The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-07-19
VOL. XUI.-NO. 5.
Written for the Pioneer and Democrat.
PRAIRIE PAPERS.
NUMBER SIX.

THE AMBER GODS-BF MISS PRESCOTT.
Browning, writing to friend in America,
said he was so fascinated by the first num-
Der of Miss PrescOtt's story, the Amber
Gods,-that he could not summon patience
to wait for the second part. And cele-
brated American writer, declared be was
filled with amazement that woman could
have expressed such an appreciation of SEN
suous delight. Certainly it is wonder,
and remarkable fact, too, that this pro
duction of Miss Prescotts s is incontestably
unique. The only effort at all approaching
it, is the ragment-Anteros, by Donald
Macleod but it is the faintest limning
beside the glowing concrete fantasy and su-
perb coloring of the Amber Gods. In a
few particulars Poe's wild story, the AS
signation, is equal to it but in imagina-
tion and cumulative intensity it has no paral-
lei in kind. AS you read some passages the
passion and subtle sadness remind you of
Romeo and Juliet, and you are surprised to
find woman with such insight and power
as to recall Shakspea But pray you
understand me, or you'll think it an auda-
cious statement. The Amber Gods is hardly
more than an intoxicating reverie of pas
sionate ideality, while you know what Ro~
meo and Juliet is !; but the sensuous element
is as keenly felt and expressed in the one as
in the other. That is the suggesting
point I'd have you see. Miss Prescott's
genius is one of the rarest revelations, be-
cause kindred power is nearly always in ex.
tremes ETHEREAL and mystic as in Shelley
broad and daring as in Rosseau. She prom
ises to be in prose what Mrs. Browning is
in poetry and if true passion be prosaic,
as high authorities assert, then she has
the advantage of working in her true
element, with genuine powers. The
great charm of her writing is her know.
ledge of psychical nature, and the fer
vid facility of describing the finest SEN
satiOnal impressions (which has oftentimes
the merit of discovery, because in many in
stances they were dumb facts to conscious.
ness. Who is not thankful when the ten>
derest shades of sensation, and the subtle
vitality Of the inner heart, are made legble
in human language? How many blind gen
erations felt the thrObbing of the heart, the
leap and rushing of the blood, before Har-
vey explained the minute yet mighty cur
rents. Every one had seen apples fall, only
Sir Isaac could tell of the mystic compul-
sion. The principle of eXplication holds
good in the wide range of intuitional eXper-
nd md 10 Of
emotion 10 all its phases, and makes it legi>
BILE with divination, which induces direct
sympathy, the privilege should be valued,
for there are only few in every century
gifted with the p-escience and power of de.
lineation. Isn't this little stanza of Emer-
sons complete?
touch this flower of silken leaf,
Which once my childhood knew
Its soft leaves wound me with grief,
Whose balsam never grew.
I'd rather have interpreted that fine sad
ness than have written the "sweling theme
| of Fate" in the same authors late volume,
because with me, to have walked with Soc
rates, would have been the highest privilege,
beside which the vaunted lever OF Archi-
medes would have no attraction. With
magnifcence of diction which reminds YOU
constantly of De Quincy, and a supernal
Imagination like that of Poe in his best
moods, Miss Prescott is ever dangerously
gifted In the first instance she has tendency
to make everything subservient to graphic
effect, and it is often so obtrusive that YOU
forget other considerations in the gorgeous
mosaic of language. She is as choice as
Keats in the selection and richness of words,
and with her vigorous characteristics of
thought, you wish she had Charlotte
Bronte's conscientious feeling of using the
very word to convey her meaning explicitly
and no more. Sir ROhan's Ghost is scarcely
more than an efflorescent vocabulary, ex-
pressing the most enthusiastic sense of
beauty in Nature, Life, and Art. In the
second instance, her profound sensibiIities
affect the morbid, and one is apprehensive
for such an intellectual temperament. With
her insight and energy in expressing the
various disquietudes of the passionate
heart perhaps the sadness and regret are
naturally unavoidable in genuine human
experience. Yet with mind so creative
and resolvent, you expect wider range of
sympathies than can be evoked in constant
ly representing lives under the influence OF
some strong passion-or worse, a relentless
fatalism. Her last story in the Cosmopoli-
tan Art Journal will illustrate this peculi-
arity. Poe, in his darkest hour, produced
nothing wilder; bis sketch of the Oval
Portrait is not so depressing. Who can
read Vets Christmas Box without tears
The passionate pathos is intolerable. That
ride and rescue on the beach are noble spe-
cimens OF her descriptive powers, and the