Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-02-14
NEW BOOKS.

JoHH. by George WOOD, author OF Peter
Schlemihl in America 2 vols. Boston Phil
lips, Sampson d Co..
We have looked over these volumes with
much interest, not only from the fact that Mr.
Wood is our fellow townsman, but on account
of the very different opinions which had been
expressed concerning it by the press. We have
risen from the perusal with a decided impress
sion of Mr.. Woods successful execution of
what we think, the only practical mode of
touching many of the errors which have crept
into the fashionable, and through the fashona-
BILE, into the religious society Of the day. But
we do not suppose that Mr.. Wood, himself, for
moment expected that the book he was writing
would fail to provoke bitter criticism. On the
contrary, We take it to be the best test of the
pungency of the work, that it has awakened
on the part of those whose absurdities, or lido
syncrasies or mmoralities it exposes, so sharp
hostility as is displayed in such articles as
one which appeared in the Tribune on the 2Sth
of November last, and another in the Intelh-
gencer of the 29th of December.
To anticipate acceptance from journal de-
voted to Fourriersm of book like Mr.. Woods,
would be to condemn it by anticipation as not
accomplishing the purpose for which alone,
such work should be attempted. To expect
no opposition from extremists in religious sec.
tarianism in direct onset upon its own darl-
ing peculiarities would be to say, that the
effort was not worthy of opposition. From a
Fourrieite, therefore, we should have foretold
just such a criticism as has appeared in the
Tribune.
As to the article in the Latelligcncer, it is
written with ability, but from its face, it must
either have proceeded from the pen of a High
Churchman or an ultra Unitarian.
We should have supposed the writer to have
been the former, but for the passage in which
he complains of Mr.. Woods injustice in putting
into the mouth of DR.. Upatree, doctines quoted
from Newman, Froude, and Pusey in the tracts.
No real High Churchman of the present day
could possibly have fallen into the error of dis.
claiming the doctrines contained in the tracts,
whatever he might say of the men who wrote
them. Indeed, every Episcopalian knows that
the very rock upon which the high and the low
parties in his church have divided in recent
times, has been trdctaridnism. We are, there
fore, rather inclined to suppose the writer an
Unitarian, and if SO, are not at all surprised at
the earnestness with which he endeavours to
prove that Mr.. Woods book accomplishes
nothing. But we cannot agree with the writer,
last mentioned, who says:
"The method Of treating the various reforma
tory movements of the day-the phalanstery
the woman's rights convention, the conversa-
tons OF free nquirers-present more fully a
fact which has grown on us with every page Of
this book, that the forte of the author Of Mod
ern Pilgrims is not in philosophical estimates.
A man who believes that in this age great
epidemic sympathy can concentrate its energies
on great popular movement, and gather
around it appliances ofmoney, time, enthusiasm,
without its having any root in the nature of
things, is not a thinker"
Now, we do not understand Mr. Wood to in.
sinuate that these epidemic sympathies' do
not have any root in the nature Of things"
but only as asserting that they do not spring
from goQ&end healthy root. Not that spirit
ualism, Mormonism, &c, have no roots in hu-
man nature, but that they are rooted in envy,
lust ambition, mental and physical idiosync
racies, which are not the wholesome roots
from which spring such institutions as couduce
to real reform. When women unsex them
selves and assume character which God never
gave them, when they can so far overcome that
instructive modesty which shrinks from the
public stare, and can walk the streets in male
attire without even blush on the cheek at the
gaze and grinnings Of the crowd, arguments
are in vain, and it is only by holding up their
likeness to the scorn Of the world that any inn
preston can be made on them. We think
that the world at large can never be brought
to see these vagaries of cranky intellects, until
they are exhibited in such colors as Mr.. Wood
has applied in his book. So, with respect to
those blots upon the good taste and instructive
propriety even Of this age ofinnoyation, womens'
rights conventions, in which the natural and
graceful occupations OF the female sex are cas-,
aside, and affairs Of men assumed as their
proper province. Reasoning is thrown away
on such persons. Modesty is appealed to in
vain. Physical necessities are laughed at, and
were it not that God himself has placed some
natural obstacles in the way Of an entire turn.
ing upside down Of all the customs Of society,
we should not know where il would end.
There are some few physical peculiarities of
both sexes, and some few functions which can.
not be interchanged. We have among us living
advocates Of all the decisions OF socialism.
spirtualism, Wakemanism, Mormonism, and
other kindred absurdites, which are uprootine
the very first and best principles Of civil, so.
cial, and domestic life, which are to be dealt
with, not so much by reason as by ridicule.
Again: we cannot help feeling the force and
truthfulness Of the picture Mr.. Wood has
drawn Of the influence which spurious imi.
tation Of German philosophy has had upon the
thought language, and especially the religious
belief Of a certain portion Of our country, and
which are beginning to be felt in what is now