Among children's books of the past Christmas which reached us too late
for notice in our New-Year's Juvenile Section, are two or three,
altogether too remarkable to be passed over. 'At the Back of the North
Wind' (Strahan), and 'Ronald Bannerman's Boyhood,' both by George
Macdonald, are two books almost sufficient by their excellences to mark
an epoch in juvenile literature. Excepting 'Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland,' no recent work that we can remember is worthy of being
compared with the former. In no other of his many books has Mr.
Macdonald shown more strikingly the power and delicacy of his
imaginative genius. The blending of sober history with the most
Puck-like fancies--the underlying thoughtfulness of both--the inlaying
of wise reflections, subtly hinted or delicately touched--the blossoming
into poetical beauty of almost every position and teaching--the light,
graceful hand with which the whole is carried on--the deep, spiritual
meanings that transfigure the lightest incidents--altogether constitute
a fairy tale the like of which we have rarely seen, and which is as
suggestive to the mature as it is amusing to the juvenile. We know
youngsters in the nursery who, if they could not literally recite it by
heart, would infallibly detect the alteration of a single sentence. Mr.
Macdonald has attained to that perfection of excellency which
understands the heart of a child. He has made 'Diamond' immortal.
'Ronald Bannerman's Boyhood' (Strahan), is altogether different in
conception, feeling, and style. Mr. Macdonald's affluence of fancy is,
with perhaps an equal exercise of imagination, subdued to the plain
matter-of-fact, no-nonsense-about-it, autobiography of a school-boy. The
sympathy with boy-nature is as perfect as in the other volume is the
sympathy with child-nature. The narrative is bright, generous, and
true--the exact tone of a noble-hearted boy, who has, however, to speak
of some of the troubles and sorrows of life. Mr. Macdonald, however,
never lacks humour. His description of Mrs. Mitchell, his father's sour
housekeeper, and of the Dame School to which Ronald was sent, as well as
of Kirsty and the experiences at the farm, is rich and racy in a high
degree. Kirsty tells some capital kelpie and other Scotch stories and
legends. It is a beautiful picture of childhood, teaching, by its
impressions and suggestions, all noble things. 'Chamber Dramas for
Children,' by Mrs. George Macdonald (Strahan), are four little plays,
good as Hannah More's Sacred Dramas, and amusing as the stories of
Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast, out of which two of them are
constructed. They are cleverly done, and will doubtless do duty in many
an acted charade. The 'Tetterby's' is founded upon Dickens's Haunted
Man. The 'Snowdrop' is new to us. 'The Boy in Grey' (Strahan), by Henry
Kingsley, which appeared in _Good Words for the Young_, together with
the above, was thereby subjected to a severe ordeal. It can ill bear the
comparison. Instead of the translucent fancies of Mr. Macdonald, it is
turgid and confused, and when it would be aërial, produces the effect
that sculptured clouds do. Its allusions are often beyond the range of a
boy's knowledge; its nonsense limps, and its wisdom is ponderous. We
have found it very difficult to understand Mr. Kingsley's meaning.
'Lilliput Lectures,' by the author of 'Lilliput Levée' (Strahan), is
again perfect in its way. The lectures are on all sorts of
things--social and religious, physical and metaphysical, artistic and
commercial. The writer tells us that he writes for no particular age,
but aims generally at a childlike way of putting things. Some of the
things put are high and mysterious; but then youth has wondrous dreams
and speculations, and the happy simplicity of the writer helps youthful
thought to climb. Each lecture winds up with some verses such as only
the author of 'Lilliput Levée' can write. 'Choice Poetry for Children'
(Religious Tract Society), is a small selection of religious and moral
pieces by modern writers--of course, of unequal merit, but wisely and
suitably chosen. 'The Pearl of Story Books' (Nelson) is a collection for
children of Bible narratives in Bible words. 'Mrs. Montmorency's Money,'
by Emma Jane Worboise (Clarke), belongs to minor fiction rather than to
juvenile literature. Its moral is that 'the love of money is the root of
all evil.' As is always the case with Miss Worboise, it is carefully
written, and there are clever descriptions and scenes of pathos in it;
but it is overlaid with moral, and not so successful in its plot as some
of her tales. It is, however, a wholesome and readable story, and its
moral is as timely as it is unexceptional.
_Brevia, Short Essays, and Aphorisms._ By the Author of 'Friends in
Council.' Bell and Daldy.
Most of the writings of Mr. Helps are Brevia. His books are made like
Armstrong guns, of welded pieces; and the process would not be a very
violent or destructive one that resolved them into the shape of these
fragments. We can well imagine them to be not so much chips as prepared
blocks for larger works, which the architecture did not admit of, and
which, therefore, the author has wrought into independent art forms.
They are brimful of thoughtfulness and practical wisdom; always genial,
often humorous, they make up a table book of aphorism and apologue, of
colloquia, and short essay, independently conceived and gracefully
expressed--which among living writers it would be difficult to parallel.
They remind us most of Whately; only Mr. Helps is more terse than he.
Sometimes reams of discussion are gathered into half a page; sometimes a
single sentence contains seeds for reams of discussion. Mr. Helps has
given us a volume of 'Aids for Reflection,' which is worthy the study of
the most desultory. Most of these short essays and aphorisms have
appeared in _Good Words_. We quote one sentence--'Some persons, instead
of making a religion of their God, are content to make a God of their
religion.'
_Fors Clavigera: Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain._
By JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D. Sold only by G. Allen, Heathfield Cottage, Keston,
Kent.
In these letters Mr. Ruskin seeks to teach the workmen and labourers of
Great Britain some political economy which we are commonplace enough to
think fallacious, and some history which we are not Vikings enough to
think otherwise than mischievous. But we are in full accord with him in
his desire to lighten the national distress around us, and to
exterminate the yahoos of civilization; and if he can show us, as he
seems to think he can, some sure method of doing both or either, we will
abandon Mr. Mill, and will take our history from Mr. Carlyle. In the
three letters already published we have not been able to discover any
proposal leading to action, or, indeed, leading to anything at all,
except weariness and vexation of spirit. But we are perhaps even now on
the verge of the promised land. Mr. Ruskin has become so practical of
late years that we are inclined to think he has made a real discovery.
But he seems in no hurry to announce it, and delay is naturally
tantalizing.