The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-02-11
Literary Notes.

some OF the most vital epochs in English history
beginning with the death of Elizabeth looo,
and running down to the Rye House flo.' anu
Monmouth's flight. The chapter giving an ac-
count of the rise and growth of Puritanisin Is d
very perfect resume Macaulay scarcely says
anything better in his eloquent periods, than
does Mr. Green here. His sympathies-f we
dare aver that s. true historian ever is parti
san-po wholly with his subject. With most
absolute clearness are the great reasons laid
bare, which led to the decay OF feudalsm, the
CONSIGNMENT increase of the national spirit, the
awakened religious inquiry, following the Re-
formation and the freedom of individual iudg-
ment, which finally eliminated in what we call
Puritanism-the natural revolt against the loose
living allowed by that creed which Henry
VIII and Elizabeth had constructed
strange compromise of old tradition with new
conviction"
The Puritan, Mr.. Green says, was the first "to
conceive of kingly power based upon constitu-
tional tradition, controlled by constitutional
law, and acting in harmony with the two great
governing bodies that represented the realm
We wish there were space to quote some of his
noble eulogy on Puritanism, and also on Calvin
II
full study, and his struggles with the Presbvte
rians show him to have been great deal more
than the silly pedant we have been led to i'm
agine The General Assembly proved too strong
for him, when it babe him to his knees for
banning and swearing" and sent deputation
to compel the Queen to have care for "godlv
exercise among her maids" 1t will surprise
some advanced Ritualists to find that the custom
OF kneeling at the communion was not only in
troduced, but enforced, under James; and hun
dreds of good Established Church people were
accommodated because they would not com
ply. 1t is to be feared that we have a good deal
of the spirit nowadays, of the Puritan minister,
who, afraid to refuse reading from the pulpit
the recommendation of James Sunday Book of
Sports, ended by saying you have heard
read, good people, both the commandment of
God and the commandment of man. Obev
aOhich you please!'
Cromwell's character is finely wrought out
Whatever he was, Mr.. Green thinks him thor
oughly honest If pardon Che says) could ever
be won for tyranny, the wisdom and grandeur
with which he used the power he had usurped,"
for he still insists upon his being usurper-
"wo-3 min pardon for the Protector" There
are fine contrasts afforded by the Commonwealth
and the Restoraton-"t the beginning of Modern
England when all that was noblest and best
In Puritansm, was whirled away" by the terri
bic reaction that then set in. Mr.. Green shows
his power of compression, by crowding the reigns
of Charles H., and James IL, into much less
space than the history of the Commonwealth
covers; and yet he manages to give within that
space, telling sketches of the great literary lumi
naries of the time-Milton Bunyan, DRYDEN.
Locke, Hobbies, Newton, even as under Puritan
England, he had introduced vivid characterize
tons of Knox, Melville, Bacon, Usher and
Hampden. Mr.. Green's style is more animated
In this than In either of his preceding volumes
nothing more lucid better suited to his subject
could be asked.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson's Short Sta.dies
Of american authors CLee & Shepard, Boston
Is small volume which is to be gagged bv
quality, not quantity. These half-dozen Studies
are models of acute and subtle criticism" mosa-
les of criticisms some one calls them and in
truth they are delicately cut as if the author
pen were, in his hand, what Cellini's carving
tool was in his. Nothing was ever more in
cislvely said about Hawthorne, than is here said.
And the same is true of the Study of Poe-brief
as 1t is. All the genius claimed for that strange
being is granted: ''No Englishman of our time.
not even De Quincy, has done any imaginative
PrOse-work to be named with Poe's lis the
authors verdict Yet, he says as Poet. he
held the place once occupied by Byron. and
later by Swinburne, as the patron saint of all
wilful boys suspected of genius, and convicted
at least, of its infrmities" THANK Mr. His.
ginson for that fling at SwinburneD
Hope Mills. By Amanda NJ Douglas, Gee
q Shepard) is a timely book certainly, and a
book with purpose. 1t may be said to be a
practical illustration of Political Economy. for il
takes up the matter of the struggle between can.
ltal and labor-the cooperative system-strikes
-production-the results of fast living
the questions of demand and supply-the neces-
sity OF showing the poor some better wav of
helping themselves-the dissemination of truth
among the masses in regard to all these yexing
subjects, and many other affiliated points And
yet Hope Mills is story. But it is a good
strong, wholesome one from beginning to end /,
The hardening influence of idle luxury il adj
mirably shown: the need for the bracino
strengthening power that comes through strug.
gle and toll, in order to the rounding Of nerfect
manhood-the fact that our best work is that
which lies nearest to us-that God helms those
wi N balr, tboro.oI-... Al LII