Chapter IV (5)

In a short notice of a work of such literary pretensions as the present, it is more appropriate to indicate its positive merits than to allude to its defects. A mind so vital, powerful and individual as Mr. Dana’s can claim the privilege of being judged by its own laws of thought and production, and an application to it of external rules, which it does not profess to regard, would be little better than an impertinence. Still there are some peculiarities in the volumes which are slightly unpleasing, not because they are peculiar expressions of the author’s nature, but because they occasionally manifest an ungenial development of it. It is said that Mr. Carlyle’s opinion on any social reform can be accurately calculated from the speeches of the Exeter Hall reformers—he being sure to contradict them, whatever they may say. Accordingly, he defends slavery when they denounce it, and is in favor of dealing powder and shot to Ireland, when they are in ecstasies of philanthropic horror at its misgovernment. Something of this reactionary disgust we discern in a few of Mr. Dana’s compositions, and it gives to them as much willfulness as can possibly have its seat in a mind so gentle and just as his. His poems often have a roughness which is evidently intentional, and which indicates not so much a desire to produce new musical tones as to express contempt for old ones. Some of his speculations on society and government appear to us not fair expressions of his really large and solid intellect, but to spring from a morbid dislike, rather than from a calm objective vision, of the present. With these slight drawbacks, we hardly know of a recent work which contains so much to nourish the mind, to develop its finer tastes and affections, and give breadth to its thinking, than this collection of Mr. Dana’s poems and prose writings.

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_Agnes Grey, an Autobiography. By the Author of “Jane Eyre,”
“Shirley,” etc. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson._

This is a charming novel, full of fine character painting, and strongly marked by that exquisite development and analysis of the female heart, which distinguishes all the novels of this writer. As an autobiography, partaking of the nature of _confessions_, it has afforded fine scope for the display of the peculiar powers of the author. Agnes Grey, the heroine, herself, is one of the most vigorous and truthful drawings of character—one of the finest pieces of pen-limning that we have encountered any where, though not to young readers, perhaps, as distinctive as that of “Shirley,” as it has less of the really romantic to give it impressiveness. He gives in this novel a charm to love, in the vulgar course of this world’s affairs, by laying bare the sentiment of the heart—the exceeding beauty of pure love unadorned. As Hazlett says of Shakspeare’s women, “We think as little of her face, as she does herself, but are let into the secrets of her heart, and are charmed.” It is not until she has fallen in love, that our hearts open kindly to receive her, for the full beauty of the woman is then exposed to our worshiping eyes.

Rosalie Murray is a different character, but drawn with a keen discrimination, a nice discernment of coquetry, rarely met with. She is the most finished flirt of all the class—nature, and a heart totally uneducated, no less than the scheming of an ambitious mother, made her a very beautiful fiend.

He who quarrels with the loves of Edward Weston and Agnes Grey, must have read the novel, and studied human nature indifferently. We commend the work cordially to our readers, admonishing them that they will complain of its shortness; for we are mistaken if they do not find themselves, on closing the book, desirous—as we felt—of following the heroine in the holy duties and daily beauty of her life in her new sphere.

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_The Poetical and Prose Writings of Charles Sprague. Boston:
Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 1 vol. 16mo._

This edition of Sprague is beautifully printed, is published under the sanction of the author, and contains a number of poems never before collected. Although the current style in poetry has changed since Sprague first won his reputation, and an entirely new class of poets has caught the public ear, Sprague himself has been excepted from the neglect which has fallen upon too many of his school. The reason is that Sprague is really a poet, and the form of composition which a poet assumes, whether it be that of Pope or Wordsworth, of Young or Browning, is never of itself sufficient to consign him to oblivion. It is impossible to read a page of the present volume without being impressed with the conviction that you are communing with a strong nature, sound in heart and brain, and piercing through the shows to the realities of things by a native force and vividness of conception. Sprague appears here as a satirist and humorist, as a lyrist and as a poet of sentiment. In all of these he is successful. His curiosity is one of the best occasional poems over written in the United States. When we consider how wide a variety of humorous and pathetic pictures are called into being in the unfolding of one teeming idea, and that amid all the variety, the impression of unity is never lost, we must admit it to be not only poetical in passages, but poetical in its whole spirit and execution. The Odes we do not like so well. They are full of brain, but the feeling and sentiment do not seem to us sufficiently hearty and impassioned. The best pieces in the volume are the poems devoted to the affections. These are expressions of tenderness, love, grief, and hope, coming from the heart and imagination of a strong man, and their intensity is heightened by their very reserve. They are arrows sent directly to the reader’s heart. We never have been able to wear them out by frequent reperusal, their pathos keeping always its morning freshness and searching sweetness.

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_Poems of Alice and Phœbe Carey. Philadelphia: Moss & Brother. 1
vol. 16mo._

There are few volumes more calculated to relax the rigidity of criticism than this elegant octo-duodecimo, gilded without and golden within. Sisters in song as in blood, the authoresses awaken the chivalric rather than the critical sentiment, although they are abundantly capable of bearing some of the most tormenting acquirements of the latter. There is a family likeness in their minds, but in Alice the imaginative element is predominant, while her sister displays more of the reflective. Both are poets as distinguished from fluent versifers of accredited commonplaces, and both manifest originality in their imagery and music, but the mind of Alice is remarkably sensitive and imaginative, melting at once into melody the moment her heart is filled with a poetical object, and absolutely gushing out in song. A fine poetical instinct of the most subtle and elusive character, seems to dwell at the very life-spring of her nature, so that poetry seems the necessity of her being, the inevitable mode in which her nature must be expressed, if expressed at all. The poem entitled “Pictures of Memory,” is one of the simplest and subtlest expressions of ethereal sentiment and refined imagination we ever read: it being an exquisite embodiment of a mood of mind rarely experienced in its purity by any intellect, and certainly never pictured forth with more truth to the spirit of the subject. Phœbe Carey hardly has this instinctive and unconscious certainty in the action of her mind, but excels in thoughtfulness, tenderness, and fancy, “leaning her ear” to catch “the still, sad music of humanity,” and conscious of a moral purpose in her singing. Both deserve a hearty recognition equally from their countrywomen and countrymen.

