The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-04-24

but they are comparatively little known to our
reading public, and we are therefore glad to
see work of as much merit as this now be-
fore us, giving the substance of their deeply
studied examinations in more accessible
shape. In accordance with their views, the
author regards the Beatitudes as possessing
greater unity than is usually given them. He
supposes our Saviour, starting in his instruc-
ton to the people, to have first laid down the
necessity of the knowledge of mans utter des-
titution by nature of that spirit which God can
regard with complacency; and thus, too, he is
to feel and truly mourn over his wretched situa-
ton, and humble himself, with will entirely
subdued to his God. Thus brought low, all his
own righteousness stripped from him, and
yielded wholly to Christ, he must long for
conformity to the Divine law, and exemplify
those traits of conduct which may show that
the change he has experienced is really and
thoroughly wrought in him by the Spirit of
God. A rich and varied illustration in support
of this view characterizes the work while the
opinions of other expositors are well consid-
cred, and reasons furnished for their rejection,
by the author. The line of discussion and the
mode of treatment of the whole subject is popu-
lar, intended less for the theologian than for
Christians generally, in every walk of life. There
is nothing sectarian or bigoted in his observa
tons, though they are eminently practical.
The external dress of type and paper is attract
i've to the eye; and the whole thus forms a
readable and better, yet a useful, instructive
book.
KI0srERHEIM or, The Masque. By Thomas de Quincy
&c With biographical preface, by DIR Shelton Mac
kenzie Boston: Whttemore Niles, & Hail. 1855
For sale by Taylor Marry, Washington, D. C.
Had any author inferior to De Quincy writ
ten klosterheim, we suppose there would have
been no dissenting voice in pronouncing it of a
high order of merit But master of the Eng.
fish style, and so placed at such lofty if not
unapproachable position in his literary efforts
of this description, critics have differed in re-
spect to its claims. Some pronounce it far be-
low many of his productions; others say it is
in his best style. Into this question we, of
course, shall not enter. 1t is De Quincey's, and
possesses the characteristics of that original
genius and popular writer. In it he has
wrought up those varied elements which he
has before employed with such mastery, with
his own singular power. Mystery and terror,
two most effective influences combined with
the stronger passions of the heart--love, revenge
aud hatred, remorse and dread-give dark
shading to the canvass, from out of which stalk
the spectres, so life-like, that they arrest and
appal. 1t is such a tale as some do not like to
read at midnight, or, if they do, almost shud-
der when the windows rattle, or the boughs of
the tree creak, in the bowling of the wind.
And yet De Quincy too well understands the
fearful power he seems to hold at beck, to use
it in the way of vulgar ghost stories. The very
obscurity which wells the scenes, while they are
distinct, too, as reality, in their impress, show
his genius, and make it in its grasp on the
readers mind of no common measure. As many
of our readers are probably aware, this is no
new work of De Quincey's, but has been here
tofore pablished, and now, as has been the case
with most of the volumes of his writings, re-
Gently issued from the press in this country, it
is a republication. The attempt of American
publishers to recall the former essays, reviews,
and tales, of one so long a contributor to vari-
Gus magazines, seems to have aroused the au-
thor himself to the task of retaining at home
his waits aAoat at the mercy of all, and so edit
ing his own works. If there had been no other
effect than this in the gathering of these treas
ures, the public will be the gamer and we
hope, too, the author, who otherwise might
have scarcely been known by name to thou
sands who now dwell with delight on his pages,
luminous with the rays of his genius.
THE ONYX RING. BY John Sterling, with Biographies
Preface by Charles Hale Boston: Whittemore Miles,
Hall. 1856. For sale by Taylor & Maury Washing
| ton, ID. C.
In the palmy days of Old Maya, when under
the editorship of the accomplished Christopher
North, as Professor Wilson chose to style him
self, the Onyx Ring, with some other tales,
made its appearance in successive numbers of
Blackwood, as the production of a new con-
tributor. Since then, the grave has sadly closed
over its gifted author. Of his two biographers,
one, Archdeacon Hare, not long after his remi-
niscences of his former friend, soon followed him.
Carlyle, the other, who ought to give more
favorable guise to the melancholy apostacy of
the once Christian minister to infdelity, survives,
yet to account, no doubt, for his no small share
of influence in bringing the dark cloud of
gloomy loss of faith over the departing hours
of man whose might otherwise, perhaps, have
been a brighter destiny. The last lines Sterling
ever wrote, given in the short memoir prefacng
this tale, seem like the struggling forth of q
former faith, to seek the forgiveness of sins !;
but his setting sun went down in its dim haze,
with no such glorious rays as that earlier period
OF his life might have seemed to presage John
Sterling is only one among many instances of
the whitening influence of that false science or
philosophy, which, by its glare,
"Leads to bewder, and dazzles to blndn
The Onyx Ring is written in no high-wrought
style, yet the conduct of the story is managed
with fine effect. The idea is one which has
been used by various authors in different FORMS
1t is that of representing the transfer or trans
migration of an individual person into the per-
sonality successfully of different individuals In
the present case, the effect is produced by breath
ing on an onyx ring. Of course, the author
depicts the feelings of the persons whose char
acters are assumed, and in this instance the in
terest is heightened by the fact that, under the
names of Walsingham and Collins, two of the
persons, Goethe and Carlyle, are portrayed.
The hero of the tale, too, is enabled, by this
species OF disguise, to ascertain the feelings of