Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1865-07-25
New Publications.
ALFRED HAGARTs HOUSEHOLD. By A Iexande
Smith. Ilcknor x Fields Boston,

$50 NPNHNb ~"NPNN'f ~ JUL "tH NS
OF the Imagination easily enough be supposed to
mean the manufacturing town Of Pals ley. Ger
tain 1t is that the men and women pictured in
this novelette, do not wander amid the picturesque
and romantic glens and hills OF the Highlands, or
the " banks and braes of bonny Doom " but they
thread the streets and alleys Of a noisy city, and
are afflicted with the Ills and inconvenience incl
dent to a life Of labor and the click Of machinery,
and surrounded by toiing Thousands. The story
IS written in a quiet, unpretsndiDg style, with
many really fine passages scattered here and
there and yet you no where fnd specimens Of
that imaginative, almost s%rrstic, " fine writing
for which Mr.. S mith was somewhat noted in his
earlier career as a poet. Time has sobered his
sxuberant ~iancies, and ripened aud rounded out
his thoughts, without making them stale, and
Mr.. Smiths literary fame promises to be full as
brilliant and enduring as a writer Of prose as it
has been as a poet. The principal hero Of tho
novel is a Scotch lad, but the story closes at such
an interesting period in his career, as to lead US
to expect a continuation in the way of a sequel
or a new chapter. The book will be found pleas
ant reading for the summer season.
ESSAYS IN CRITICISM, By MATTHEW ARNOLD,
Professor of Poetry in the University Of Oxford,
Boston Ticknor g. Fields.
This is a very readable and satisfactory volume
Of some five hundred pages, just issued by Tick =
nor q Fields, in the neat and substantial style
so characteristic Of those gentlenanly and enter
prising pub lishers. Matthew Arnold has been
long known in the literary world as a poet Of no
mean estate, less popular it is true, but scarcely
less cherished and appreciated by all who sought
intellectual experience in connection with the
singers native gift, than T~ennyson himself. These
essays, fourteen in number, are full Of wisdom,
intellectual stimulus, and graceful humor. The
style in which they are written is pure, simple
honest English. 1t has no attempt at quaintness
or pedantcy, but is most happy in its choice of
words and feIic tous in its rendering of them. A
few extracts from the preface, itself almos as in
%teresting as an essay, will better explain the au.
thor's present position and intention in putting
forth this book, than any words Of ours:
Several Of the R'says which are here collected
and reprinted have had the good or bad fortune
to be much criticised at the time of their first
appearance. | am not now going to inhict upon
the reader a reply to those criticisms for one
or two ex explanations which are desirable | shall
elsewhere, perhaps. be able some Gay 10 find an
opportunity but, 1t is not in my nature--some
Of my critics would rather say, not in my pow
er,-to dispute on behalf OF any opinion, even
my own, very obstinately. To try and approach
Truth on one side after another, not to strive
or cry, not to persist in pressing forward, on any
one side, with violence and self-will,-it is only
thus, it seems to me, that mortals may hope TO
gam any vision OF the mysterious Goddess, whom
We shall never sec except in outline, but only
thus even in outline. lie who will do nothing
but fight impstuously towards her On his own,
one, ~favorite, particular line, IS inevitably des-
tined TO run his head into the folds OF the black
robe in which she is wrapped
am very sensible that this way OF thinking
leaves rue under great disadvantages in address
ing a public composed from a people " the most
log ca !" says the Saturday Revis1, L" in the
whole world" But the ruth is, | have never
been able to hit it of happily with the l~ogiciaus,
and il would be mere aflectGlion in me to give
myself the airs OF doing so. They imagine truth
something to be proved, | something to be seen
hey something 10 be manufactured, | as some
thing to be found. | have a profound respect
for intuitions, and a very lukewarm respect Tor
the elaborate machine.work of my friends the
loglcians. have always thought that all
which was worth much in this elaborate ma.
chine-work Of theirs came from an intuition,
to which they gave a grand name OF their own.
How did they come by this intuition2 All! if
they could tell us that. But no they set their
machine in motion, and build up a fine snowy
edifce, g~littering and unsubstantia like a pyra-
mid of eggs and then they say " Come and
look at our pyramid And what does one fud
it7 OF all that heap Of eggs, the one poor Int.
tie fresh egg, the original intuition, has got
hidden away far out Of sight and forgotten.
And all the other eggs are added.
NV position is, therefore, one of great deli
cacy but it is not from any selfish motives that
| prefer TO stand alone, and to concentrate on
myself, rs a plain citizen Of the republic Of let.
tiers, and not as an ofice,bearer in a hierarchy,
the whole responsibility for all | write it is
much more out Of genuine devotion to the Uni
yerslty OF Oxford, for which | feel, and always
must feel, the %fondest, the most reyerenlial at
tachment. In an epoch of dissolution and trans.
formation, such as that on which we are now
entered, habits, ties, and associations are ineyi-
tally broken up, the action of individuals be-
comes more distinct, the shortcomings. errors,
heats, disputes, which necessarily attend indi.
vidual action, are brought into greater promi-
hence, Who would not gladly keep clear, from
ali these passing clouds, an august institution
which was there before they arose, and which
will be there when they have blown over?
IL Is true, the Saturday Reuiew maintains that
our epoch of transformation is finished that
we have found our philosophy that the British
nation has searched all anchorages for the spirit,
and has finally anchored itself, IN The fulness of
perfected knowledge, TO B~enthamism.
And yet, | cannot but think that the SATURDAY.
ResieB has here, for once, fallen a victim TO an
idea,-a beautiful but deludIng idea and that
the British nation has not yet, so entirely as
the reviewer seems to imagine, found the last
word of It's philosophy. No; we are all seek
ers still seekers often make mistakes, and [
wish niue TO rebound to my own discredit only
and not TO touch Oxford. Beautiful city 30
venerable, 50 lovely, so unrayaged by the fierce
intellectual lite Of our century, so sereae
"rhcr, are our young bsrbariAns, all at play"
And yet, stepped in sentiment as she hes, spread.
log her gardens to the moonlight, and whisper
ing from her towers the las, entertainments of
the Middle Age, who will deny that 0xlori by
her inefable charm, keeps ever calling us near
to the true goal OF all of US, to the ideal, to per-
lection to beauty, in "a word, which is only
truth seen from another side NEARER, perhaps,
than all the science OF TubingeO. Adorable
dreamer, whose heart has been 80 romantic 4!
who hast given myself SO prodlgslly, given thy.
self to sides and tn heroes not mine. only never