, 1866-11-04


when, from an urcongenia1 subject, or any
other cause, his talent has not free play, he
Is still more surprised At his failure.
We do not indeed mean to imply that tho
present work Ia failure. It will no doubt
add to It's authors already high reputation.
Mr.. Rcade can hardly write dull book and
Griffith Gaunt ia almost never dnll. But the
plot is little to our taste, and We think thu.
Mr.. ReAdc has done better In some preYiou.
Efforts He Is \ writer Of distinguished tai
ents, but VIC should hardly award him the
possession OF genius. a t;enius, to adopt the
happy definition Of De Quincy, is the geafal
man. Our author Is shrcwd, and brilliant,
and fascinating, but he Is not genial. He
has much Wit. hut little hunor. He de-
scribcs skilfully the working Of an evil pas
sion, but be- Ia scarcely so happy in,port1uy-
Ing good one- His yirtuoua people ase apt
to be little insipid. And when he haa
sketched ont n character at once true and
original, he Is likely to spoil In the effort to
improve It,. A few years ago he published
beautiful story called IA Good Fight"
It was & tender and touching pic
turc of q passionate but m
happy lore. The hero dies; but the au-
thor afterwards repented himself Of his un.
timely fate, and brought him to life nsnIn,
To borrow an expression flou the Countrv
p.rsnn. ba nrobably thought said hero sswas
n man of Fhom more might hare boan
madcr fcither necnniarflv or otberv,.sS
He therefore carried him thnouph divers MI.
venture. In The CloIster aud tbc Hearth ,
and the despairinr lover of The ,rst storv h.
come. At Init q solly old rnr,sh nr,est rnnch
e1ycn to crack small ,okes on SLIGHT nrnvo.
cation, Il Is indeed natural thaf a, vonth
rcccilca. its h}ph resolves md ,.ern cn,bn-
siatm f.dr avxT. Hnt It IA q danv.rons nv.
ner,mcnt To descr,bc 1ninntelv Via sncces,,1o ~ ~
stens hr which
Tbe 1oys,
siRhlnR like furnace With vo,al ballad
naae u en ul1ueae e5eofo"'
>Jmss 1u.s ~ :. .ass .u...
Viii spectscies % on IKE ma gs'o nane'' on
His youthful hose, well aav'd, world loo wids
Or ~ enfnnR shans' ana ~ nlE manly volee,
And Whistles 10 liz sound. 3'''e' p1pes
Griffith Gaunt Is a Tale of Jealousy, So
much We are Informed by the title. and tho
dissertation closely follows tbs tcxt. Eycry-
BODY ia horribly fealous Of everybody rlse
down 10 tie Last CHAPTER: when the linn and
the lamb suddenly lie down tovether md
live bappily ever af1erTArd. Tbe ,uthor
haFps on single string, In this rcrand tbe
norcl reminds US Of The School for Scandal.
The manner of writing IA. indeed mt mn.
common, Moore tells us that eherflan b.d
projected another comedy, in which c.ch
character had some peculiar nttectatiou: one
an afEectatiou of business. another Of n,e,s.
ure. another oflearn}nr. nna n m c1,n
~ drama called Self on Similar Man W..
produced few years ago. One character
was scli.wil1ed, and another sclf.lodu!reut.
ono wns selfdeceived and another simn,v
selfish. To ndopt m expression mnch AZ.
tected by great critics, "this was not thu
method of shakspcarc.n No single n.sq,on
controls exclusively auy ORG of his charac.
ters. Othcllo Is much more than IA t.lo of
jealousy" This Tragedy. however ser,,. IN
haye been in Mr., Rcade;s mind and ho cali,
his French waiting maid a +" female 1apo y
We are little puzzled tn decide vhtrb y,
shakspesre's peesopaees Grta1th most "a.
scmbles, Like Othel1o. he Is icalon, of hJa
wife, and like Cassie. ho Is much inclined "a
get drunk. He Is not ycry agreeable In eitbc,.
aspect. and It is not often that a story baa 40
sorry q hero.
Concerning the moral tendency of tbs
poyel the autho, and some Of hi. cr,tJcs a,c
not agreed. A brief summary Of The Mot
will enable each reader to decide The oues.
tiun for himself The "arpurnentu il as
| follows: Miss Catherine Pcvton waa n vonnr
lady of ancient fhm!ly in Cumberland. hand.
somc and i,uperious. Tha family es,st~ was
| enta,,ed m hcr hrother. ferrent IN ora In.
This brother does mt apncar In thc storv, :.
her fnther spcnt every fartb{np he ron1d ~
s,c had mn money and no cTnact,,5or, ~.
cent from a dtstant relst,ye. Tbi. ra1.ttvo
howeyc7. took fancy TO hia 1ata wIfe,s