New-York tribune., 1886-06-06
STUDIES IN CRITICISM.
A GROUP OF FEMALE COMMENTATORS.


| GEORGE ELIOT AND HER UEROINEs. study
BY ARB, GooLD wooLsoN 1omo Pp ix.' l"'
Harper Brothers.
A HANDBOOK TO THE WORKS OF ROBERT
| BROWNING. BY Mrs soUTHERLAND ORR second
Edition Revised. Crown svo PIP kill, 344' sorio-
| ner * Wexford
| Miss Blows " Study of Dante" is occupied almost
exclusively with the consideration of "thc Chris
tan Theory Of sin expounded by the great poet OF
| the Church in his Divina Commedia.'" large
| class of modern Commentators take almost any
view of the poem in preference to this obvious one
| Tbey dwell upon historical alusiors and doubtful
political allegores, and they find in Dante fore
! CLEANS of ideas which belong to much later age
! than his. Ingenuity is exercised upon text which
with all its 0bscurity in particulars is PLAIN enough
In its general drifts exercised. mainly no doubt
because we have removed ourselves so far from the
| opinions and feelings of Dante's world. I'VE live
| in an age which is rapidly losing tho consciousness
of sin." The philosophy of our time sees In SIN only
the condition of a realized self consc iousness we
are learning wisdom from Mistakes we cannot
| discover bow to 20 right until we have tried every
| Imaginable way of gong wrong out OF the depth
! of Donatello's sin is born the conscience which
converts the faun into the man evil blesses man
does not fall by sin but he rises obedience to the
natural impulses is not revolt against any moral
obligation, but it Is the law Of development
Dantcs philosophy was as distant from TINS as
pole from pole The one ali penetrating thought OF
the Divina Commedia is that right relationship
| to God solves the secrets of life and Thought Man
is dervatve being, and finds his true development
! in an uninterrupted connection and communion
with his source. The germ of all sin lies in the sub
stitution of self for God In the Inferno" there
fore the poet traces the corruption of the soul rs.
| emptied of God, it becomes progressively filled
with self; in the " Purgatorio" he shows us the
gradual emptying of self; and IN the Paradise
! the redeemed and purified soul is filled with God
until it reaches the rapture of tho beatiGc vision.
There is no question that Dante represented in this
matter the uniform teaching of the Roman Church
and the tendency of all medieval speculations and
theories upon the relations of man to the universe
This doctrine of sin, q violation of our proper
relationship to God, was the foundation of
II edeva morality, the basis of the philosophy of
the age, and key to its religious and intellectual
problems 1t should not be forgotten that Dante
was reckoned among the great theologians Ra-
phael in the Stanze of the Vatican, painted him in
the group of ilustriOus teachers of the divine SCI
ence along with Augustine, Aquinas. jerome, and
Bernard. If the worlds great poets are impoi tant
to all mankind because they emb0dy the IDEAS
aspirations ethics and culture of races and epochs
Dante certainly cannot be appreciated unless we
study him by the light of the theological stem of
which hs4s one of the most profound and illustri-
Gus teachers: Miss Blow has performed her task
with remarkable success. 1t is almost superiiuous
to say that she does not imagine that she has ex-
hans.ed Dante by explaining his central thought
nobody can understand the g Divina Commedia
by looking at only one aspect of it. But IN follow
ing out tie Fundamental scheme TIE essaylst has
resolutely put aside temptations to discursivc re-
marks and has kept TO her text with a fidelity as
admirable IS it is rare The result is book so clear
and straight forward that it is likely to be under
rated because it is so well done The style is for
cible, natural. and The thought is always
clear; and although it often touches the hard
places of philosophy, it Is simply and happily cx
pressed The secret of Miss Blows manner Is tha
she has firm grasp of her subject and is entirely free
from alecations.
"A Shadow Of Dante" by sister of the late
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, is a weaker book than
Miss Blows less serious purpose and more amb
tious in style bat it will be of in directing that
indolent person, the general reader, to superficial
know led &c of the poet and his works. Miss Ros-
setti has no theory to PROFOUND; she does not
dwell upon the allegorlcal Interpretation of the
Divioa Commcda" " with which the name Of her
father Gabriel Rossetti, is so closely associated;
and the theological character Of the poen although
she necessarily refers to il, seems to have made
very deep impression upon her mind. She has con-
tented herself with sketch OF the poets
explanation of the scheme and machinery of his
great poem, and a synopsis Of It's contents, Illus
trate1 with cOpOus extracts in the transatons OF
her brother w. NJ. Rossctt, and of Lon2felow.
Dante's puzZling cosmology and topography arc
clearly explained with the aid CT several drawings,
and there are some excellent observations vari-
ous obscure passages. Labor-savIng handbooks are
necessary in this age of little leisure and much
printing and we may welcome this new edition of
Miss Rossett's volume fair specimen OF the
class.
Mrs Woolson's essay George Eliot embraces
clever study of her literary art cordial in its admi-
ration Of her portrayal of character, acute in point
ing ont her failure to provide her personages with
anpropriate situations and move them to noble ac-
tons: and fr IN this review it proceeds to consd-
Grafton of the pcssimstc tone ot her novels which
it traces to her false philosophy of life and morals.
The second part is much the stronger and fuller of
the two and is the real cause Of the book. Mrs.
Woolson discriminatcs ably between tine lesser
moraties which are taught on the surface of the
stories and the fundamental uamorality of teach
or who holds that God is nconceivable, that i'm
mortality ls Unbelievable. yet that we are bound by
absolute duty to Impersonal and unrccOmpcnsng
law. As her heroes and heroines generally end in
failure so she looked upon existence Il tragedy.
The life of this world is altogether evil and there is
nothing aftcrward must make the best of it,
face hopeless fate with still lip, and since lot
is so bad help each other to bear it. These prin-
ciples which were expressed in her letters and
vcrsations, are not clearly avowed in her novels,
aud it thus happens that George Eliot is often
recommended as great moral and religious
teacher; but the ti-Chrstian principle. accord
ing to Mrs. Wooson, is implicitly contained in the
novels and may be found there by those who will
take the trouble to look for it, surrounded and per-
haps half sted by the relics of II better inherited
belief George Eliot is of the many whose tenn
perament is better than their philosophy. Bnt she
declares in one of her letters trat main bear
inc of her books is TO show that human progress
is quite independent of the idea of Cod The fell
~. MI ,i..t, bnsb tl,a