The Fairfield herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1849-1876, 1869-09-29


dropped asleep in the reading, she was
sure when she awoke to have lost none
of the story and to find the party
where she left them coversing in tho
cedar parlor," very applicable to al-
most all the novels of that time
Their epistolary style, their prolixity,
uniform sameness, together with occa-
asional impurity make them known to
but few at present. Richardson is
prosy, Smollet tartly cynical, Sterno
aplagiarist and an over sentimcntalist,
and Fielding shows his loving honest
heart in his Parson Adams, Joseph
and Fanny, but his humor has the taint
of obscenity and his scenes are fre-
quently low. When we como to
Scott, we see the master hand Of a
creative genius, not content with
"echoes," making for himself "ideas,"
which in his domain will endure un
surpassed. He is no humorist. He
labors when he attempts to be humor.
Gus and his wit smells of the lamp
His plots are sometimes obscure, ab.
rupt and unintercsting, and his style as
o model inferior to his predecessors !;
but his pictures painted with the tasto
and pen of poet always delight.
With no attempt at social reform,
as is the case with Dickens, he gives
us scenes from nature which will ever
entrance and characters wo can mover
cease loving. His descriptive facul-
ties are powerful. Shakespeare's
Richard III, Iago, Cordelia, and Lear,
we could never recognize except as
incarnations of evil ambition, malice,
flial affection and heart Of an old
man broken by ingratitude. Their
faces and appearance is never before
us, their qualities ever present. In
Scott, on the other hand We recognize
his characters by their features, bear
ing and dress-the stately Elizabeth
walks and acts like queen, and the
courtly Raleigh spreads his mantle
beneath Her Majesty's feet with
grace and vividness that makes the
reader feel almost like spectator of
that knightly scene-Rob Roy, mis- foo.
on his native heath, and his name,
McGrcgor, stands out from the can
vass, and We are sure We could point
out the homely, but lovable face of
Jaenio Deans in any art gallery in the
world.
"A perfect woman nohly planned, ~
70 warn, to comfort and command,
And yet u spirit still and bright,
With something of an angel light"
s'So angel but dcarcr being,
All dipt in angel instincts,
Breathing Peradise."
lie uses history not to instruct, but
merely as an instrument to exalt his
art and should not therefore be view
ed as an historian. He used it to H.
lustrate his enthusiasts for chivalry,
"the moated oranges the embattled
towers and trophied halls, and to
bring out his Scotch love for his glens
and locks, and olans, and moors, and
lords, and ladies fair, and may no
more be called en- historian than
Raphael in his cartoons, or Guido in
his "Jesus bearing the cross," or Mu-
rillo in the holy light he's fuses around
his beautiful head of the Virgin.
It has been said very truly that
s'there is moral in every work of
arty" (Hegel) but it depends entirely
on hin: ~:io draws IT," So in Soott's
novels there are morals innumerable
to the careful reader, but he never at
tempts to point moral by adorning
with it o tale but gives us truth in art,
and leaves the effects to the imagina-
tion aad fancy to- follow cut.
Never inspiring love for bad men as
Bulwer does in Paul Clifford, Eugene
Aram and Francis Vivian--he presents
his Varneys and Rashloighs as no
entioing instances Of the witohery of
vice. Easy to read, he gives us sim-
pie delightful pictures which will last
as long as death and love last, on &C.
count Of their power over she human
heart. 70 Sir Walter Scott then we
would yield the palm of victory in
the field Of art represented by the
novel. Genius stamps itssignet how
ever on all of it's productions, and
while yielding the palm to Scott let
us not pass by other great, but to our
mind lesser lights in this magic do
main. f .}.
Bulwer's novels my bo divided into
the fashionable of which Pelham 10 q
type; the supernatural of which ga
noni and the strange story are exam
Plies !, the historical, as showr in Ha-
reid, the last of the. Barona, and
and Rienzi, and the social, Of which
the Caxtens, 'smy novep' and "What
will he do with its are specimens. a,@
He is scholarly, conceited, morose,
and noble In turns, at frat with o
false philosophy and vauiting ambi-
tion, the heady passions of his youth.
full ardor detracted from bis art, and
gave US tawdy morality and Braggart
manliness without true rentility.. The
spirit Sas in tho wine, but IL was
new, but in his later days, old time
has ,mellowed the tones and we zip
Falerniap drauphtg. 4 In youth 5ai Ssy-