The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 29, March, 1860

He was a man of a rare type,—so rare in our times as to seem like a man of another age. He belonged to the same class with the Scottish Covenanters and the English Regicides. He belonged to the great company of those who have followed the footsteps of Gideon, and forgot that the armory of the Lord contained other weapons than the sword. He belonged to those who from time to time have adopted some cause,—the good old cause,—and have shrunk from no sacrifice which it required at their hands. "I have now been confined over a month," wrote John Brown to his children, in one of that most affecting series of letters from his prison, "with a good opportunity to look the whole thing as fair in the face as I am capable of doing, and I now feel most grateful that I am counted in the least possible degree worthy to suffer for the truth." "Suffering is a gift not given to every one," wrote one of the Covenanters, who was hanged in the Grassmarket in Edinburgh, in 1684,—"and I desire to bless God's name with my whole heart and soul, that He has counted such a poor thing as I am worthy of the gift of suffering."

That John Brown was wrong in his attempt to break up slavery by violence, few will deny. But it was a wrong committed by a good man,—by one who dreaded the vengeance of the Almighty and forgot His long-suffering. His errors were the result of want of patience and want of imagination, and he paid the penalty for them. He had faith in the Divine ordering of the affairs of this world; but he forgot that the processes by which evils like that of slavery are done away are thousand-year-long,—that, to be effectual, they must be slow,—that wrong is no remedy for wrong. He was an anachronism, and met the fate of all anachronisms that strive to stem and divert the present current by modes which the world has outgrown. But now that he and those dearest to him have so bitterly expiated his faults, both charity and justice demand that his virtues should be honored, and he himself mourned. It will be a gloomy indication of the poor, low spirit of our days, if fear and falsehood, if passion or indifference, should cause the lesson of John Brown's life to be neglected, or should check a natural sympathy with the noble heart of the old man. That lesson is not for any one part of the country more than another; that sympathy may be given by the South as well as by the North. It is not sympathy for his acts, but for the spirit of his life and the heroism of his death. The lesson of manliness, uprightness, and courage, which his life teaches, is to be learned by us, not merely as lovers of liberty, not as opponents of slavery, but as men who need more manliness, more uprightness, more courage and simplicity in our common lives.

All that is possible of apology for John Brown is to be found in his letters and in his speech to the court before his sentence. It is, perhaps, too soon to hope that these letters and this speech will be read with candor and a feeling of human brotherhood by those who now look with abhorrence or with indifference on his memory. But the time will come when they will be held at their true worth by all, as the expressions of a large, tender soul,—when they will be read with sympathetic pity, even by those who still find it difficult to forgive their author for his offence against society. These letters appeal to the better nature of every man and woman in America; and it will be a sad thing, if their appeal be disregarded.

We trust, that, before long, a fairer and fuller biography than that by Mr. Redpath will remove the obstacle which this book now presents to the general appreciation of the character and life of John Brown.

Poems. By SYDNEY DOBELL. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1860.

Many of Mr. Dobell's poems have passages which are musical, vigorous, and peculiar, and hardly in any part can he be justly charged with prolonging an echo. He is not one of the many mocking-birds that infest the groves at the foot of Parnassus. Though portions of his songs be wild, fitful, and incoherent, they gush with the force and feeling of a heart loyal to its intuitions, and thus many strains captivate and keep the tuneful ear. Yet such charming lines make conspicuous the want of that high appreciation of form and proportion without which any felicity of touch in the treatment of details will only cause the consummate master to grieve over glorious forms that have no effective grouping, and turn away from colors, however exquisite, that are strewn, as it were, on a palette, rather than wrought into picture and harmonized to the tone of life. The truth is, that the grandly designing hand is nowhere completely visible in the poetry of Young England. Many of her more youthful poets show a mass of rich materials, but they appear to have been upheaved by convulsions, half-blinding us with their splendor, while, like lava pouring from a volcano's crater, they take no prescribed channel, they flow into no immortal mould. It is this fiery gleam on the surface of matter hot from chaos, which the multitude honor as the highest manifestation of genius. But this is to desecrate a word which implies constructive power of the first order. Form is its highest expression. Without the shaping faculty, which artistically rounds to perfection, no glitter of decoration, nor even force and fire of expression, can keep the work from falling into ruins. If the beautiful, as Goethe said, includes in it the good, then perfect beauty alone is everlasting. This is a rigorous rule for anything which man has made, but it does not try "Othello" so severely as "Balder"; and "Balder" is not utterly crushed by it. There are scenes in this drama, and also in "The Roman," which will not soon lose their significance, or easily melt out of the memory.

