The Portland daily press., 1867-03-11
Recent Publications.

ExCENTRIoA
Recent Publications.
THE SoLIrUDEsoF NATURE AND OF MAN; or
The Loneliness of Human Life By Will
lam Rounseville Alger. Boston: Roberts,
Brothers.
This is in many respects pleasant book: it
would have been an exceedingly pleasant one
lift had been made not more than half as long
as it is. MIR. Alger has made the most elabor-
ate and careful study of solitude in all its
phases, and of the lives of solitary men. His
motive, he tells us, has been "to inspire, not
dishearten his readers" ito warm and stength-
en- them," and to teach them how at once
''to win the benefits and shun the evils of being
alone" This is certainly praise worthy aim,
and the author has brought to the execution
of his task heart full of charity, great kndli-
ness ofjudgment and generous appreciation
ofthe genius of other men as admirable as it
is rare. These excellent qualities rather dis
inc inc us to be as severely critical as we other
wise might upon the many faults of taste
with which the book abounds, its accumula-
ton of details, and its excessive thoroughness
"a thoroughness so exaggerated that one cruel
critic accuses him OF, in the end, leaving his
reader as exhausted as his subject. The first
part of the book treats of "The -Solitudes of
Nature;' the second of "The Solitudes of Mani"
the third discourses on The Morals of Soil
tude," and the fourth presents some Sketches
of Lonely Characters" the list including
personages as diverse as Lord Byron and Eu-
genie de Guern, as Contucius and Torquato
Tasso, as Cicero and Jesus of Nazareth. We
copy an extract or two, taken nearly at random
as exhibiting specimens OF Mr.. Alger's manner.
THE SOLITUDE OF THE PRAIRIE.
The solitude of the prairie is wonderful. Day
after day, from morning till evening, the trav-
eler journeys forward, wearing the horizon as
girdle, without seeming to change his spot;
for the immense circuit of which he is the CEN
| tire appears to move with him. An Ocean of grass
around, an immitigable gulf OF azure above, he
feels as II he stood on the top of the world the
| circular, sharp. cut level OF an inverted cone,
| upon which the bulging dome of heaven shuts
| down in accurate adjustment. He looks
around the unvarying wilderness of verdure
! and it seems as if the whole universe were that
| and there were nothing beside.
THE SOLITUDE OF RUINS.
Finally come to the solitude of ruips-
relics of the past the dOlorous dials Time in
| his passage has raised to count his triumphs
| and measure his progress by. A ruin is foYloru
and pathetic wherever seen,-in an isle of At
L Il
| tan. The traveller falls into pensive mood,
| as, leaning against the stony masses of Meroe
whose glory the barbarians overthrow and the
sands buried, he scans the fading marks of the
life that once fourished there but is there no
more. The same experience comes over him
when his steed wearlly penetrates the rank
grass among the mounds of Copan and Paen-
que, the riddle of whose forgotten civilization
baffes every guesser who inspects its remains,
where the luxuriant vegetation has overgrown
tombs and temples, kere and there palm, in
| its resstless upshoot, cleaving altar and image.
column and skull The Sphinx that strange
emblematic creature, half beast, half humanity,
| sixty-two feet in height a hundred and forty
feet long, still tarries amidst the mute desola-
ton whence the whole race and civilization
which set it there have vanished. Between it's
protruded paws originally stood a temple in
| which sacrifices were offered The temple has
| crumbled in pieces. The sands have drifted
over the feet and high up the sides of the mys-
terious monster, ON all whose solemn features
decay has laid its fingers. Yet the pilgrim is
awed as he looks ON the colossal repose the
patient majesty of those features, and feels the
pathetic insignifcanee of his own duration, in
| contrast with the unknown ages and events
that have sped by that postured enigma.
Yes, ruin, whether mantled rich with ivy or
| swept bare by the blast feudal castle, crumb-
ling ON the cliff, the snake in its keep and Tho
owl in its turret; or a triumphal pillar, throw n
| down and broken its inscription oblterated its
history is the nav of oblivion,-wears the
mienlof solitude, breathes the sentiment of de-
cas-, and is a touching thing to see. Ruins SYM
| bOlize the wishes and fate of man; the weakness
of his works, the fieetingness of his existence
Who can visit Thebes, in whose crowded crypts
as he enters, flight of bats chokes him with
the dust of disintegrating priests and kings,
see the sheep nibbling herbage between the
fallen cromleehs of Stonehenge or confront a
dilapidated stronghold of the Middle Age,
where the fox looks out of the window and the
thistle mods on the wall, without thinking OF
these things? They feelingly persuade him
hat he Is.
The chapter on "The Solitude of Individual
ity" is perhaps the most subtitle in conception
and the most delicate in treatment OF any IN
the book, but it is too long to quote.
The mechanical execution of the volume is
very handsome 1t is for sale by ii. Packard
TIE RIVERSIDE MAGAZINE for March is at
hand. and is a very attractive specimen of the
Kind of periodical literature provided for
vounr folks in these days. Its illustrations
type, letter-press, and mechanical execution
generally are extremely beautiful, and its
contributions embrace some of the very best
writers for children which we have
among us. A botanical article, charminoly
illustrated, is one of the best of tho number
The tales from SHAKESPEARE are also a pleasant
feature. The publishers, Messrs Hurd and
Houghton,.are to be congratulated upon the
entire success of this enterprise
THE HISTORICAL MAGAZINE for February,
shows the same improvement in interest and
variety which has marked it ever since 1t pass
into the hands of its present conductor IL
contains an article from the pen OF 'enerai
Peter Force on Henry Laurens in congress !;
a COW of the famous "Petition to the King for
a redress of grievances in New York; from
the original draft; "The Journal of Captain
U;,,;om Realty of the Maryland Line, 1776 to
,zso,. a copy of a rare old tract published in
,ess and entitled "A Brief Account of the
Province of East-New-Jarsey in America" an
account of Champlain and the recent discovery
of his tomb, and great variety of interesting
short articles.
The Historical Magazine is published by
| Henry B. Dawson, Marrisanis, N Y.
What is the difference between seventeen
and seventy? One is careless and happy, the
other hairless and cappy.