The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1852-06-02

/ Vi tnlS matter OF slavery, ana q token OF
still better things in store, we trust
there is neither wrath nor bitterness from
the beginning to the end of the book.
And so faxsas the author speaks her own
sentiments, there is throughout it all
genial glow of piety and humanity
which is one of the golden fruits of the
Spirit. TO be sure, there are
more than enough of coarse char
acters, and they are somewhat profusely
gifted in the use of tongues. that are "set
on fire of He'll" We have no reason to
believe that such men are entirely ano-
malous at the South, any more than in
more favored New England But, as an
artistic performance, there is too much
of this trailing of a slow length along in
slime and filth. A lady must have en-
joyed., peculiar advantages to be able to
deal out the coarsest of slang phrases, in
periods so well rounded and complete
We have been left to wonder What those
squeamish persons, who purcltse expur-
gated editions of Shakespeare, will do a.
bout introducing such volleys of oaths
and blasphemes Into their family circles
We say, the thing is not artistic Such
characters as Haley and Legree, might
have been well redeemed by the intro
duction of others, on which the mind
could dwell with more complacency Not
that we care to have poor human nature
hattcrcd to believe it is better than it is
but verbal paintings, like those of the
brush, should not be all 6ackgr9uRd
To be sure this is "of no consequence"
as Mr. Toots would say, being a
mere matter of taste Undoubtedly,
Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe had Il per-
feet right to select her own colors and
mix them for herself; and bring out
whatever forms of beauty or ugliness lay
most within her She has exercised on
ly the same right with Fielding and Bul-
wer before her They drew from the
life-found in life motives, words and
deeds. \ mere matter of taste though
it would have made the thing little less
morbid, if she had made more use of
some of the .good material. she had laid
out for herself There was George Shelby
for example
Viewed in another light. it was not a
mere matter of taste, what characters
should be selected. and how they should
be contrasted and figure relatively. The
book was designed 10 tell And it has
told, and will tell, more deeply and last
ingly than all the fire and fury. which
such men as Giddings and Palfrcy have
been vomiting out for years We almost
believe their political craft is worse than
endangered, and the hope of their gain
is gone.
Mrs Stowe has never resided in a
slave State. Her more immediate sour
ces of information have been the several
blacks that have, from time to time been
servants in her family in Cincinnati.
Further than this, she has been able to
command the cooperation of large cir
Gle of relatives, many of whom have been
much in public life. and watchful of the
workings of this involved system of crime
and sorrow; and one of them, Rev.
Charles Beecher. spent some time in con
nection with mercantile house in New
Orleans. We must add, in Justice to her,
that not one of them all would have so
clearly escaped all imputation of wilful
ignorance or bigotry, ON a subject in re-
gard to which there is so much of both
in the North, as she herself has done.
We think she has not misreprescnted
the system As we said above. deli
cacy Of taste strongly rebels against
some of the scenes and characters.
Indeed, we fear delicacy of taste
IS quite likely to prefer contempla-
ting possible good to probable i'll 1t
was no design of the author, to present IA
picture which should be more pleasing
than the original She has, and it seems
to us very properly, seized upon repre-
sentative characters 1t is not necessa-
ry to believe that precisely such persons
as she here portrays ever did really ex-
list, but that all the clements Of their
composition could be found, combined
with others in divers proportions; and
that the 'eclecticism of genius was OK
crcised upon them, and the former were
chosen and the others left Hamlet was
no less child of Natures own making
because his nostrils never "snuffed the
morning air. of an actual life. The
Greek Slave is only an embodiment of
tile possible And we doubtless obtain
clearer ideas of the real state of society in
the South, from these creative portrait
ures, than if the author had introduced
crowds of individuals, who were only true
as MemSelceS. And, as the highest
proof of propriety, we appeal to read
ers, and ask them if the idea of natlt.
rdlneSS was not largely prominent in their
minds during the progress of the narra-
tive One of the peculiar excellencics
of the book is its dramatic HreiineSs
Who would ever think to accuse the
sculptor of being untrue to Nature. be-
cause he bodied forth form of beauty
surprising all things he had ever seen
On the contrary, the Greek Slave is the
mare natural, that it is unlike any one
living. And we half suspect, that it is
upon this principle, that certain living
artists aim to delineate the possible char
acter of their subjects, in preference to
any one expression, which may chance to
sit upon the face, as the shadow of pass
ing mood-presenting portrait, on
NhiNh al SbaidSbSilStiV HloOus Noulu DC
in character, rather than seizing upon
the chance one, which may be resting
there.
Now although some of the characters
of this story may make the foregoing
remarks appropriate enough, many of
them might be traced back to real pro-
totypes, We co mcclure that few New
Englanders will object to NJ iss St Glare,