A Good Fight, and other Tales. By CHARLES KEADE. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1859.

About the middle of the fifteenth century, a youth named Gerard, a native of Tergou, in Holland, loved Margaret, the daughter of Peter, a learned man of the neighboring village of Zevenbergen. Expecting immediate marriage, their intimacy was restrained by no limits. The interference of Gerard's relations, however, separated them for a time, during which the young man visited Rome, and gained some distinction as a transcriber of ancient manuscripts. Learning, after a while, that he was about to return, his kindred caused a false report of Margaret's death to be conveyed to him, and, by thus crushing all the hopes of his young life, had the final satisfaction of seeing him take priestly orders, which threw his patrimony into their hands. Having broken two hearts, and brought a world of shame upon an innocent girl to get it, it is only fair to suppose they enjoyed it with tranquillity.

Margaret, left alone, gave birth to a child, the greatness of whose manhood might have softened the remembrance of her earlier sorrows, had she lived to witness it. But she died when he was thirteen years old. Gerard, her true husband, who had never rejoined her while living, also died within a brief space. The son they left was the famous Erasmus.

Mr. Reade has taken this little record, which would never have become historical but for the accidental consequence of the loves of Gerard and Margaret, and wrought it into a story of exquisite grace and delicacy. A dead and half-forgotten fact, he has warmed it into fresh life, and given it all the beauties with which his brilliant imagination could endow it. Though shorter and simpler than most, it is certainly inferior to none of his other works. Perhaps its simplicity is its first merit. The extravagant peculiarities of style which overlaid his two longest books have almost entirely disappeared in this. Here the narration is for the most part as unostentatious as the events are natural. But its power is remarkable. Although the regularity with which the incidents follow one another is such that they may all be anticipated, yet the interest in them never fades. There is nothing startlingly new in the entire story. On the contrary, it follows pretty closely the old formula of troubled true-love until the closing chapter, when triumphant virtue sets in. But this takes nothing from the effect. All is so clear and vivid in description, so glittering with gleams of wit, relieved by soft shadows of purest pathos, so full of the spirit of tender humanity, that the reader finds no reason to complain, except that the end is so speedily reached.

The author has sacrificed history, in his conclusion, to satisfy a natural feeling. No one will object because the "Good Fight" terminates victoriously in the right direction. The parents of Erasmus suffered; but it would be a pity, if readers, after the lapse of four hundred years, must mourn their woes to the extent that would inevitably be necessary, if Mr. Reade had not arranged it otherwise. And his object, which was to prove—if proof were needed—that all human lives, however obscure, have their own share of romance, is not disturbed by this variation from the severity of the chronicle.

The Undergraduate. Conducted by an Association of Collegiate and Professional Students in the United States and Europe. [Greek:'Ekasto onmachoi pantos]; January, 1860. Printed for the Association. New Haven, Conn.

We are not unused to the sight of College Periodicals. They have commonly greeted us in the form of monthly numbers, each containing two or three essays which sounded as if they might have done duty as themes, a critical article or two, some copies of verses, and winding up with a few pages in fine print, purporting to be editorial, jaunty and jocular for the most part, and opulent in local allusions. It would he unnatural, if these juvenile productions did not often reflect the opinions of favorite instructors and the style of popular authors. A freshman's first essay is like the short gallop of a colt on trial; its promise is what we care for, more than its performance. If it had not something of crudeness and imitation, we should suspect the youth, and be disposed to examine him as the British turfmen have been examining the American colt Umpire, first favorite for the next Derby. But three or four years' study and practice teach the young man his paces, so that many Bachelors of Arts have formed the style already by which they will hereafter be known in the world of letters. We are always pleased, therefore, to look over a College Periodical, even of the humblest pretensions. The possibilities of its young writers give an interest and dignity to the least among them which make its slender presence welcome.

