HENRY ST. JOHN, GENTLEMAN, of "Flower of Hundreds in the County of Prince George, Virginia. A Tale of 1774-75. By JOHN ESTEN COOKE. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1859. [From A. Morris, 97 Main Street.

All Mr. Cooke's excellencies and all his faults appear in this volume. The chief merit of it is to be found in the faithful and minute reproduction of the social habitudes of a past age which is associated with the brightest renown of Virginia and in which moved the most illustrious of her sons. The pictures of life and manners which it presents, highly coloured as they are, have been drawn from materials carefully collected and conscientiously employed, and Mr. Cooke has shown the skill of the true artist in filling up the cold historic outlines and causing the canvass to glow with the freshened tints of a bygone, almost forgotten period. His selections from the poet's corner of the old Gazette are not only most happy, but they have been ingeniously introduced, while the stirring scenes of the first act of the Revolutionary drama at Williamsburg are interwoven with the story with a fine dramatic effect. When we say in addition to this that the richness and animation of Mr. Cooke's style mark almost every page of "Henry St. John," the reader will feel assured that in our judgment it is a work both meritorious and entertaining.

We must qualify this sincere praise, however, by remarking upon some minor blemishes which belong to this work in particular, and some graver faults which it displays in common with all the novels we have seen from Mr. Cooke's pen.

The book is not altogether truthful or squared to probability in respect of its descriptions and incidents. For example, we have a donkey cart in the streets of Williamsburg in 1774-an impossible thing, since the asinine quadruped was first introduced in America by General Washington after the Revolution; again we have the rattlesnake lifting high its crest when lying at full length on the ground, which is opposed to natural history, and we have a sea breeze in Prince George county which is opposed to geographical truth. Lord Dunmore is represented as conferring the lieutenancy of his guards upon a Roman Catholic, which so good a churchinan as he would never have done, even had it been in his power

so to do, and this Roman Catholic is made to espouse the side of the Crown, which is improbable, since the Catholics of the colonies were mostly patriots and followed the lead of the brave rebels of Maryland. A greater liberty yet is taken with history in the creation of a certain Mr. Waters, created anew, though appearing in the "Virginia Comedians," and fashioned into a dark conspirator of most unsocial manners and wonderful power over men, insomuch that though he lives moodily enough to himself and only skulks through the streets of Williamsburg in the dark, he moved the great men of the Burgesses about like so many puppets. If Patrick Henry was the tongue of the Revolution, this tongue spoke only Mr. Waters' sentiments. If Thomas Jefferson was the pen of the Revolution, this pen was dipped only in Mr. Waters' inkstand. If George Washington was the sword of the Revolution, Mr. Waters it was who drew that sword from the scabbard. It is scarcely necessary for us to say that such a gloomy, mysterious, fate-compelling man as this never could have existed-it is enough for us to say that he never did exist.

But to pass to Mr. Cooke's defects as a novelist, apparent in this as in the stories he has previously published.

A novel is excellent in exact proportion to its fidelity to nature. It may be true, indeed, that those writers of history are most popular who are most imaginative and least trustworthy, among whom some are disposed to class Lord Macaulay, but it is also true that only those novelists can obtain a hold upon the public mind who conform their narrations strictly to the ordinary course of things and make their ideal personages resemble the common people around us. And to maintain the illusion which successful fiction must exert, it is necessary not only that the scenery, costume, and manners of the place and period should be accurately presented, but that all the personages who figure in the story should be rounded into individuality. We should justly condemn a historical painting in which, however faithfully the accessories might have been executed, the artist had bestowed his whole attention upon the two principal figures, leaving the others but hastily sketched, and with no more of life in them than the lay figures of his studio. And yet this is just what Mr. Cooke seems to us to do. Not without a considerable power of delineation, he makes his hero and heroine probable

beings enough, though with more than the ordinary silliness of lovers; they act from human motives, are moved by human joys and sorrows, are touched with a feeling of earthly infirinity, and do now and then cheat us into a belief in their actual existence. But he goes no farther. The rest of the dramatis persone are not men and women at all, they are but automata, the lifeless representatives of certain follies or peculiarities, dressed up in kneebreeches, tie-wigs, hoops, brocades and velvets, and beautified with moustachios, love-locks, patches and hair powder. In the volume before us, the "good fellow" is an absurd caricature of Sir Lucius O'Trigger, who never appears without a French expletive and the expression of his desire to fight a duel with a stupid secretary of Lord Dunmore, in order that he may learn a certain thrust of the small sword. Mr. Cooke is evidently fond of this amateur in fence, but he should have known that something more than morbleu's and ventrebleu's was necessary to impart reality to an individual whose only business in the novel is to amuse us by the exhibition of a most improbable folly. Take Lord Dunmore himself in the pages of "Henry St. John," and observe how Mr. Cooke has attired some bad passions in the Governor's fine clothes to represent the Governor himself. We see Lord Dunmore always in the sulks, as in the signs which used to hang before the country taverns of England, Wilkes was only to be recognized by his squint. Lord Dunmore doubtless was a tyrant and a coward, but so was King James, yet Sir Walter as drawn a portrait of this monarch in which his pitiable qualities are brought into greater prominence by the contrast in which they stand to the other side of his character. Mr. Cooke's Lord Dunmore has but one side, and therefore does not stand out at all. Indeed there is so much flatness of characterization in Mr. Cooke's novels, that they remind us of those stereoscopic views in which two figures are vividly represented against a painted background where all the effect of perspective is lost.

