type is always cropping up; but among, live more intensely, and consequently renthe English, especially the cultivated English, the faculty of social song-singing in such a manner as not to throw a cold blanket over the listening circle, is much

more rare.

All he did in literature was good, and like him. But he had no self-competing ambitions, and never pushed any specialty beyond a certain point of excellence, which may be called the domestic. It was in companionship that his best broke into flower. He had always a happy pencil of his own, as I have said, but the sketches intended only for the eyes of his more intimate friends were the most humorous and effective that he ever drew. Great humour he had, but this, too, was domestic; his "humour of comrade," as a Frenchman might put it, was good, but his more domestic humour was better still, and his very finest playfulness was unreported and unreportable. It thus happens, that whilst on the one hand the first thing that strikes one, on looking at the character of Dr. Macleod, is the breadth and reach of the lines upon which it was built, the second is undoubtedly the fact that his very best was always something intimate and domestic. Nor does this for one moment lessen the greatness of anything that he did for the Church, or for the State, or for Indian missions for whatever he did, the fulcrum of his activity never changed. His nature was of the radiant order, and though it could and did project heat and light to very far off you required to get near the "ingle-nook " to know the best of it. His mind was not of the order that makes wide circuits from intellectual or mixed points of view, and returns upon its moral centre every now and then for more force: it was, as I have said, a radiating mind, and the world has gained accordingly.

dered death more difficult and strange. But it was not so, as is well known to all who noted how frequently his conversation treated of the after life and the boundless possibilities of enjoyment in it,-how in his most brilliant talk (and who could be so brilliant in talk in this generation?) he, giving free play to his imagination, and ignoring the limits of time and space, soared to “worlds not realized,” and wandered at large in the fields of immortality. And when Death walked straight up to the strong man, and laid him in the dust, it found him ready, with the humble peace which is the most magnificent ornament of that solemn moment.

ALEXANDER STRAHAN.

From The Spectator.

A NORWEGIAN DRAMA.*

Ir is not too much to say that within the green covers of this book the Norwegian did expression than in any previous work. language received a fuller and more splenIt comes from the hand of Henrik Ibsen, a poet who is fast gaining for himself that European fame which nothing but the remoteness of his mother-tongue has hitherto denied him; his Brand, published in 1866, and paved the way for his later drama, produced a great sensation in Scandinavia, which surpasses it in vigour and fire, if it does not rival its spiritual sweetness.

Peer Gynt takes its name from its hero, and the germ of him is to be found in an old legend preserved by Asbjörnsen. Peer Gynt was an idle fellow, whose aim was to live his own life, and whose chief characteristics were a knack for story-telling and a dominant passion for lies. Out of this When the cordage of his strong heart legendary waif Ibsen has evolved a charcracked to pieces, and the signal for de- and hung round it draperies of allegorical acter of wonderful subtlety and liveliness, parture came, it found Dr. Macleod already satire. Peer Gynt is an epigram on the on the way, for he had practised himself Norway of to-day; it satirizes, as in a nutin dying — no trifling science. No pilgrim shell, everything vapid, or maudlin, or ever gazed on Jerusalem more eagerly than febrile in the temper of the nation; in he did when he first saw it from the brow sparkling verse it lashes the extravaof Neby Samwil; but soon his conversa-gances of the various parties that divide tion turned from the old Jerusalem to the the social world. It is the opposite of its the earthly city seeming to suggest predecessor, Brand, for while that poem the abiding city rather than anything else. strove to wake the nation into earnestness And when we left Jerusalem, and turned by holding up before it an ideal of stainour last lingering look upon it, he was lost less nobility, Peer Gynt idealizes in the in the contemplation of the idea of depart- character of its hero the selfishness and ure, which contains all infinite ideas. It might have been expected that the abundPeer Gynt: Et dramatisk Digt. Af Henrik ance of his thoughts would have made him 'Ibsen. Copenhagen. 1867.

new

.