But here we have offered us a more formidable candidate for public favor than our old friends, the attenuated Monthlies. "The Undergraduate" has almost the dimensions of the "North American Review," and, like that, promises to visit us quarterly. It is the first fruit of a spirited and apparently well-matured plan set on foot by students in Yale College, and heartily entered into by those of several other institutions. Its objects are clearly stilted in the well-written Prospectus and Introduction. They are briefly these:—"To record the history, promote the intellectual improvement, elevate the moral aims, liberalize the views, and unite the sympathies of Academical, Collegiate, and Professional Students, and their Institutions."

The name, "Undergraduate," shows by whom it is to be managed; but its contributors are, and will doubtless continue to he, in part, of a more advanced standing. There are articles in the present number which we have read with great interest, and without ever being reminded that they were contributed to a students' journal. The first paper, for instance, "German Student-Life and Travel," is not only well written, but full of excellent suggestions, which show that the writer has reached the age of good sense, whether he count his years by tens or scores. "A Student's Voyage to Labrador" is a well-told story of scenes and experiences new to most readers. Not less pleased were we to have an authentic account of the two ancient societies of Yale College, "Brothers in Unity" and "Linonia," rivals for almost a century, and still maintaining their protracted struggle for numerical superiority. Articles like this will interest all students, and many outside of the student-world, "The Undergraduate" would not treat us fairly, if it did not temper them somewhat, as it has done, with specimens of more distinctly youthful character. Perhaps it might be safe to lay it down as a law, that, the tenderer the age, the wider the subject, and, contrariwise, the older the head, the more limited and definite the probable range of discussion. It is safe to say that a young man's essay is most likely to be interesting when he writes about something he has seen or experienced, so as to know more about it than his readers. Disquisitions on "Virtue," "Honesty," "Shakspeare," "Human Nature," and such large subjects, are valuable chiefly as showing how the colts gallop.

On the whole, "The Undergraduate" is most creditable to the enterprise that gave it birth, and to the young men who have contributed to it. If we should give any additional hints to that just whispered, it would be, that more care should be taken in looking over the proofs. Calvinism should not be spelt Calv_a_nism, Thackeray Thack_a_ray, nor Courvoisier Corvosier,—neither should traveller be spelt traveler, nor theatre theater. These last provincialisms, particularly, should not find a place in a journal meant for students all over the English-speaking world; and if, as we hope, contributions shall hereafter appear in the new Quarterly from any persons connected with our neighboring University, it should be a condition that the English standard of spelling should be adopted in preference to any local perversions.

With these suggestions, we give a most cordial welcome to a periodical which we trust will begin a new period in the literary history of our educational institutions.

RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS

RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY

The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge, for the Year 1860. Boston, Crosby, Nichols, & Co. 12mo. pp. viii., 399. $1.00.

The New American Cyclopedia: a Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. Vol. VIII. Fugger-Haynau. New York. Appleton & Co. 8vo, pp. 788, vii. $3.00.

Life Without and Life Within: or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. By Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Author of "Woman in the Nineteenth Century," "At Home and Abroad," etc. Edited by her Brother, Arthur B. Fuller. Boston. Brown, Taggard, & Chase. 12mo. pp. 424. $1.00.

Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World. With Narrative Illustrations. By Robert Dale Owen, formerly Member of Congress, and American Minister to Naples. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 528. $1.25.

Title-Hunting. By E. L. Llewellyn. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 357. $1.00.

The Rivals. A Tale of the Times of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. By Hon. Jere. Clemens, Author of "Bernard Lite" and "Mustang Gray." Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 286. 75 cts.

Poems. By Sydney Dobell. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 32mo. pp. 544. 75 cts. An Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco, in the Summer of 1859. By Horace Greeley. New York. Saxton, Barker, & Co. 12mo. pp. 386. $1.00.

Morphy's Games: a Selection of the Best Games played by the Distinguished Champion in Europe and America. With Analytical and Critical Notes by J Löwenthal. New York. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. xviii., 473. $1.25.

Compensation: or, Always a Future. By Anne M. H. Brewster. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 297. 75 cts.

The Eighteen Christian Centuries. By the Rev. James White, Author of a "History of France." With a Copious Index. From the Second Edinburgh Edition. New York. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 538. $1.25.

An Appeal to the People in Behalf of their Rights as Authorized Interpreters of the Bible. By Catherine E. Beecher, Author of "Common Sense Applied to Religion," "Domestic Economy," etc. New York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. x., 380. $1.00.