The plots of Mr. Cooke's novels are singularly ill-contrived. He is not wanting in invention, and understands effect as well as any one, in proof of which we may cite the scene in the "Virginia Comedians," where the door is suddenly thrown open and the servant announ

ces

"Mr. Effingham and Miss Hallam," and the very clever incident in "Henry St. John," where the hero's negro-servant dresses himself in his master's cast-off uniform, and unconsciously brings Capt. Lindon into ridicule at the ball, but the reader is kept in no state of pleasing and excited doubt, alternating between satisfaction and

despair, as to the fate of the heroine, and the incidents which conduce to the catastrophe are mostly forced and unnatural. Mr. Cooke would seem to have gone on writing chapter after chapter of a particular story, without the least notion himself of how it was all to end, until the immense piles of MS. before him, warned him of the necessity of a conclusion, and then to have resorted to abductions, thunder-storms, pistols, house-burnings and all the other properties of the melodrama. We attribute this rather to want of study than to want of invention. Mr. Cooke writes too fast and publishes without proper revision.

In dismissing "Henry St. John," we cannot but pay the high tribute of our admiration to the purity of sentiment which distinguishes the highly poetic and animated style of our author. It is easy to see that the atmosphere of his fancy is a healthful atmosphere. He has the heartest sympathy with what is honest and pure and of good report. And though an occasional extravagance may be found in his descriptive passages, the style is uniformly as chaste as the sentiment. Let this pretty picture of the heroine of "Henry St. John" bear us out in the assertion.

Bonnybel Vane is a sparkling, mischievous little maiden of about seventeen. She has a slender, but elegantly rounded figure, a clear white complexion, with two fresh roses blooming in her cheeks; red, pouting lips, large bright eyes of a deep violet, which seem ready to melt or fire under the long dusky lashes, and a profusion of light brown hair, as soft as silk. The face is oval-of that pure-blooded Norman type which fascinated the kings and princes of the middle ages, and led to so many bitter feuds and bloody wars. The beautiful, mischievous-looking head is placed upon a swan-like neck, and inclined toward one of the snowy shoulders. As to the expression of the girl's features, we cannot describe it. The brilliant violet eyes are ready to dance with merriment and mischief, or swim in the dews of feeling; the lips are mobile, prepared to contract, like crumpled rose-leaves, with demure amusement at some jest, or, halfparted, to express a world of pity and pathos. Bonnybel is a striking type of the women of the South, as opposed to the pale, calm, statuesque beauty of more northern countries; she is brimful of feeling, of impulse, mischief, coquettish wildness; indeed, but for the impropriety of the illustration, we should say that she resembles a "thorough-bred young racehorse of the most elegant proportions and the purest "blood." She is clad in a pink dress, looped back with bows of ribbon, a close-fitting, square-cut bodice, and a frill

of rich lace runs around the neck, and appears beneath the short sleeves, which leave the arms of the girl bare almost to the shoulders. She wears red coral bracelets clasped with gold, and her arms are of dazzling whiteness."

Surely this is a striking portraiture, which speaks to the eye not less eloquently than the following bit of musical pathos to the ear. In quoting it, we bid Mr. Cooke, for a time, farewell.

"Of the songs sung by Bonnybel, our worthy author says-They are the sweetest, I think, of all the Scottish minstrelsy. But all are sweet, far more so than the ditties of to-day. They sound for us now with a dim memorial music, those madrigals which were carolled by our grandmothers to the murmur of old ghostly harpsichords, while, standing by the little beauties, our respected grandfathers were captivated, and for ever dreamed of those old tunes, and loved them as the echoes of past happiness and youthful joys, and all that carnival which glitters and darts onward in the rosy dawn of youth. I knew an old gentleman who would often take his book of ancient Scottish songs, and murmur them to himself for hours; and I've frequently seen my dear and honoured father sit, with wistful smiles, and pensive eyes, recalling, as he listened to his favourite "Flowers of the Forest," youthful hours, and the little maiden who sang for him, the same song, in the days of silk stockings and hair powder, early in the century. Kind-hearted and true Virginia gentleman, whose hand has so often rested on my head in childhood, may you sleep in peace! O, noble father, gone from us to heaven! thinking of you now, here in the sunshine, and of what was a rarer, purer sunshine-your sweet smile-the idle words I write swim as I gaze on them. I lay down my pen and muse, and am thankful for the blood that flows in my veins, for the noble sire bestowed upon me by a gracious and kind Heaven!"