mean cunning of the worst of ambitious nighted party in Norway whose one cry is men. In form, the poem is indebted to monopoly, - Isolation is their gospel; that Faust; but the style and execution are an article is made at home is the same original and masterly: it is written in a thing as saying it is good. They are the variety of lyrical measures, in short rhym- Trolls! These people bring Peer some ing lines. With such a prelude, we pro

ceed to examine it.

mead. Ugh! it is sour. Never mind, it was brewed in the mountain! Everything must be old-fashioned, home-made, national; and Peer Gynt at first is attracted by their volubility and arguments, but soon he is shrewd enough to perceive how unnatural and constrained it all is, and in pure selfishness he does what others have done from patriotism,— he leaves the Trolls for a wider free sphere. Before getting rid of them, however, he has a deadly battle in the dark with Böjgen, the spirit of sounding gloom, in whose name we may trace the origin of our old nursery foe, Bogey.

The first act opens with a briskness worthy of the famous opening scene in the Alchemist. Peer Gynt, a strong, lazy young peasant, is in high dispute with his mother, Aase, a credulous, irritable, affectionate little woman, whose character is finely drawn throughout the piece. Peer Gynt's nature is one that needs that spur of ambition, or the pleasure of sinning, to rouse it from inaction. In this first scene, it is not till his mother, in the course of angry rhetoric, tells him that Ingrid, an old flame of his, is going to be married, that he shakes off his sloth. He de- In the next act, Peer is living all alone termines to stop the wedding at all events, in the forest, tormented with spiritual and and with that object goes off to the bride's physical affliction. In this down-hearted home, leaving his enraged mother on the condition, hunted by day and plagued by top of the quern, where he lifted her in a night, we almost forget his selfish cunning fit of droll mischief. He breaks in, an un-in pity, even as the woes of Caliban soften welcome guest among the feasting and our hearts. In the midst of all this, Solvejg, dancing, and manages at last to snatch up the brave gipsy-girl, comes up into the Ingrid, and dashes up the mountain side forest to be with him, having left all for his with her. But not before Solvejg, a gipsy- sake. But the happiness of her love is not girl, has seen and fallen in love with him. for him; the spirits plague him sevenfold, So far the first act. To say that Ibsen de- and he flies from her and them. Poor old scribes the scenery in his plays would be Aase has become a pauper, and lives, as to do his judgment and taste a great Norwegian paupers mostly do, as the wrong; but it is one of his greatest charge of a farmer. Peer comes to see her powers, and a manifest mark of genius, at dead of night, and the meeting forms that by small and imperceptible touches one of the most powerful passages in this he enables the reader to see the surround-strange book. Old Aase lies in bed alone; ings of his dialogues, and gather a distinct at her feet her old black cat lies coiled; the and lovely impression. In this act it is strikingly so; the narrow green valley, the buttresses of pine, the cloudy mountain-ridges, are never distinctly alluded to, and yet one is fully conscious of their presence; in this act, too, the simple humour of the dialogue is not interrupted by any allegorical writing.

It is not so with the second act. Peer, outlawed for his treatment of Ingrid, whom he had immediately deserted, lives in the hollows of the mountains, and adversity makes for him strange companions. For he slips into an atmosphere of the supernatural, and holds intercourse with trolls and phantom-girls. The finest scene in the act is one of trenchant satire. He rides into the cave of the Old Man of the Mountain, King of the Trolls, a person averse to anything foreign or modern; he is hospitably received, on condition that be conforms himself wholly to the ways of the mountain people. There is a be

wasted fire burning low on the hearth. While she yearns for her son, the door opens and he is with her, awed and sub- . dued by suffering. They play one of the old baby-games together, that Aase taught Peer so many years ago; but strange sounds ring in her ears, strange lights flash in her eyes; the fire burns down, the cat has slunk away; there is silence, and Peer is alone with his mother's dead body. With one kiss of the dear dead lips he is away to sea. All this evolves itself in short lines, alternately rhyming, a wild, ghostly metre; it is the death-scene of all sentiment and goodness in Peer; henceforth he cares only to live his own life and in his own way.

