New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1846-01-10
THE TRIBUNE.


cause il is one OF a class which we see growing
with pleasure We see it with pleasure because
in its way, i, is genuine. It is a transcript of the
crimes calumnies, exci,ements, half blind love of
right and honest indignation Mt the sor, of wrong
which il can discern, 10 be found in the class from
which II emanates.
That class is large one in our country villages
and these books reflect its thoughts and manners as
halfpenny ballads do the life of the streets of Lon
don. The ballads are not more true TO the facts
but they give US, in form. far more OF the
spirit thnn get from the same facts reflected in
the intellect of Dickens for instance, or of any
writer far enough above the scene 10 be, properly,
its Artist.
So in this book we lind what Cooper, Miss Sedg-
wick and Mrs Kirkland might see, as the writer
did but could hardly believe in enough to speak of
with such fidelity.
/, is current superstition that country people are
more pure and healthy in mind and body than those
who live in cities 1t may be so in countries Of old
established habits where genuine peasantry have
inherited some of the practical wisdom and loyalty
Of the past with most Of its errors. We have our
doubts, though from the stamp upon literature,
always the nearest evidence of truth we can get,
whether even there, the difference between town
and country life is much in favor of the latter is
generally supposed But in land where the
country is at present filled with mixed population
who come seeking 10 be purified by better life and
culture from all the ills and diseases Of the worst
forms Of civilization things often look than in
the city, perhaps because men have more time and
room to let their faults grow and offend the light OF
day.
There are exceptions and not a few but in
very great proportion of country villages the habits
Of the people, az to food air. and exercise,
ignorant and unhealthy to the last degree Their
want Of all pure faith and appetite for coarse excite
ment, is shown by continued intrigues, calumnies
and crimes.
We have lived in beautiful village where more
iayorably placed than any other person in it, both
10 withdrawal from bad associations and nearness TO
good, we heard, inevitably from domes,ics work
people and school.chdren more ill of human ma
lure ,han we could possibly sift wero we TO elect
sch task, from all the newspapers in This city in
the same space Of time.
Webelieve the amount of i'll circulated b. means
Of anonymous letters az described in this book, to
be as great as Gun be imported in all the French
=
selves oftwo or three cases of morbid wickedness,
displayed by means of anonymous letters, that may
vie with what puzzled the best wits OF France In
famous law suit long since II is true there Is 10
balance all this ahea,hy rebound, surprise and a
shame and heartily good people such described
in this book, who having taken direction upward,
keep it and cannot be bent downward aside
But then the reverse OF the picture is of backness
that would appel one who came to it with any
yic ideas of the purity and peaceful loneliness OF
agricultural life
But what does this prove only the need OF dis
semnaton of all that is best intellectually and moral
ly,throush the whole people Our groves and fields
have good fairies genii who teach by legend or
gentle apparition, the truths the principles that can
,One preserve the village the city from possession
d the fend. Their place must be taken by the
Shoo.maser and he must be one who knows not
only readin rtin and 'rithmetc, but the service OF
God and the destiny of man Our people require
thoroughly difIused Intellectual life, religious aim,
sch as no people a, large ever possessed before,
else must they sink till they become the dress rather
than the cream of creation. which they TOO apt TO
aarer themselves with the fancy of being already.
The most interesting fiction we have ever read in
this coarse homely, but genuine class, is one called
Me,alak" Ii NAV be in circulation in this city,
Oat We bought it in a country nook aud from ped
der and it seemed to belong 10 the country Had
We with it in any other way it would probably.
have been to throw it aside again directly for the
author does not know how TO write English and the
a7si chapters give no idea of his power OF appre-
aending the poetry of life But, happening 10 read
on we became fixed and charmed and have retained
rom It's perusai the sweetest picture of life lived in
las Land ever Afforded us out of the pale OF personal
observation That such things are, private obsorva-
lion has made sure but the writers of books rarely
seem to have seen them; rarely to have walked
alone in an un,rodden path long enough to hold COM
mune with the spirit of the scene.
In this book You find the very life the mos: yul-
gar prose and the most exquisite poetry. You fol
low the hunter in his path, walking through the
hooest and taires Only shoot the poor ami
mails tina, were happy there winning from the pure
atmosphere l,'le benef, except a good appetite,
aeeping at night In the dirty novels, with people
who burrcw in them 10 lead life but little above
that Of the squirrels and foxes. There is in all that
air of room enough, and free if low forms OF human
nature which al such times. makes bearable all that
would otherwise be so repulsive.
But when come 10 the girl who is the presid-
ms deity or rather the uelary angel Of the scene
bow are all dscords harmonized, how all its latent
music poured forth! Ills a portrait from the life !;
u has The my site charm of fulfilled reality how far
beyond the iarest ideals ever born OF thought Pure
and brilliantly blooming the flower of the wilder
ness she, in like manner shares while she subhmes,
us nature. She plays round the most vulgar and
rude beings gentle and caressipg. yet unsullied :;
her w!ldness there is nothing cold savage, her
elevation is soft and warm. Never have we seen
natural religion more beautifully expressed, never
80 We'll discerned the influence of the natural Nun,
VINO needs no veil or cloister guard from proana
non The beauty she has dedicated to God, and only
a'tsacts human love 10 hallow it into divine.
ine lonely life OF the girl after the death OF her pa
'en's-her iearlessness, her gay and sweet enjoy
sos OF Nature around, her intercourse with the old
pe"pe OF the neighborhood her sis,erly conduct to-
"asd her "suitors"-all seem painted from the life,