A POETICAL ORATION; With Introductory Remarks, delivered before the Literary Societies of Semple Broaddus College, or University of De Soto, Centre Hill, De Soto County, Miss., June 22nd, 1859. By CHARLES WILLIAMS, M. D. Richmond: H. K. Ellyson, Printer, 147 Main Street. 1859.

"THE RULE OF LIFE." An Address, delivered before the two Literary Societies of Wake Forest College, June 8, 1859. By EDWARD WARREN, M. D., of Edenton, N. C. Published by the Euzelian Society. Fayetteville Printed by Edward J. Hale & Son. 1859.

ADDRESS, delivered before the Demosthenian and Phi Kappa Societies of the University of Georgia, in the College Chapel, at Athens, August 4th, 1859. By JOSEPH B. CUMMING, Esq. Augusta, Ga.: Steam Power Press of the Chronicle & Sentinel. 1859.

ORATION; delivered before the South Carolina Historical Society, Thursday, May 19, 1859. By W. H. TRESCOT, Esq. (From the Collections of the Historical Society of South Carolina, Vol. III,) Charleston, S. C.: James & Williams, Printers, 16 State Street. 1859.

For what purpose such "Poetical Orations" as the one now under our eye, are written, we may hazard an inference from the title-page--to wit, to afford a half hour's gratification to Literary Societies like those of Semple Broaddus College; but why they should ever be published, to the injury of the institution and the discredit of the author, passeth our knowledge. Dr. Williams, we make no doubt, is an eminent and worthy physi cian who has fallen into the melancholy delusion that he is a poet, but though Apollo was distinguished for his knowledge of the healing art, medical talent and poetic sensibility are not always united in the same individual, of which the effort before us affords abundant proof. The "Poetical Oration" consists of about 250 lines, the larger portion of them being "Episodes," an "Episode on Genius,"

an

"Episode on the dark period in our country's history," an Episode on Time," and an Episode on Woman," lovely woman. The main argument is therefore so much interrupted that the reader is somewhat perplexed to know what the poet is seeking to establish. Yet this immethodical arrangement of his thoughts would be pardonable enough if the thoughts themselves were expressed in graceful poetic forms and were originally worth expressing. But Dr. Williams has such imperfect ideas of the requisitions of verse that he makes divine rhyme to sublime twice on the same page, and what he says in couplets if reduced to prosaic sentences would be the merest commonplace. Genius has an important part to play in this world, according to our poetical ora

tor

"Oh, lofty genius! 'tis to thee we owe The purest joys to us frail mortals given; Changing to light all that is dark below, And raising the immortal mind from Earth to Heaven."

This passage, thanks to the alexandrine perhaps, will not remind the reader of

The "Rule of Life" is the production of another Doctor of Medicine who is content to embody his reflections in prose, for the most part excellent prose, containing much profitable admonition. The chief object of the discourse is to point out the distinction between self-love and selfishness, and this it does with clearness and emphasis.

The duties of the Citizen is the theme on which Mr. Cumming speaks chiefly to the young gentlemen of the university of Georgia. His views are not new, but they are forcibly, at times eloquently set forth, and cannot be too earnestly pondered by undergraduates at college.

Mr. Trescot's Oration is a noble one. There are few more honest or more earnest thinkers in the Southern States, and not one who has the command of a more elegant style. Wherever Mr. Trescott employs a word in excess of what is absolutely necessary to the conveyance of his thought, that word is felicitous, and just so far as he goes beyond the strictest severity

And

of expression he becomes eloquent. this eloquence is natural because spontaneous, arising out of no weak desire for applause, but rather out of an imagination warmed by the contemplation of lofty subjects, yet kept in wholesome restraint by the exercise of a correct and cultivated taste. We have no room to follow Mr. Trescot's argument, or borrow from his pages the many stirring passages which have impressed us in the reading of it. The local history of South Carolina furnishes him with a theme, and in the treatment of it he discusses the interesting question, on which some of the ablest of our historical writers have divided in Virginia, as to the influence of the Cavalier element in the social and political organization of the State. One passage, however, we must find room to insert, a handsome and well deserved tribute paid by the historian to the writer of fiction. Referring to the revolutionary era in South Carolina, Mr. Trescot says:

"And I cannot refer to this glorious portion of our history without acknowledging the debt which, I think, the State owes to one of her most distinguished sons, for the fidelity with which he has preserved its memory, the vigour and beauty with which he has painted its most stirring scenes, and kept alive in fiction the portraits of its most famous heroes. I consider Mr. Simms' Partisan Novels as an invaluable contribution to Carolina history.