The fourth act takes us on twenty years, and reveals Peer as a middle-aged gentleman of fortune, who, having given up his business in America, that of sending heathen-gods to China and negro-slaves to Cuba, is enjoying himself with a few

friends on the coast of Morocco. The metaphysical, for pure beauty. It closes friends, however, sail off with his yacht, with the final salvation of Peer, through and are blown up with all his property. the love and faith of Solvejg, who, as a Once more he is alone and penniless. He momentary glimpse of her in the fourth starts east, announces himself as the act led us to expect, has waited for him Prophet in an oasis of Sahara, is hailed as with patient longing. To her he is driven such by a choir of ecstatic girls in a mag- by the mocking ghosts of his better nificent lyrical passage; passes through a thoughts and aspirations. variety of grotesque adventures, clothed Peer Gynt is the incarnation of that in dialogue of the most brilliant sarcasm cowardly egotism that lives only for itself, on political and social matters; and finally and sneers at all exalted sentiment,—a is discovered in Egypt, conversing with vice that may be considered the special the statue of Memnon, and meeting with growth of our own time. Against this the most extraordinary personages. The selfishness the poem is a powerful protest, advent of each gives occasion to a separ- and in spite of the author's too-obvious ate lampoon. We will describe one to give pessimism, there can be no doubt that it an idea of the poet's manner. At Cairo will have a purifying influence on the he is introduced to a melancholy shadow youth of his only too-sensitive nation. that has travelled from Malabar. Every- Whether Norway needs the rebuke more thing is going wrong in Malabar. Of old, than England may be open to doubt. four hundred years ago, only orang-out- Against one thing we would protest, the angs lived in the woods; and all their lan- flippant judgment some Scandinavian guage was shrieking and whining. But critics have passed on Ibsen as a merely the Dutch came, and settled; and now the "negative" satirist. A man who pours Malabarese, degenerate folk, use human out his vials of scorn upon vice, and relanguage, and forget the apes. But the commends virtue with such winning sweetShadow and his friends have made a league ness as does the author of Peer Gynt and for the restoration of whining and shriek- Brand, is anything rather than negative. ing; they have proved the people's right We have said enough to show that this to scream; they have screamed them- is a great and powerful work. It would selves, to point out its use in folk-song- be rash to pronounce anything impossible making; but alas! the people will not to the author of the third act of Peer have them. The meaning of all this is Gynt, but it would seem that his very plain. It is a harsh, but surely half-merited power and fluency are dangerous to him; attack on the voluble party who are striv- the book is not without marks of haste, ing to divide the language of Norway and there is a general sense of incongruity from that of Denmark by the construction and disjointedness. The African act exof a new-old-tongue on the foundation of emplifies this mixture of brilliant and Aasen's Norwegian Peasant Grammar. crude elements; one is alternately deThese men - Mr. Kristoffer Janson is the lighted and scandalized. It is to be hoped most talented of them-write poems and that Ibsen will not be so led away in fu edit newspapers in a dialect crude and ture by the perilous sweetness of the ugly enough to deserve Ibsen's cruel taunt Lyæan god as to neglect to give his work about the orang-outangs. Peer Gynt sug- its due elaboration and polish, for it is gests that the Shadows should go west, a obvious the less a polemical writer is open hint perhaps to the folk-poets to try a new to criticism himself, the more will his field in the prairies of Minnesota. strictures have weight with his readers.

From The Pall Mall Gazette. AMERICANISMS.

