New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1846-07-21
THE TRIBUNE.

BEocEoEH BROWN. Library Of STANDARD Romance.
w. Taylor Co. Aston House.
We rejoice 10 see these reprints Of Browns nov
els, as we have long been ashamed that one WHO
ought 10 be the pride Of the country. and who s IN
the higher qualities Of the mind so far Ia ADVANCE
Of Our other novels,s, should have become almost
inaccessible to the public.
II has been the custom to liken Brown to God
win. Blu, there was no imitation, no second hand
in the matter. They were congenial natures, and
whichever had come first might have lent an impulse
to the other. Either mind might have been con-
scous OF the possession Of that peculiar vein of ore
wi,hou, thinking of working it for the mint OF the
world ill the other, led by accident, or overflow OF
feeling, showed him how easy il was TO pat the rev.
cries of bis solitary hours iAto words and upon pa
per for the benefit OF his fellow men.
"My mind to me q kingdom is"
Such man as Brown or Goodwin has RICH, to
say that. 1t is scanty turbid ril, requiring 10 be
daily fed from thousand others or from the clouds
Its plenleous source PUSHES from high mountain
between bulwsrks OF stone Its course, even and
full. keeps ever green its banks, and affords the
means of life and joy TO a million gliding shapes,
that fill its deep waters and twinkle above its golden
sands.
Life and Joyl Yes, JOY! These two have been
called The dark Masters, because they disclose the
twilight recesses Of the human heart. Yet their
gravest page is joy compared with the mixed shall
low, uncertain pleasures of vulgar minds. Joy! be.
cause they were all alive and fulfilled the purposes
OF being. No sham, no imitation, no convention de-
formed or yelled their native lineaments, checked
the use of their natural force. All alive themselves,
they understood that there is no JOY without truth.
no perception of JOY without real life. Unlike most
men, existence was to them not tissue of words
aud seemings, but substantial possession.
Born Hegelians, without the pretensions OF sci
ence, they sought God in their consciousness,
and found him. The heart, because it itself 80
fearfuly and wonderfully made, did not disown ils
Maker With the highest idea of the dignity, pow
or and beauty Of which human nature is capable
they had courage 10 see by what an oblique course
II proceeds yet never lose faith that ii would reach
its destined aim. Thus their darkest dsclosuresare
not hobgoblin shows but precious revelations
Brown is great human writer was in
showing the self sustaining force of which lonely
mind is capable. He takes ono person. makes him
brood like the bee. and extract from the common
life before him all Its sweetness, its bitterness, and
its nourishment
We say makes him, but increases our own inter.
est In Brown that prophet in this respect OF bet
ter era he has usually placed this thinking royal
mind in tho body Of q woman This parsonage too
is always feminine. both in her character and cir
cumstances but q conclusive proof that the term
feminine Is not synonym for reak. Constantia,
Clara Wieland, have loving hearts, graceful and
plastic natures but they have also noble thinking
minds. full Of resource. constancy courage. The
Marguerite of Goodwin. no less, is all refinement, and
the purest tenderness but she is also the soul Of
honor, capable of deAp discernment and OF acting
In conformity with tie differences she draws. The
Man OF Brown and Goodwin has not eaten OF the
fruit of the tree of knowledge and heen driven to
sustain himself by the sweat OF his brow for no.
thing, but has learned the structure and laws OF
things, and become being natural, benignapt vari-
GUS and dcsirous of supplying the loss OF innocence
by the attainment of virtHe. So his Woman need
no, be quite so weak Eve. the slave OF feeling or
OF aattery she also has learned 10 guide her helm
amid the storm across the troubled waters.
The horrors which mys,eriously beset these per-
sons, and against which, so far outward facts so,
they often strive in vain but representation OF
those powers permitted TO work IN the same way
Throughout, the affairs OF this world Their demonia-
cal attributes only represent morbid state OF the
intellect gone to excess from WANT OF balance with
the other powers. There is an intellectual as well
as physical drunkenness and which, no less i'm
pels 10 crime. Carwn, urged on to use his ventrilo
qasm. till the presence of such strange agent
Weakened The seeds Of fanaticism in the breast Of
Wieland, is in state foreign TO nature than
that of the wretch executed last week, who felt
himself drawn as by spell 10 murder his victim be-
cause he had thought Of her money and the pleasures
tmsht bring him. till the feeling possessed his brain
athurls the gamesier 10 ruin. The victims Of such
agency are like the soldier of the Rio Grande who
both legs sho; off and his life blood rushing ont with
every pulse, replied serenely to his plying COM
rades tina, "he had now that for which the soldier
enlisted" The end Of the drama is not in this
world and the fiction which rounds off the whole &c
harmony and felicity before the curtain falls sins
against truth and deludes the reader. The Nelson's
OF the human race are sill the more exposed 10 the
assaults OF Fate that they are decorated with the
badges Of wollearned glory. Who but feels as they
fall in death rise sgain TO muula.ed existence
tina, the end is notyetl Who, that thinks, bu,mus,
feel that the recompense is, where Brown places H.
in the accumulation Of mental treasure in the severe
assay by fire that leaves the gold pure to be used
Observation-Disclosures
Brown. man. of the byoodins eye the ieeming
brain, the deep aud fervent heart; II thy country
prize thee not and has almost los; thee ont OF sight
It's that her heart is made shallow and cold, hel
eye dim by the pomp of circumstance, the love o.
gross outward gain. She canno,long continue thu'
for il takes great deal OF soul to keep huge body
from disease and dissolution. As there is more soul
thou wilt be more sought, and many will We, sit
downwiIh thy Copstan,ia TO the meal and water on
which she sustained her fol- and thoughtful exist;
euce who could no, endure the ennui OF aidermsnic
dinners or find any relish in the imitation of French
cookery. To-day many will read the words, aud
some have cup large enough to receive the spirit
before il is lost in the sand which their feet
planted.
Browns high standard Of the delights of in'ellec
!ual communion and of friendship correspond with
The tondesi hopes of early days. But in the rela.
tA Il