The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1859-07-13


tween the two, Indian by habit, Write
by tradition, Mrs. Stowe seems IN Ler
former novels to have sought in form
of society alien to her syinpathles, and to"
remote for exact study or for the acquire
ment of local truth, which is the slow re-
suit of unconscious observation. There
can he no stronger proof of the great
ness of her genius, of Der possessing that
concoptiye faculty which belongs to the
higher order of imagination, than tho
avdity with which "Uncle Tom was
read at the South 1t s3ttlot the point
that this book was true to hlmal nature,
even if not infinitely so to plantation life,
If capable of SO great triumph whore
success must so largely depend on the
sympathetic insight of her mere creative
power, have we not right to expect
something far more in keeping with the
requirements Of Art, now that her Won
derful eye is to be the mirror of familiar
scenes, and of a society in which she was
bred, of which she has seen so many va
rietcs-and that, too, in the country
where it is most naive and original 1t is
n great satisfaction 10 us that in the Min
ister's Wooing" she has chosen her theme
L.
habits and traditions. There is no other
writer who is capable Of perpetuatln2 for
us, in work of Art, q style of thought
and manners which railways and newspa
pers will soon render as paIRozaic as tue
mastodon or the saurians Thus far the
story has fully justified our hopes. The
leading characters are all fresh and midi
viduql creations-Mr Katy Scudder, the
notable Yankee house wife, Mary, III
whom Cupid is to try conclusions with
Calvin; james MarvyD, tEc adventurous
boy of the coast in whose heart the wild
religion of nature swells ill the strait
swathings of Puritanism are burst; DR..
Hopkins, the Conscientious minister, come
upon time when the social prestige of
the clergy is waning, and whose indeperp
dence win test the voluntary system OF
ministerial support; Simeon Brown, the
man of theological dialectics, in whom Tire
utmost perfection of creed is shown 10 DO
not inconsistent with the most contradic-
tory imperfection of life and nil these
are characters now in literature. And
the scene is laid Just fat enough away i'll
point Of time to give proper tone and per
srective.
We think we find IN the story the prom
iso Of an interest as unhackneyed US il WI
be intense. There is room for the play
of all the passions and interests that make
up the great tragicomedy Of life, while
all the scenery and accessories will be those
which familiarity has made dear to us
We are little afraid of Colonel Burr, to
be sure, it is SO hard to make histoYicaH
parsonage fulfill the conditions demanded
bv the novel of everyday life. lie is al
most sure to fall below our traditional
conception of him, or to rise above the
natural and easy level of character necas-
sary to keeping, into the vague or the
melodramatic Moreover, we do not want
a novel of society from Mrs. Stowe; sheis
quite too good to be wasted in that way,
and her tread is much more firm on tho
tu'f of the 'door-yaId" or the pasture,
aud the sanded floor of the farm house,
than on the velvet of the salon.
We have no notion how she is to de-
velop her plot, but we think we foresee
chances for her best power in the struggle
which seems foreshadowed between Marys
CONSCIENTIOUS admiration of the Doctor,
and her half conscious passion for james,
before she discovers that one Of these con
fiicting feelings means simply moral H.
king and approval, and the other that
sho is woman and that she loves. AMI
is not the value of dogrnat.c theology as
rule of life to be thoroughly tested for
the Doctor by his slaveholding parishiou-
ers? Is he not to learn the bitter dffor-
ence between intellectual acceptance of II
creed and that true partaking of the sa-
crament of love and faith and sorrow that
makes Christ the very life-blood of our
being and doing? And has not James
Marvyn also bis lesson to be taught! We
foresee him drawn gradually back from
his recoil against Puritan Journalism, 10 q
perception of how every creed is plant
aud plastic to beautiful nature, and of
how much charm there may bein an be-
reditary faith, even if it have become al
most conventional.
In the materials of characters already
present in the story, there is scope for
Mrs.Stowc's humor, pathos, clear moral
sense and quick eye for the scenery of life.
We do not believe that there is any one
who, by birth, breeding and natural ca
pacity, has had the opportunity to know
New England as well as she, or who has
the peculiar genius SO to profit by the
knowledge. Already there have been
scenes in the ministers Wooing," that
in their quiet truth, contrast as charming
ly with the tlmid sagueness of the mod
ern school of novel writers ms the "Vicar
of Wakefield" itself, and W. are greatly
mistaken if it do not prove to be the most
n