The weekly pioneer and Democrat., 1861-05-17
Written for the Pioneer and Democrat.
PRAIRIE PAPERS.
NUMBER FIVE.

Never was Rousseau's saying truer nor
more applicable, that to strike and in-
terest the public the marvellous must be
produced; that now nothing was left to q
writer but the marvellous in life, manners,
and characters, and in extraordinary situa-
tions giving rise to new and unlocked for
strokes in politics and morals" As finished
Elsie Venner these words came into my
mind with an opposite significance, because
the tendency of our late literature in certain
departments is towards the wild, gloomy,
phantasms, and theoretic darkness and inn
mensity of German inspiration, in coustruc-
ton, without much of the grace and sub.
stance in thought, and but little of that in.
finite spirit in abstruse speculation. Poe
stands at the head of this American school
in poetry and prose Hawthorne comes
next, and is, perhaps, the best exponent of
melancholy chimeras," because bis rich i'm
agination fingers like fine dawn over his
ideal world, relieving the shadowy forms of
pathos and horror. Fitz James O'Brien is
equal to Hawthorne in imaginative power,
but it is ftful, and circles only in the small
eddies Of magazine stories. Although DR..
Holmes is not subject to the same in
fuences, still he has written book which,
in " earthly humors'' is quite as extraordi-
nary as any production Of the marvellous,
merely.imaginative school. His essays or
monolgues, in the atlantic Monthly, give
the best possible idea and method of bis
genius, in point, epigrammatic emphasis, and
polished style. The topics are racy and sug-
gestive, and his sentences glitter like the
facets of gem, revealing the multiform lus-
tire of an original intelligence. In penetrating
compendious expression, and shrewd sarcas
tic speculation in sprightly originalities,
and brilliant mirth, no living author excels
him. His caustic humor reminds you of
Douglas Jerrold, more trained, and pro-
fessional, and egotistical, but essentially alike
in primary characteristics and hence moth
ing can be more unlike the humor of Ger
vantes and Sterne, which his enthusiastic ad.
mirers claim for him. His mind is deeply
imbued with idiosyncrasies, which have, to
a certain extent, become beliefs, and made
him writer OF eccentricity. In this re-
spect his essays are as unique as Charles
Lambs, in whimsical paradox and fantas
tic antithesis. As Ella could write little
else satisfactorily, This plays and stories failed
of the desired aim,) the same result will be
true of the Autocrat's effort. Elsie Ven.
ner's history is sadder than Undine's, be~
cause of the deep human sympathy and
interest she excites, more strongly than any
other sentiment arising from her dualistic
nature. You wish, perhaps, that she had the
ideal grace and poetic beauty of Lamia !:
for you do not wish to believe such an ab-
normal, horrible existence possible to hu.
manity but if her story has been written
to show that the presence of animal poison in
the human system perverts the moral facul-
ties, then you think of the possibility, and
feel disappointed at the sequel. Certainly
the manner of Elsie's death is tame and
common.p place for such creature, with
vile nature counteracting and almost annull.
ing the human. You want death as
tragical as Cleopatra's, or as thrillingly
mournful as Beatrice Rappaccinis, when
womanhood is dominant; else you wish her