The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-14
CLEVELAND AND HIS SISTER.
The Forthcoming Literary Venture of
Miss Elizabeth Cleveland.
Book of Nine Short Essays-Their Topics
and Style-A Portrait Of the Pres
iGent-L0uiS NapOle0n'S Son.
Special Correspondence of the indianapolis Journal

Special Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal
New YORK, June IA few days after this is
printed, Miss Rose Elizabeth Clevelands book,
George Eliot and Other Studies" will be pub
lished- 1t is, perhaps a tribute to the might OF
literature, that in these days, royal and titled
personages and those in high station should take
pains to establish claim to authorship Ma
pcleon III, Queen Victoria, the Marquis OF
Lorne the Queen of Romap:a, have all laid aside
their regal imperial or other rank in fgurative
sense, by entering the republic of letters. In
this country Mr.. Blaine has been tempted to
seek renown az a historian, and now possibly,
with feeling that tn. dignity OF the rival party
requires the sacrifice the sister or the Demo
cratic President publicly enters she held OF III
erature.
Miss Clevelands volume contains nine snort
essays, of about twenty pages each. TheA'
titles are respectively: George Eliot's Poetry
History" "Old Rome and New France
''Charlemagne,' "Chivalry," ''Josn of Arc,
"Altruistic Faith" Reciprocity" and 1.-The
Monastery A good deal of ground is covered
in these little papers, which were evidently pre-
pared originally for the cassrooms young ladies'
institutes; but with commendable tact, the
authoress refrains from discussing the total
abstinence otherwise miscalled the temper
ance') question. | shall not attempt to furnish
an advance review of the book, but shall merely
give readers some idea of its characteristics.
Miss Cleveland's most pronounced quality
as an authoress is that of vehement
earnestness. She wishes not only to make
- u I,-1 olc Il or
you know that her convictions cannot be shaken.
She takes hold Of George Eliot's poetry and
worries thelife out of tiff it had any to begin
with-gracefully, but firmly George Eliot, she
says, lacks music in her verse; she also lacks
certain spiritual quality. And here comes the
emphasis: "Call it what you will, faith or
transcendentalism, l prefer to define it mega
lively as the antipode of agnostiscm' Mega
lively it is defined accordingly. Miss Cleveland
quite right George Eliot had no anGipode of
this kind The second pronounced quality is
that of poetic, fgurative statement In this
lies the authors chief strength. She has an in
formal, graphic way of presenting things. which
is excelIently calculated to impress the minds Of
young readers. She speaks of a certain notion
concerning the Middle Ages as presenting them
in the form of "a tunnel of time one thousand
years long, through which humanity rumbed
blindly in an emigrant train, the last sky
rockets of the Roman empire haring up at one
end, the first sunbeams of the renaissance shin
ing in at the other, and no light between" This
notion she stigmatizes correctly as erroneous.
There certainly were no emgrant trains and
railroad tunnels in the time OF the Romans, and
sky rockets were not much in fashion then. But
admitting the anachronsms of the simile, it gives
an image likely to be remembered. Miss Cleve
land then goes to suggest that the true way to
look at the first 325 years OF the Middle Ages IL
to regard them not tunnel, but as vestlbule
or ante chamber "Here in this ante-chamber
the twilight deepens; side light radiates tfully
here and there, but our way IS mainly featured
to us by the rays that issue. the one from red
sunset behind the other from rising moon in
front-the ensanguined light that fingers in the
wake of Rome that was, the rudy gold that
parts the clouds where France shall be-" 1t is
easy to laugh at all this imagery put into half
rhythmic form resembling blank verse, but it
is effective nevertheless frequently we
come upon trenchant epigrammatic sayings.
For instance, $50 fine an irony has history, that
that which makes the shame of its wives makes
the glory of its kings" Again: '"The mother
makes the man, perhaps, but the wife manu-
features him. Sometimes the wife in her manu-
facture, confirms the making of the mother,
sometimes counteracts it." For myself. I like
Miss Cleveland's work best in those parts where
she is not bent upon showing her erudition, but
frankly gives way to her natural faculty for
strong picturesque presentation or sarcastic side
remarks In mentioning the 'black death"
pestilence that swept over Europe in the four
teenth century, she gives this vivid pictorial
stroke: "Shps rocked and drifted at sea, I'M
manned save by this pale pirate whose touch had
laid crew and passengers lifeless at their posts"
On another page she says: "a rose has its rights
as we'll as cabbage, the cabbage grows.
Say it does not pay as well as cabbage, but all
the same the rose is red and sweet and immor-
tai" Discussing Joan of Arc, she says: Il re-
duce all the marvel and mystery of Joan's his
tory to the extraordinary development of one
human capacity-love All the energy,
and devotion, and credulity and constancy, and
jealousy, and consuming passion, and tri-
umphant passion that goes into womans love
for one man, and that makes it the thing it is,
went from Joans soul into the cause of France.
All that woman will endure for and from
lover or child that did Joan endure for and
from France And this is very extraordinary;
strange and rare in man-stranger and rarer IN
woman!"
In passages like this, which are worth great
deal more than her unconscious limitations of
Carlyle, Miss Cleveland reveals true insight and
feeling. She is not always strictly grammatical;
she quotes Wordsworth's line about ''the light
that never was on sea or land" and plays havoc
with other quotations. She is not great orig
inal thinker investigator nor is she an exact
logician. In word, her book is amateurish.
Yet. for all that, one feels that she is
woman possessing decidedly literary gift,
and better STILL much sincerity of heart and
head. l understand that her manuscripts
were submitted to the inspection of Charles
A. Dana, among others, before being given to
the publisher, and received some commenda-
ton from him. However this may be, the Sun
is credited with having amused itself at the
expense of Miss Cleveland In my opinion. he
essays should be treated with courtesy, as being
readable and earnest, and put forth without
ostentation. l don't doubt that they will do
ways creditabe to persons associated with the
administration of public affairs that they should
manifest disinterested literary tendencies.
have just seen the portrait of Mr.. Cleveland,
which Eastman johnson has completed for the
Capitol at Albany. 1t depicts him nearly at full
length, with his hands at his sides and his face
turned slightly to the left yet with an appear