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: or, The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. By Charles Darwin, M. A., Fellow of the Royal Geological, Linnæan, etc., Societies; Author of "Journal of Researches during H. M. S. Beagle's Voyage round the World." New York. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 432. $1.25.

Life in Spain, Past and Present. By Walter Thornbury, Author of "Every Man his own Trumpeter," "Art and Nature," etc. With Illustrations. New York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 383. $1.00.

Poems. By the Author of "A Life for a Life," "John Halifax, Gentleman," etc. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp.270. 75 cts.

The Female Skeptic: or, Faith Triumphant, New York. R. M. DeWitt. 12mo. pp. 449. $1.00.

Report on Weights and Measures, read before the Pharmaceutical Association, at their Eighth Annual Session, held in Boston, September 15, 1859. By Alfred B. Taylor, of Philadelphia, Chairman of the Committee of Weights and Measures. Boston. Press of Rand & Avery. 8vo. pamphlet, pp. 104. 50 cts.

The Adopted Heir. By Miss Pardoe, Author of "The Confessions of a Pretty Woman," "Life of Maria de Medicis." etc. Complete and unabridged. Philadelphia. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 360. $1.25.

A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and his Companions, by Captain M'Clintock, R. N., LL.D. With Maps and Illustrations. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. xxiv., 375. $1.50.

The Path which led a Protestant Lawyer to the Catholic Church. By Peter H. Burnett. New York. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. xiv., 741. $2.50.

Sermons on St. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians. Delivered at Trinity Chapel, Brighton. By the late Rev. F. W. Robertson, M.A., the Incumbent. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. xii., 425. $1.00.

Trinitarianism not the Doctrine of the New Testament. Two Lectures, delivered, partly in Review of Rev. Dr. Huntington's Discourse on the Trinity, in the Hollis Street Church, January 7 and 14,1860. By T. S. King. Printed by Request. Boston. Crosby, Nichols, & Co. 8vo. pamphlet, pp. 48. 25 cts.

Lyrics and other Poems. By S. J. Donaldson, Jr. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston. 16mo. pp. 208. 75 cts.

Twenty Years Ago, and Now. By T. S. Arthur. Philadelphia. G. G. Evans. 12mo. pp. 307. $1.00.

The Water Witch: or, The Skimmer of the Seas. A Tale. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Illustrated from Designs by F. 0. C. Darley. New York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 462. $1.50.

1

De Tocqueville.

2

For a particular account of the Princeton, by B. F. Isherwood, U. S. N., see Journal of the Franklin Institute for June, 1853. Taking everything into consideration, the Princeton was a most successful experiment, and, in her day, the most efficient man-of-war of her class. By her construction the government of the United States had placed itself far in advance of all the world in the path of naval improvement, and it is deeply to be regretted that it did not avail itself of the advantage thus gained; that it did not immediately order the construction of other vessels, in which successively the few defects of the Princeton might have been corrected; that it did not persist in that path of improvement into which it had fortunately been directed, instead of suffering our great naval rivals to outstrip us in the race, and compel us at last to resort to them for instruction in that science the very rudiments of which they had learned from us.

3

A series of experiments with the screw were made on board the Dwarf in 1845, and on board the Minx in 1847 and 1848, but the results did not materially differ from those previously obtained. In the Rattler, Dwarf, and Minx twenty-nine different propellers were tried.

4

"Its large amount of friction" is an objection often speciously urged against the trunk-engine, although the friction diagram shows it to be actually less in this than in most other engines.

5

Might not a metallic stern-post, combining strength, lightness, and little resistance, be introduced?

6

Russian Nautical Magazine, No. XLI., December, 1857.

7

For a most interesting and instructive memoir upon these experiments, the reader is referred to that admirable work, by Captain E. Paris, of the French navy, L'Hélice Propulsive.

8

The constructors and engineers of the navy are unsurpassed in professional art or science, and when conjoined with naval officers—who should always determine the war-like essentials of ships—they are capable of producing a steam-fleet that would meet the requirements of all reasonable conditions. We venture to say, that the failures with which they have been charged would be found, on investigation, to be solely attributable to undue extraneous influences.

9

For debarking a regiment or two of Zouaves on the shores of the Adriatic or upon the coast of Ireland.

10

Article in Schilling

11

Article in Schilling

12

Ibid.

13

We quote from an extract in an able article in the Edinburgh Review for April, 1859, entitled, The West Indies as they were and are.