Читать книгу: «The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 29, March, 1860», страница 17

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.