The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-06-23
LITER A r U & e.

30, Wnen woman taxes up Tue pen IN JnOrough
eanestness, as she most assuredly has done,
this is apt to be the case. But, fortunately for
her own reputation she has not drifted into
the channel OF romance, as women writers are
80 apt TO do. Had she made this venture, sue
cess would have been doubtful at least If she
had persisted in that stately, idiomatic style of
dialogue in which herself end Halicarnassus
have figured so conspicuously OF late. Not
that II is without its charms, for the truth of tho
matter is directly the reverse. Yet it is far from
natural and bears on its very surface the marks
of great painstaking. That we should find in
4he six volumes which the author of Country
Living and Country Thinking" has already
given to the world many duh platitudes and
Dverstrained arguments, is not a matter of sur
prise. She has chosen, perhaps the most diff
cult department OF literary labor-that OF cloth
ing the wearisome monotones of everyday life
with garment that is ever new, sparkling,
and attractive In the accomplishm OF this
task she has met with greater success than any
pther living writer. Her books have been
widely read and admired, both at home and
abroad and we feel quite sure that IN Summer
Rest" there has been falling off in the old fire
and enthusiasm, that it will be as widely read
and as greatly admired as have been any OF its
predecessors. As to whether her writings are
destined to anything more than merely ephe
neral popularity is indeed, question. Her
great aim has always been present effect and
1rue to this, she has become disciple of that
modern school whose sole dogma is the discard
ing of all the multifarious rules of rhetoric
which find their most frequent and admirable
illustration in the pages of Addison and of DIR.
Sam johnson. The spirit which thus disregards
7be wholesome canons of the old Spectator"
school is intensified to the highest pitch in
scala Days" aud Summer Rest.n The author
fairly revels in her new atmosphere of short,
sharp words and angular sentences. AS she her
self has somewhere beautifully said, she has
gone ''out into the highways and hedges, and
gathered up the rough, wild, wilful words
heavy with the hatreds of men, and filled them
10 the brim with honey-dew."
This principle, which is the guiding one in
her style, serves likewise as a key to the sub.
jectmatter of her books. To adopt and use
1er own words, "the mystic spirit stirs even in
Dommonplaces; a golden hue suffuses her
atmosphere; a vague, fine ecstacy thrills to
5he sources of lite;" and she is thus able to lift
earth up to heaven. The greater portion, add
certainly the most interesting portion, OF "Sum-
mer Resth deals exclusively with these emo.
bled commonplaces-is suffused with this golden
hue. rooster, tor example, is very common
place affair when regarded through the simple
sunlight; but glance at him when invested with
7his golden hue, and
"Wnere is there a more magnificent bird than
he2 What a lofty air! What a spirited pose
OF the head! Note his elaborately scalloped comb,
his safely steppings, the 1.-THE, quick, graceful
motions OF his arcnng neck. Marx his brilliant
Rumage. smooth and lustrous as SATIN, soft oss
silk. What necklace of duchess ever surpassed in
Beauty the circles OF feathers which he wears-ayer
shooting over layer, up and down, hlther and
7he nght but never disturb ng the matohless order
OF ms arIayS What plume from African deserts
palm.ike erecfness of his taiiY An bus coIors are
Tropical. With every quick motion the lints change
the last; green m ore beautiful than any green ex-
cept that of ducks neck; brown inhltrated with
gold, and ranging through the whole gamut of its
possibilities Il am sure that this last is correct
nm point OF expression, but it is correct in point of
sense, as any one who ever saw red rooster will
bear witness.W
And how attractive she renders the habitation
Of this magnificent bird and his companions
Vulgarly styled "hen-coop:"-
IAN immense wooden sarcophagus-only nobody
had been deposited in it-perhaDs it
q, Aorse-trOu III ITS day-was up On end,' and
smelling hay was piled on each floor, and such at
tractive little nests scooped therein, that
men oi domestic turn 9i mind i would go there ana
the porhcOs, and the sliding doors and the galle
Ties and the hospital, and the Vlstas and the pal
Bades, and the inner and outer courts-every ar
TanRenent that heart OF hen could wish, both for
seclusion and for society-why those fowls might
have dreamt they dwet IN marble halls every night
ef their lives and not have been very far out of the
way! And the summer residences that he made for
1hemlittle Gothic cottages built single family,
with all the modern conYenences, and good many
mOIe Improved on the spot, and with this signal
advantage over similar structures at Newport and
j Nahant-that you can take them under your arm,
and carry them wherever you please"
While speaking of the habtations of the teath-
cred tribe, we will subon one more passage de-
scrptive of the habitation of the birds. 1t is
singularly beautiful ... ...
o." '1hnk of living in a great green overlapping
forest, green above, around beneath you, endless
aisles losing themselves endless arches the bright
SKY gmmering far off the bright sun shining in
Through thousand portals, and leaving soft waVer-
ing shadows everywhere gentle gales whispering
times brave breeze trumpetng some martial ali
7hai rOuses all the fire in your blood; to be sur
rounded for DAYS and weeks with great pink and
white blossoms bigger than your head, deeps over
head and deeps undertoot dropping and swinging
all through the silent night and the sultry anC
dawn and twilight between; aud every crystal cur
brimmed and OVtrflOwlng with pun6ent deliclou!
od0rs-nO wonder the birds are drunken with deligh
and pour forth such mad bacchanai songs as stagge
their little frames and set the whole orchard
a-trembleW
&C. Turning over the leaves at random we com,
>. upon another striking passage of like characte
10 the above. A motherless calf that horror 0
=, 5he Country Parson" is thus tenderly and eo
quently cared for:-, ........ ......
49, "You did not witness the welcome we gave on
poor little tavorlte torn all trembling from 1t
mothers side by the stern demand of some greed
purse; how we stToked him, and patted him, and
begging your pardOn-sCratched his head, and 81
EOOtne0 ~