We have but a few words to offer upon the contents of the present
number. Generally they must speak for themselves; but in regard to
others we may be permitted a passing comment.
No. II of the Dissertation on the characteristic differences between
the sexes, sustains the high character of the first number. And
although the branch of the subject--Religious Differences--which the
author has discussed in the present number, seems to promise little
amusement for the general reader, it will be found upon perusal, to
have been so ingeniously treated, so beautifully illustrated, that
even he who entirely eschews polemics, will be edified and delighted.
It was upon this point that we felt the most solicitude for the
success of the writer, for there is no part of his subject so
difficult to manage, or in which he was so liable to fall below the
expectations of his readers. But he has overcome its difficulties, and
presents us with a disquisition, entirely free from the narrowness of
sectarian views, and deeply grounded in the philosophy of the human
mind. His view of the religion of woman is accurate and
beautiful,--her proneness to lean on the strength of a more powerful
being, her confiding nature, her facility in believing where man
cavils and doubts, and the tendency of her religious sentiments to
degenerate into superstition, contrasted with the besetting evils of
man's religious faith--bigotry and fanaticism--are admirably
portrayed. His illustration of this contrast is clear and convincing,
whilst his style throughout is easy and attractive. He seems to have
drawn the true inspiration from his subject, and is doubtless a
believer in the doctrine of the ingenious Biron--
"From woman's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle still the right promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world;
Else, none at all in aught proves excellent."
Grayson Griffith is a religious story. We approve of the moral, as a
matter of course--who will not? But we do not come quite up to the
writer's standard of perfection, for we candidly confess we cannot see
the germs of perdition in a social game of whist; and while we detest
gambling and gamblers, the proscription of amusements innocent in
themselves, because some remote analogy may be traced between them and
practices at once immoral and every way destructive, seems to us
irreconcileable with sound logic or true philosophy. The attempt to
trace the vices of men to early habitudes is not always successful, as
the power of good or evil impressions over the mind and habits, is
essentially modified by the character of each individual. Besides,
accident often determines the destinies of men, so far as we can see,
in very spite of every previous tendency. We doubt, for instance,
whether the fascinations of the faro-table would not have been as
great to Grayson if he had never seen a card, as they proved to be, as
related in the story. But we are getting into the discussion of a
question which requires more time and space than we have to spare.
The "Letter on the United States, by a _Young Scotchman_," is
generally amusing; but some of the passages in it strike us with
surprise. He tells us that, "although the Americans are great novel
readers, there is too much matter-of-fact about them; they are too
calculating and money-making [this from a Scotchman!] to serve the
purposes of the novelist. They form but indifferent heroes and
heroines of romance, and hence Cooper is obliged to resort to the sea
to rake up pirates and smugglers, or to go back to the revolution or
the early settlement of his country to find characters and incidents
calculated to give verisimilitude and interest to his tales." This
seems to us hasty and jejune criticism. Cooper was not, as we know,
"_obliged_" to rake up pirates and smugglers; but as this writer has
told us in the ninth number of the Messenger, "He (Cooper) had been
for some years an officer in the American Navy, where he acquired a
knowledge of all the minutiæ of nautical life, which was of great
service to him in the composition of some of his tales. These are
justly considered as his best"--and he might have added, are written
with power peculiar to Cooper, of whom it may truly be said:
"His march is on the mountain wave
_His home_ is on the deep."
And well would it have been for his fame had he never abandoned his
proper element. On shore he generally makes as awkward a figure as one
of his nautical heroes would do, after a voyage, before he had gotten
rid of his "sea legs." We have read Cooper's last, the Monikins, but
at too late a period to allow a regular notice of it in this number.
_En passant_, however, we must say that it is an entire
failure--vapid, pointless, and inane. It appears to be an attempted
satire on mankind, a bungling imitation of Swift's account of the
_Houynhmins_, Mr. Cooper's monkies are a tedious race, and his Yankee
captain, "Noah Poke," the principal interlocutor, as the lawyers would
term him, is little better. We believe that all who have read this
work, will agree, that the sooner its author is "_obliged_" to take
again to salt water, and "rake up pirates and smugglers," the better
it will be for his own reputation, and the purses of his booksellers.
In regard to the poetry of this number, we must content ourselves with
drawing attention to the pathetic effusion "on the Deaf, Dumb and
Blind Girl."