In the fifth act two scenes of peculiar excellence stand out. One is the first, in which Peer, after twenty years more of hard work in California, returns to Norway with a new fortune. The mountainpeaks, swathed with lurid storm-cloud, lie ahead of them, and as the scene proceeds, a tempest drives the ship against the rocks, and no one but Peer is saved. The feeling of the storm is rendered magnificently. The other is a funeral sermon preached by a village priest over an old man who has been the opposite of Peer, living honestly World." By M. Schele de Vere, LL.D., Professor in a narrow sphere, without ambition. of Modern Languages in the University of Virginia. The rest of this act is too allegorical, too (London: Trubner and Co. 1872)

THE compiler of this curious volume, which, we observe from the preface, has reached a second edition, seems to have done his work conscientiously and from a genuine interest in the subject. It is not

"Americanisms; the English of the New

the first attempt that has been made to that it may be found now in her best and note down the peculiarities of what an most fastidious writers;" and we hope American Secretary of State was pleased that the American use of "to" as an exto call the American language, but Dr. pletive in such phrases as, Would you like Schele de Vere has not only made copious to? I meant to ask him to, although authoruse of the works of his predecessors, but ized by Mrs. Stowe "in her great work, has added a large amount of fresh and in- Uncle Tom,' " will not readily be admitted teresting material. "Americanisms" are into our literature. The New York Herald derived, it is scarcely needful to say, from may promise "to ventilate" the President, a variety of sources - from the language but we suspect that even the Daily Teleof the Red Man, from European immigrants graph would shrink from ventilating Mr. of all nations, from the "Heathen Chinee," Gladstone; we may doubt, too, whether and from the negro. It is curious, too, to the word "solemnizing" is used by our note how the words and terms which have best pulpit orators; and if it be true that passed out of use in England, but are pre- the verb "to enthuse" has found its way served in our olden literature, are em- to England, it may be safely affirmed that ployed in the common talk of the Amer- no author or journalist of reputation will ican people. "The largest part," says the venture to adopt it. Among familiar writer, of so-called Americanisms are Americanisms which are happily unknown nothing more than good old English words at present in England are dutiable, for which, for one reason or another, have be- liable to duty; considerable, used as an adcome obsolete or provincial in England, verb or noun; edibles and bibibles for food while they have retained their full power and drink; most for almost; nohow, which and citizenship in the United States," and is used by Americans even in careful he adds that "by many an humble fireside writing; notion, in the sense of inclination; in the low country of Virginia, the pines preach, used as a substantive; to transpire, of New Jersey, or in the shadow of the instead of happen; and retiracy, in the mountains of New England, words are sense of retirement, or in the sense of a heard pronounced as they were in the days competency on which a man may retire. of Alfred, and with meanings unknown to Some of the words, however, mentioned as England." Other words less antique and Americanisms are as well known in this sanctioned by great English authors have country as in the States. "Vest," for inforsaken this island to be employed in dif- stance, is said to be almost universally ferent parts of the American continent. used for the English waistcoat; but in Thus, "afore," which, as Lowell observes, England the words are used by tailors inwas common till after Herrick, is still used discriminately. At once again, for immeinstead of "before" in some parts of the diately, is not an Americanism, but may New England States; are instead of ask, be heard any day in this country, and the a word used by Chaucer, and now regarded writer is wrong in supposing that' bus is by us as a gross vulgarism," survives with used for omnibus by the educated classes. astonishing vitality in Southern speech." It may be true that permit when used "inBarm, instead of yeast, has the sanction stead of leave to enter, or ticket of admisof our Elizabethan poets, and the word is sion to any place of public amusement," used to this day in New England. Ben, is a term used exclusively in America, but instead, of been, big for great, bile for boil in the sense of permission granted the human for human being, bravely for very noun is frequently in use. In the Internawell, chimley for chimney, curious for nice, tional Exhibition the following horrible guess in the sense used by Yankees, to down sentence is displayed again and again:in the sense of to humble, fall for the season "Exhibitors are requested not to touch of autumn, the odious word female, the their exhibits without a special written gift of the gab, and a vast number of words permit." The barbarous word "exhibits" and phrases familiar in the States, may be is, we suspect, home-born. "Ride and justified by references to our early Eng- tie," says the compiler, "is the curious lish literature. Some of these old terms phrase by which in Maryland and in the are well worthy of being retained in our South the arrangement is designated accommon speech, but it must be added that cording to which two travellers having the most genuine Americanisms are cor- but one horse between them will alterruptions of the language which we do not nately ride and walk." Dr. de Vere is desire to see transported into this coun- evidently ignorant that the phrase which try. Dr. Schele de Vere is surely incor- he terms curious has been in use in this rect in saying that the word talented "has country for a century or more, and is in made its way so successfully in England use still. Fielding mentions it in "Jo