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_The Boston Book. Being Specimens of Metropolitan Literature.
Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 1 vol. 12mo._

This beautiful volume contains prose and poetical pieces from some fifty writers hailing from Boston, such as Willis, Dana, Hillard, Sumner, Emerson, Sprague, Choate, Webster, Buckingham, Whittier, Fields, Lowell, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Holmes, and the like. A number of the articles are original contributions. Among the best of these are the poems by Holmes and Parsons. The editor has exhibited great taste in his choice of matter, both as regards excellence and variety, including, as he has, in one duodecimo, not only fair specimens of Boston belles-lettres, but selecting pieces addressed to almost every mood, satirical, humorous, tender, thoughtful, impassioned, imaginative and didactive, and written in all varieties of style and manner. We have poets lyrical, and poets elegaic; poets of the school of Goldsmith and Gray, and poets of the school of Wordsworth and Coleridge; prose writers with sentences long as Hooker’s, and prose writers with sentences short as Macaulay’s; and the general impression left by the book is, that the city it represents is under the dominion of no clique of writers, but that all kinds find “ample room and verge enough” for their peculiarities, and follow their own sweet will without any fear of established canons. In looking through the volume, one is surprised to find how few of the contributors are men of letters by profession. There are literary clergymen, poetic physicians, ethical merchants, and transcendental lawyers in abundance, with a good representation of men who live on the interest of their money, and only write from occasional impulse, but no _litterateurs_, and no hacks.

The book is really creditable to Boston, and its interest is not merely local. The publishers have issued it in that style of elegance for which they are widely celebrated.

* * * * *

_The Pilot; a Tale of the Sea. By the Author of the Spy, etc.
Revised, Corrected, and Illustrated, with a new Introduction.
Notes, etc. by the Author. New York: George P. Putnam. 1 vol.
12mo._

We are glad to welcome this handsome volume, so soon following the lead of “The Spy.” A collection of Cooper’s works, in a style worthy of their merit and their position in American literature, we doubt not will be a good speculation for author and bookseller. The present volume is one of the most popular of the series, and will ever keep its position among standard novels, whatever fate should befall some of the others.

* * * * *

_The Caravan; A Collection of Popular Tales. Translated from the
German of Wilhelm Hauff. By G. P. Quackenbos, A. M. Illustrated
by J. W. Orr. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 16mo._

This is a good translation of a good book. The stories are thoroughly German, though the costume and manners are Asiatic, and from their supernatural character, take a strong hold upon the feelings through the imagination. The Spectre Ship is especially powerful.

* * * * *

MUSIC.—We have received from the publisher, Mr. Walker, a new song, entitled _Saucy Kate_, the words by Henry H. Paul. Esq., which is very beautiful in all respects, and reflects great credit upon both writer and publisher. Mr. Walker is making the public indebted to him by almost daily issuing new and fashionable music, in the most attractive style, and we are glad to hear is doing a very handsome business. This store is one of the elegant rooms immediately under Barnum’s Museum, where he will be glad to see our friends.

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LEVY’S _New and Elegant Store_—decidedly the handsomest in Philadelphia, is daily crowded with beautiful and fashionable ladies, presenting, during the holydays, a _Levée_ quite attractive and enticing. The finest silks, the richest laces and shawls, and the most splendid goods of all kinds fill the shelves and flood the counters of this establishment, and all the town finds its way there to admire and purchase. Messrs. Levy and Grugan are gentleman of exquisite taste and tact, and in the management and general arrangement of their business, have shown both. Our friends in any part of the country, may rely with perfect assurance upon their judgment and integrity, to fill any orders sent them satisfactorily and promptly.

* * * * *

LE FOLLET

PARIS Boulevart S^{t}. Martin 61 _Chapeaux M^{me}._ Grafeton, _pl. de la Madeleine, 5—Dentelles de_ Violard, _r. Choiseul, 2^{bis}_; _Robes et pardessus de M^{me}._ Bara Bréjard, _r. Laffitte, 5—Plumes de_ Chagot ainé, _r. Richelieu, 81_; _Mouchoir de_ L. Chapron & Dubois, _r. de la Paix, 7._ Graham’s Magazine.]

* * * * *

WISSAHIKON WALTZ.

ARRANGED FOR THE PIANO AND DEDICATED TO

MISS ELIZA L. HALL,

BY
CHARLES GROBE.

Published by permission of Mr. E. L. Walker, No. 160 Chestnut Street.

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Transcriber’s Notes:

Table of Contents has been added for reader convenience. Archaic spellings and hyphenation have been retained. Obvious type-setting and punctuation errors have been corrected without note. Other errors have been corrected as noted below. For illustrations, some caption text may be missing or incomplete due to condition of the originals available for preparation of the eBook.

page 144, in the _denouément_ ==> in the _dénouement_ page 149, room, pouring over books, ==> room, poring over books, page 151, joy exstatic burst from ==> joy ecstatic burst from page 158, not be irrelevent we ==> not be irrelevant we page 167, mind, interpretating by the ==> mind, interpreting by the

[End of Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVI, No. 2, February 1850]