach, and then dispatched orders for the arrest of his own messenger. Those who are acoustomed to consider Wellington as the "iron duke," and to transfer to him all the passionlessness which such an epithet suggests, will be surprised at the peculiar emphasis with which Lamartine speaks of his "voluptuousness." This charge, we believe, was true in 1815. Up the Rhine. By Thomas Hood. With Comic Illustra- A Step from the New World to the Old and Back Again: A new book of travels, devoted to a description of old scenes which have been traveled over and over again, is getting to be the terror of critics. We therefore took up the present volume with that languid intolerance of the subject which is ominous of dissatisfaction both with the writer and his book, but were agreeably surprised at the new interest which the author has contrived to cast over familiar objects. Prof. Tappan, indeed, is one of those independent and thoughtful tourists who never repeat the stale ecstasies and stereotyped amazement common to ordinary travelers on seeing objects they are prepared to admire, but views things through the medium of his own mind, and honestly records impressions made on his own heart and imagination. He is a quiet, scholarly, truthful, candid and intelligent man, sees much which others have missed seeing, and never loses his discrimination in his raptures. His observations are often striking and original, and the information he conveys is commonly valuable. His journey was confined to England, Scotland, the Rhine, Switzerland, France and Holland. The most interesting portion of all is that which relates to Holland. In visiting Abbotsford the author gives a provoking piece of news. It is well-known that the sale of Scott's works had been sufficient to clear this estate of debt, and every purchaser of the English edition of his writings throughout the world felt that he was aiding in this good work. After the death of Scott's son, the estate, some two thousand acres, descended to Scott's grandson, young Lockhart, who has again embarrassed it. It is now occupied by a London broker., Legends of Love and Chivalry. The Knights of England, This volume contains Legends of the Norman Conquerors, of the Crusaders, of Feudal Days, and of Scotland-fourteen splendid tales in all. As is usual with him, Mr. Herbert deals in this volume with the strongest passions, and exhibits their workings in powerful characters and striking events. His mode of narration is vehement, and the reader who once commits himself to the rushing stream of his style can hardly pause for breath until he has arrived at the end. His knowledge of history is extensive and minute, and it is a knowledge painted in living pictures on his imagination rather than hoarded in his memory. The past is present to him-in persons, scenery, dialect and costume, and he writes of it as if he were recording what was passing before his eyes. This power of vitalizing and vivifying every thing he touches is manifested throughout these "Legends." He conceives with such intensity that he becomes a partisan in dealing with his own creations; is furiously hostile to some, and as furiously favorable to others. The effect of his intense representations is felt both in the reader's brain and blood. It is not until after the book is read that we feel conscious that the author's sympathies and antipathies disturb his powers of discrimination in his judgments of historical characters. Waverley Novels. Library Edition. Vol. 1. Waverley; or 'Tis Sixty Years Since. Boston: B. B. Mussey & Co. 12mo. This is a new issue of Parker's celebrated edition of the Waverley Novels, containing the author's final additions, corrections and notes. It is printed in large type, is very cheap, and should meet with success. This, with Lippincott, Grambo & Co.'s edition, will doubtless induce a re-perusal of the novels of Scott. Nothing that has since been written has surpassed or even equaled them in the distinguishing features of romantic writing. It is Scott's great and rare distinction that he created a school of novelists admitting the exercise of the most various genius, and that among the myriad writers who have felt his inspiration none has received or merited his fame. In England a hundred and twenty-five thousand copies of his novels have been sold, and the demand still continues. Scott should be read every five years. In the fourth perusal we have found his novels more interesting than the new romances of the day. while fully her equal in talent, excels both her and most of womankind in enterprise, fortitude and heroism. Her present work, detailing the dangers and discomforts of a life in the far-west of Canada, is full of fine descriptions of nature, evinces throughout a healthy and vigorous spirit, and contains many a scene of genuine humor. Her sketches of character, Yankee, French and English, are especially good. Little Peddlington and the Peddlingtonians. By John Poole, author of Paul Pry, etc. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 2 vols. 16mo. Since the "Memoirs of P. P., Clerk of the Parish," no book has been published equal to this in the art of lifting the little into ludicrous importance. Its length makes it somewhat tiresome, but the leading idea is so well carried out so well directed a fire is kept up at all the political, literary and social follies of England-and the author is a humorist of such truth and keenness-that it deserves its place in the "Popular Library" to which it belongs. Adventures of Col. Vanderbomb in Pursuit of the Presi dency. Also, the Exploits of his Secretary. By J. B. Jones, Ex-editor of the Official Journal. Philadelphia: A. Hart (late Carey & Hart.) This is a very humorous story of the political career of an imaginary candidate for the highest office in the gift of the sovereign people; a spirited satire upon the efforts of ambitious aspirants for political distinction and profits. The work is seasonable, and will be widely read. The illustrated cover is by Darley. The Mother at Home; or The Principles of Maternal Duty Familiarly Illustrated. By John S. C. Abbott. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1 vol. 16mo. This valuable little work has long enjoyed an extensive Graces and Powers of the Christian Life. By A. D. popularity, and been translated into numerous foreign Mayo. Boston: Abel Tompkins. 1 vol. 12mo. The present volume contains eleven sermons on topics suggested by the title, and they are all worthy of being read beyond that peculiar circle of readers, known technically as the "religious public." The writer is evidently a man of a discerning and disciplined mind, writing from deep fountains of personal experience, and treating the gravest and deepest realities of life with the assured air of one whose soul has been in contact with the great spiritual facts he announces. Hence comes both the elevation and the practical soundness of his statements of duty and his exhortations to holiness. His style is pliable to his thoughts and emotions, stating plain things plainly, and rising as his subject rises into unforced dignity and eloquence. There is nothing of the rhetorician either in the selection of his matter, or his mode of expressing it, but an unmistakable sincerity and truthfulness distinguish every statement, argument and appeal. As a thinker he excels in spiritual discernment, though he is not deficient in that logical method by which a principle, clearly conceived in itself, is rigidly followed through all its applications to men and to affairs. His volume meets practical needs in many hearts, and only requires to have its character known to be extensively read. He belongs to that class of clergymen who really commune with spiritual and religious ideas, and therefore, though a writer of sermons, he never sermonizes. Roughing it in the Bush; or Life in Canada. By Susanna Moodie. New York: Geo. P. Putnam. 2 parts. Mrs. Moodie is the sister of Agnes Strickland, and languages. The present edition is illustrated with numerous fine wood-cuts and printed in the same elegant style as the author's series of historical works. It should be in the hands of every mother, for though much of it is necessarily commonplace, there is much also which is new and suggestive. Time and Tide; or Strive and Win. By A. S. Roe, Au thor of James Montjoy, etc. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 12mo. The author of this story is well-known as a vigorous and truthful delineator of common life. The present volume is one of his best. It inculcates the moral implied in the title, a moral which is the key to all success in life. The characters are drawn with, much force, and the incidents have the interest of reality. To the young the work will be found particularly interesting. Whately's English Synonyms. First American Edition. Boston: James Monroe & Co. This edition is very carefully revised from the second London edition, and will be found to be of great service to the student and man of letters. The Romance of the Revolution. Edited by Oliver B. Bunce. New York: Bunce & Brother. This volume is filled with passages of stirring interest, appropriately arranged, selected from various authorities, embracing the most romantic incidents of the War of Independence. It is admirably illustrated with wood-engravings by Orr, printed in tints. |