The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-07-19
VOL. XIII.-NO. 5.
TIE AMBER GoDS-BY KISS PRESCOTT.

:. NUMBER SIX.
rHE AMBER GoDS-BY Mss PRESCOTT.
Browning, writing to a friend in America,
said be was SO fascinated by the first num-
Der of Miss Prescott's story, the Amber
Gods,-that be 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 sem
suous delight. Certainly it is wonder,
and remarkable fact, too, that this pro
duction of Miss Prescott's is incontestably
unique. The only effort at all approaching
it, is the fragment-Anteros, by Donald
Macleod but it is the faintest Inning
beside the glowing concrete fantasy and So.
perb coloring of the Amber Gods. In
few particulars Poe's wild story. the AS.
signation, is equal to it but in magma
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 Shakespeare. 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 10 Shelley
broad and daring as in Rosseau. She prom
Uses to be in prose what Mrs. Browning is
in poetry and if true passion be prosaic,
as high authorities assert, then she has
p 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 mpressions-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 legible
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 exploitation holds
good in the wide range of intuitional exper-
fence and where one mind is percipient 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?
l 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 Swelling theme
of Fate" 10 the same authors late volume,
because with me, to have walked with Soc
rates, would have been the highest privilege,
beside which the Wanted lever OF Archi-
medes would have no attraction. With
magni6cence 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 che 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
Brontes conscientious feeling of using the
very word to convey her meaning explicitly
and no more. Sir Rohan's Ghost is scarcely
more than an eflorescent vocabulary, ex-
| pressing the most enthusiastic sense of
beauty in Nature, Life, and Art. In the
second instance, her profound sensibiities
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 q mind go creative
and resolvent, you expect wider range Of
/ sympathies than can be evoked in constant
representing lives under the influence of
some strong passion-0r worse, relentless
fatalism. Her last story in the Cosmopoli-
tan Art Journal will illustrate this peculi>
\ arity. Poe, in his darkest hour, produced
nothing wilder his 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