The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-01-29

braclDg up OF tlrm resolutions, Sef-rellance, ant
the energetic putting forth of conscious powers
with little of trust or aid from above. There
are situations and states of the heart that seen
almost necessarily to suggest such a resort
but when we look to meet with it, it is no
here.
How is it that the heavenly sympathizer will
human sorrows, once felt and shared in, come.
not nigh to join the company, or is not permit
ted to breathe out word of divine consolation
to the lone and heart-stricken 1t is strange
to us that this adaptation can be so overlooked
so wondrously forgotten. 1t is an unexplained
phenomenon, but for the darker view we have
to see the human heart in, as "deceitful anc
desperately wicked" that the Sacred Scriptures
reveal, and call on us to admit And herein
only can we read the solution, that nature. the
conviction of a reigning God, even Divine
Providence, may lend their ministry to these
necessities of ours, but the words that fell ten
derer than any ever elsewhere spoken on earth
may not call out a response from the bosom
that heaves with the deepest sense of a need oil
them. And so that God should be permitted
to stand forth as Father, as our Heavenly
Father, and yet He who taught to all mankind
that most sublime prayer, and for whose sake
our Creator seems, in his own Revelation, to
be made known to US as his Father and our
Father, and over whom, as his "beloved Lord"
breaks the yearning message, Hear him -
should scarcely seem to be in the mind or the
&c A., Al
which is glad tidings to the wretched, and gives
rest to the weary and heavy-laden. How much
they lose of hold on soulsympathy and the glow
of an unutterable fervency of spirit, who, in
their semi-religious writings, can content them
selves with drawing forth the imperfect exhi-
billions of hearts swayed by a host of conflicting
interests, and yet make scarcely an allusion to
His recorded experience and words of promise,
who, allying himself to our nature, drank deep
er than any one else could do of the cup of our
most bitter anguish, and knew better than any
other, how, by his ministry, to give strength
and grace in every hour of trial, and amid all
the varieties of life's discipline of veal and
woe.
and preparation in the delineation of charac-
ter. In the main, the conduct of the story is
managed skilfuly. The reader is taken by
surprise at last, though he may have partially
guessed some of the details of the close for
after seeming to have made the way plain to
alliances that might have proved congenial
and broken asunder ties that were formed, she
gathers mp the separated threads, and untwists
the snar, and binds all at last together, so that
they are mutually satisfied and happy. This
is ingeniously done; and while it lengthens out
and diversifies her plot, it at the same time al
lows her to exhibit the varying characters, and
the embodiments and developments of passions
and feelings, which has been her aim. She
possesses an analytic power of drawing forth
and delineating the diversified aspects and
bearings of life, as it passes in the purposes
and acts ofaindividuals, brought into closer or
more distant relations, and are struck often by
the deeper thought which her anatomzing
process on the heart reveals. In general, she
has rendered her heroes and heroines for
there seem to be more than one-true to her
own conception, as it appears from the purpose
of her story Grace, Kate, Cousin Mary, Cousin
John, Miss Baldwin, Miss Cardover, Mrs. Hen
~ Judith Benzoui, as well as her husband, Mr..
Waldron, Mr.. Cardover, James Bedell, Walter
They have their strong-drawn outlines and
their pecularites-nor could one be substitu-
ted for the other without impairing the whole.
Many of the scenes are we'll described. and
take strong hold on the readers sympathies.
After she is fairly entered upon her story. and
her own feelings bear her onward, her Ian.
guage Is more easy, and she writes with better
effect. If, as we suppose, it be first attempt.
1t IS promising; for, with room for much i'm.
rovement-some points of which we have, we
hope not unkindly, pointed out-.here is EVIL
dence OF determination to take pains, and, it
may be, excel The work has cost its author
reflection and care, and we think will be well
received by the public.
iHE ECLECTIC MAGAZINE of Foreign Literature w II
bidweh Editor and Proprietor. January, ISL New
York (See Advertisement also in this Journal)
This number has been somewhat withheld bv
a delay in the execution of the plates. There
are admirable engravings, portraits of DR..
Chalmers, and the Emperor of Russia, Alexan.
der III, to which an article from the North
British ReUie'o, on the works of DR.. Chalmers.
and an account of the Coronation ceremonies
at Moscow, by the correspondent of the London
Times, are fitting Accomplishments. There is
choice variety of articles from different British
periodicals. The most prominent of these are.
" The Nuns of Port Royal" from the London
quarterly Reciew; two from the Titan, viz:
" Notes and Gleanings in Science" and "Me-
moirs of the Duke of Saint Simon" a good
pendant to which is, French Newspapers"
from Bentley's Miscellany. Tait's Magazine.
one of the best of its kind, furnishes paper
full of the strange and wonderful, as dreams,
Impressions, apparations, &C., under the title of
I" The Lost Faculty; or, the Sixth Sense
One of the readable notices of volume of mem
oranda or literary gossip, drawn from Bsntley's
Miscellany, is as a sort of review of "The Re.
mains of John Bysom;" weird story. well
told, from the Titan, called, Greystone Hall;
an appreciative view of" PASCAL and his works,
from the New Monthly Magazine another,
well-written notice of recent work, giving
description of "the Border Lands of France
and Spain," especially of the almost unknown
little Republic Of Andorre; sketch of "Sir
John Ross" and his labors as an Arctic Nav.
igator; one of Mr.. Spurgeon, termed the
Modern Whitfield" and one on "Diamond
Washing and Cutting;" and our readers may