"I am young enough to speak from experience, and I am sure that many a boy who is eagerly following his heroes through the swamps of the Santee, or along the banks of the Ashley, will find his local attachment strengthened and widened into affection for his State, and in the time to come will do her ready and unselfish service, stimulated by the heroic traditions to which the imagination of the novelist has imparted a dramatic and living reality."

The South Carolina Historical Society has reason to be proud of her orator as the State has reason to be proud of her novelist.

THE HISTORY OF THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, CALLED METHODISM, &c., &c. By ABEL STEVENS, LL. D. Volume II. New York: Published by Carlton & Porter. [From Geo. L. Bidgood, Agent of the Methodist Depository.

The period embraced in this portion of the continuation of Dr. Steven's "History

of Methodism" is that between the death of Whitefield and the death of Wesley. The author has abated in no degree the diligence and enthusiasm manifested in his first volume, nor has he departed from the catholicity of spirit which distinguished that part of his labours. The work recognizes a large body of readers outside of the strictly Wesleyan communion, and has to deal with a variety of topics and persons only incidentally connected with the main subject, and these Dr. Stevens has discussed in a manner at once liberal

and pleasing. He manages the side lights which are thrown upon his canvass in this way with great skill and effect. In the present volume, we find much that is striking in contemporaneous history. The account of the young Methodists who fought at Louisbourg and Quebec, the reference to the good men of Clapham, the introduction of the poet Cowper, the passing reference to George Crabbe, the interview with Dr. Johnson, the sweet story of the "Dairyman's Daughter," and the beautiful picture of Grace Murray, who would seem almost to have been the original of Dinah Morris in "Adam Bede," all these lend an interest to the record apart from that which attaches to the progress of Methodism. The great charm of the volume, however, is to be found in the full and vivid account it gives us of the old age of Wesley

an old age serene and bright, And lovely as a Lapland night

which led him gently to his peaceful and honoured grave. What a spectacle, indeed, is presented by the declining years of this revered apostle! Where in the whole range of the biographies of celebrated men shall we look for a more attractive portraiture? With faculties unimpaired at three score and ten, and his gray hairs alone indicating his approach to the end of life, his brow yet smooth and his complexion ruddy, his voice still retaining the power and the pathos which belonged to it in his earlier ministrations, we see him traversing the country, preaching in the streets of crowded capitals and on the bleak hillsides of remote mountain districts, receiving with equal humility and composure the affectionate homage of his friends and the taunts and blows of his enemies, serving God with all his strength and soul and mind, and looking forward meekly, when his light afflictions should be over, to his eternal weight of glory in the heavens. There is a dignity, there is a majesty in the last years of this patriarch which challenges our admiration. What a manliness there was in his reli

gion, what a roundness, a completeness of character! The taste for the beautiful in nature, in art, in the poetry of Tasso and even of Anacreon, in old ruins and crimson sunsets was exhibited by him to the last, and long after the period when men ordinarily lose their impressibility to such sights and sounds, he writes from foreign countries with zest and animation of the music he heard and the gardens and public buildings he saw. A gentle courtesy marked his intercourse with the humblest and the most distinguished of his fellow beings, and we may not wonder that in the reading of the burial service at his grave, the change of a single word suggested itself to the officiating clergyman, who read "Forasmuch as it has pleased Almighty God to take unto himself the soul of our deceased father"-amid the loud weeping of the attending multitude.

If anything were wanting to enhance the interest of such a life, it is supplied in the tender episode of his love for Grace Murray and the cruel disappointment to which it was doomed. The sto y has been told before, but never so fully as by Dr. Stevens, whose patient and faithful labours entitle him no less to the thanks of the votaries of literature than of the members of his own large and powerful denomination of Christians.

THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPÆDIA: A Popu lar Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by GEORGE RIPLEY and CHARLES A. DANA. Volume VII. Edwards-Fueros. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1859. [From J. W. Randolph, 121 Main Street.

This work increases in interest and value with each volume. It has abundantly redeemed the promise of its title, and proved to be a "popular dictionary of general knowledge." It is not perhaps as exhaustive of some subjects as other publications of a similar character, but it gives a larger amount of valuable information within convenient limits and in a style to be readily understood by the whole reading public. The articles on England and France in this volume are especially worthy of mention as presenting at once most clearly and compactly the leading facts connected with the history, commerce, literature and resources of the two countries. We can only repeat here what we have said before of the ability and patient industry which the Editors have brought into the conduct of this work, and we are glad to believe that its high merits have been acknowledged already in a large body of subscribers throughout the country.