The Portland daily press., 1878-11-30
Recent Publications.

Macleod of Dare, by William Black New
York: Harper Brothers; Portland: Loring,
Short & HARMONY 1t is possible that the true
way to fall enjoyment of Mr.. William Blacks
novels is first to recognize him in his quality of
marine landscape painter whose palette is the
vocabulary, and after this to note the fine deliI-
cations Of character and the working out Of the
story, as worthy of high praise in themselves,
but not the whole or even primary aim of the
artists work. Else, one is apt to find the glitter
and song Of the sea, tn countless color changes
OF the sky, and the light on Ulva and Longa
and the rocky Gometra-something of hin
drance to the rapid march, that we, in our day,
expect Of story. But take these notes of color,
and shape of promontory, and density of cloud
or deep brightness Of thin air-as the hints that
the artist took while the light and wind were
passing, and shares now with his readers, that
we too may paint US pictures of Ultima Thule
The story is very sad one-and yet the reader
is relieved when, at the tragic end, he finds he
does not care very greatly, that his affection
for Sir Keith and Gertrude fails in the supreme
test-death. The naiyets and unsophisticated
gentleness-with what of courage Highland
deer might have-that made Sheila one of the
rarest and lovelest of the creations of modern
dction-fail to wholly impress one as desirable
or attractive in mans character. Knowledge
and scorning of sin are more suitable to mans
estate than the innocence Of ignorance; and
one feels that the great wreck of Sir Keith's
mind might never have been if be had lived
little among men and affairs. But the por-
trait of him is truthfully dramatic Gertrude
White is character that one judges less from
the imaginative standpoint Of the merely posi-
ble-the half-tints of her indeterminate nature
are in admirable contrast to the simpler soul,
with its larger scope for good and evil, of Sir
Keith. 1t is in this way, as the production of
an artist with methods of his own, that M acleod
of Dare is to be criticized-for Gertrude is not
tender and true enough for heroine, nor is
Keith powerful enough for hero. The catas-
trophe seems hurried and overdrawn as mat
ter of fiction; it has its place in the marine.
painters art that inspires the romance, as a
wild sketch in dark monochrome, lit by a red
dash of lightning across the sombre sky; one Of
the sudden, unprepared storms of the sea-and
man aud woman, ship and souls sink together
into the blackness of darkness.
Macleod of Dare is dedicated to dozen Row
al Academicians who, for their friendship to
Mr. Black have each contributed drawing TO
illustrate the volume
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holiness poem, The
School Boy, read at the centennial celebration
at Phillips Academy, Andover. is now pub
lished as a holiday gift book with exquisite
binding and many illustrations, by Messrs
H0nuhtnD &, n sUOnd nf ~ Tor
ing, Short & III armon). 1t is easy, witty, philo-
sophie; it is a jewelled chain Of linked epi-
grams long drawn Quit is DR.. Holiness
verse The poet speaks of the progress of
science that gives to the schoolboy of tc-iay
the voices Of present and future ia the tele.
phone (and why may not Edison contrive a
reversible, back-action, silentfeed posthumo'
phone for the benefit of the mighty dead, that
when Dennis Kearney has an off evening, we
may listen to Cicero or Plato). He speaks of
the discoveries of "the shovelling Schliemanp,' -
and proves quite at length that the spade is
mghtier than the pen, which, again, proven
b;ally holds over the sword. And lastly, he
halls in fine and serious verse the triumph of
Truth over the falsehoods alike of Ignorance
and of Science.
Two new volumes of Mr. M. +. Sweetssr's 8
Artist Biography Series are devoted to memoirs
of Landseer and of Leonardo da Vinci. The
life Of Landseer is full of the breath of Scottish
heather, it is refreshing reading. The love of
dumb animals in Landseers nature was not
merely the enthusiasm Of an artist in his de-
partment, bat was the genuine sympathy for
them Of which the forcble proof of his pencil
won him the name of "the Shakespeare of the
World of Dogs"
The brilliant southern life Of Leonardo da
Vinci-wth its subtle outlying shadows of
fancy that haunt the eyes of his Monna Lisa
and fit across many another canvas of his-is
charmingly described in Mr.. Sweetser's biog
raphy OF the master. A correspondence of ex-
preston in the two biographies is little Curl
Gus. Speaking of Sir Edwin,Landseer's pic
lures OF wild deer, with the pathos of coming
death in their eyes-and Mr.. Sweetser's notes
upon this snbject are very finely touched and
eloquent in tenderness-the biographer says
"What Durer expressed in his Melencholid
Landseer illustrated with his wild deer." In a
| paragraph upon da Vincfs Monna Lisa Mr..
| Sweetser remarks this "was to the Tuscan
| dreamer what the MelenchotiG was to him of
| Nuremberg" These constant resemblances
seem to point to the conclusion that every
body's melancholy is pretty much alike, and
happy the man who can take it out 10 painting