seph Andrews" as the method in use in and body-snatching is the resurrectionizing those days when, instead of a coach and profession. "In like manner the burglar's six, a member of Parliament's lady used occupation has been designated as burglarto mount a pillion behind her husband, izing; when caught he is custodized. The and a grave serjeant-at-law condescended news of his capture is promptly itemized to amble to Westminster on an easy pad by the_penny-a-liner." We agree with with his clerk kicking his heels behind Dr. de Vere that the worst of these formahim. The great novelist even takes the tions is the class of nouns made by the trouble to explain the custom minutely. addition of the termination ist. Thus we "The two travellers," he writes, "set out have fruitist, vineyardist, landscapist, obitogether, one on horseback, the other on tuarist, and walkist. The last term is to foot; now, as it generally happens that he be met with daily-"A Wisconsin walkist on horseback outgoes him on foot, the cus- has done one hundred miles within twentom is that when he arrives at the dis-ty-four hours, and his name is Simmons." tance agreed on, he is to dismount, tie the After giving this illustration the writer horse to some gate, tree, post, or other adds:thing, and then proceed on foot; when the other comes up to the horse, unties him, mounts and gallops on, till, having passed by his fellow-traveller, he likewise arrives at the place of tying."

It is not to be wondered at that as soon as the

door is once opened to such abominations by those who ought to be the guardians of the purity of the language, a whole host of similar terms should rush in and try to make a lodgement, for nothing thrives like weeds in language as well as in nature. Hence no sooner had men's ears become somewhat accustomed to hear a pedestrian called a walkist, than the man whose rifle brought down the largest amount of game became known as a famous shootist, Nilsson was praised in numerous journals as one of the greatest singists that had ever come to America, and the man of violence who had appeared before the charitable jury as a modest stabbist, or at worst called a formidable strikist.

Among the most prominent Americanisms may be noted the great swelling words by which the Yankee strives to give intensity to his expressions. He speaks in superlatives and heaps adjective upon adjective in order to add weight to his language. Or he entirely alters the original meaning of words, as when he speaks of a lady as belonging to the advanced Fe male persuasion, or of a steamboat as able "to eat four hundred passengers and to sleep at least two hundred." Dr. de Vere denounces, and well he may, as utter Dr. de Vere, we may add, attributes the abominations the new forms into which vulgarities of American literature and the old words are turned by smart American cant and slang which abound in the counwriters, especially by journalists. Thus try to the pernicious influence of the lowresurrection produces the verb to resurrect, toned party newspapers of the day.

heretofore been denounced as a murderer now

THE NEW HYDROCARBON: ABIETENE. Mr. | tion to the balsam alluded to as oil of turpentine W. Wenzell, who writes in the " American Jour- stands to the exudation derived from other nal of Pharmacy," March, 1872, says that this hydrocarbon is the product of distillation of the terebinthinate exudation of a coniferous tree indigenous to Califoraia, viz., the Pinus Sabiniana, a tree met with in the dry sides of the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and locally known as the nut-pine or digger pine, owing to the edible quality of its fruit. A gum resin, or rather balsam, is obtained from this tree by incisions made in its wood, and the balsam submitted to distillation almost immediately after having been collected, owing to the great volatility of the hydrocarbon (or essential oil, because abiente really stands in the same rela

Pinus species). The crude oil, as usually met with for sale at San Francisco, is a colourless limpid fluid, requiring only to be redistilled to obtain it quite pure. The commercial article is used under different names - abietine, erasine, theoline, &c. for the removal of grease and paint from clothing and woven fabrics, and likewise as an efficient substitute for petroleum-benzine. The ultimate composition of abietine is not stated, but the author points out at some length the differences existing between abietene and terebene (oil of turpentine).

Popular Science Review.