The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1821-1823, 1821-09-05

Thou pourest on him thy soft influences,
Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing
sweets,
Thy melodies Of woods and winds and waters,
| Till he relent, and can no more endure
To be a jarring and dissonant thing
Amid this general dance and minstrelsy;
| But bursting into tears, wins back his way,
His angry spirit heard and harmoniz'd
| By the benignant touch of love and beauty"
But must restrain my pen, OF shall
defeat my object, by writing an article
too long for the patience of ordinary
readers. That the book has faults, is a
matter of course. The author has not
the skill in imagining strange adven-
lures, and in grouping characters, which
the. popular noyelists possess. The
story is however, very interesting, and
the characters are well conceived and
ably sustained. There is some fine
writing, and occasionally there is inter-
-spersed some graphick description
There is, now and then, an instance
where the author has little over
wrought his narration, end attributed
sentiments and actions to his person
eyes which do not belong to ordinary
men and women There is, however,
no palpable extravaganza. In general
all is natural, and consequently inter-
esting TO the taste which is not vitiated
There is no fictitious distress, no equiv
ocal sentiment. The Christian, the
moralist, and the scholar, will find
much to crafty and instruct them
The protested novel reader will find
the story interesting, and will not,
venture to hope, repent the time spent
upon so small book, although it con-
tains but little poetry, and that, not
of very high pretensions; notwithstand-
ing that the hero has bat one love ad-
venture, which terminates unsuccess-
fully, and from somewhat singular
cause, viz. the laay's objections TO his
former profigate life; aud in spite of
the fact, that the book leaves him I'M
married, and in comparative obscurity.
intended to say something upon the
form in which the book presents itself.
1t may be rejected by many, because it
is novel. The author, while, with
much cogency of argument, condemn
ing novels in general, has himself en-
deavoured to remove the prejudice a
gainst fictitious narratives, as such. He
says =" Such objections would ope-
rate, not merely against some of our
best prose writings, but equally against
the compositions of our finest poets.
Yet surely, if there are those who
would forbid our perusal of the prose
fictions of Johnson, De Foe and st.
Pierre, there are none who would in
terdict the poems of Cowper, Mont
gomery, Scott and Milton. Moreover,
| apprehend that such indiscriminate
censure would affect even the Scrip
lures themselves; for know not what
we can call the parabolical parts, ex-
cept it be truth under the veil of 6c-
tom,
For my own part, | think this man
ner of writing very important means
OF intoxicating religious and moral doc
trlnes; and wish that men of power
ful genius would arise to redeem this
department of literature from its per-
version; and convert an instrument,
which Satan has welded with no trivial
success, into the armour of righteous
ness on the right hand and on the left,
wIth.which to contend against spiritual
wickedness in those high places where
novel reading is most common. and
which may be inaccessible TO other
methods of admonition.
In fine, would seriously commend
this book to the attention of all. and
particularly the young. A cheap edi-
ton has, | believe, been published in
Boston, for the purpose of distribution
and few better presents could be
made by an ahectionate parent to his
child, master to his servant, or teach
er to his pupil, especially in Sabbath
Schools, than this book, which points
out the path of peace, and holds a por-
tentous beacon over the ways Of tempta-
ton and vice. The backsliding Chris
tan may here learn something of the
bitterness of that cup which he must
assuredly taste, and the prohigate may
here find impressive warning that the
way of the transgressor is hard. K.
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