New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-11-11
NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL.
TWO AMERICAN NOVELS.
TEMPLE HOUSE. BY Elizabeth Stoddard. Revised
edition. I2mo. PIP 1873. Cassell & Co.

TEMPLE HOUSE. BY Elizabeth stoddard Revised
edition. l2mo. PIP. 1888 Cassell & Co.
THE PEcKsTER rRoFEssoRsHIP. An Episode in
the History % PSychical Research. BY J. p.
Quincy 12mo pm 80. IIoughton. Milin q Co.
In real life the intercourse of men and women
consists largely in more or less painful attempts
to get at one another's meanings. A few possess
ntuitive insight, are able 20 pierce the shelter
which masks thought and intention, and through
this gift guide their own course prospcrously
Tho many are reduced 70 guosswork and con-
lecture, and go through life in somi-perpleXed
way. seldom confident of understanding the pur-
poses of Others often unable even TO make their
own purposes clear to those with whom they
come in contact. The exigencies OF fiction have
compelled the employment of prctcnce of PSYCHE
cal perception which is the reverse of natural
conditions. In the novel we are admitted 10
the most complete and intimate knowledge Of
mental operations The veil is withdrawn, and
we look into the breasts of people and read
their minds and follow their reflections with the
utmost ease. Another method of exploitation is
necessary by the conditions of dramatic rep
rcSentation On tie stage the characters them
selves employ franllness and openness wholly
foreign to real life. The lover makes his plant
publicly: the villain discloses his sinister designs;
the conspiratOr develops his plot; the conscience
snitten sinner exhibits his remorse; and all so
plainly that the audlonce catch the drift Of
the action and follow it from beginning to end
with pleased apprehension.
In the remarkable novel called Temple House
Miss Stoddard appears to have essayed new
line Of fiction She has written a book in which
the people appear for the most part under re-
preston and concealment such condition
human intercourse in the actual world. The
keys to motive, character, and action which
the novelist habitually supplies the reader with;
the artificial insight to thought and purpose
which elucidate the everyday romance, are want
ing here, and we must occupy ourselves in puz-
zlng out the significance of word and deed as
we are compelled to do when dealing with
living people. More than this, indeed, for the
author of Temple House has selected char
acters of unusual types, who are in many re-
spects peculiar, ard who, were they actual human
beings, would obviously be especially difficult
TO understand. Argus Gates, RoXalana and
Tempe are each and all strongly marked, origi-
nal and eccentric. Not one OF the three possesses
normal capacity for expression, and all through
the strange story them alternately utter
ing themselves in a kind of dumb show, and
holding back all expression by a strong law
of nature. Two of them, Argus and Roxalana,
have by long intimacy come TO understand one
another in dim, uncertain manner. Tempe. the
third perhaps understands herself as little as
she is understood. This child is feeling after
something underlined. Her soul is inchoate, I'M
formed She is abnormal in right of her birth
and training; curious admixture of the re-
pressve atmosphere of the house and Of strong
inherited instincts and prepossessions.
Upon all who enter the enchanted place its weird
influences fall Sebastian Ford rescued from the
sea by Argus introduces new phase of emotion
TO his preserver; breaks through the practsed
apathy of the moody man, and stirs him to mani
festations of genuine affection. But in return
Argus reacts upon Sebastian, tempering the fire
in his Spanish blood, and infusing into him some
thing Of the Temple House taciturnity and SOM
breness The people who nhabit the old house
are studies which attract and hold the attention
curiouslY The reader finds himself continually
wondering how Roxaana or Argus or Tempe or
Sebastian will speak act; what they will do
with the varying incidents which occur. So far
Argus and Roxalana concerned, their chief
desire may seem to avoid the doing OF anything
Argus, with masculine obstinacy, appears to think
he can control life by simply refusing TO be moved
by anything it hangs forth To himself he is i'm
passable, cynical, without emotional capacity
But nevertheless he also is the creature of heredty
and environment, and when his fate arrives in the
form Of Virginia Brande he has TO meet and ac-
cept it, even though the frution of a love which
he has long concealed and even tried TO deny
the existence Of TO himself, leaves him in a some
what dazed and by no means sufficiently thankful
frame of mind.
Roxalana is il possible, a still more difficult
study Her loyalty to her scampsh husband is
doubt a thoroughly feminine trait. Her atti-
tude toward Tempe is less clear, and her view Of
Argus quite problcmatcal. A woman OF natural
reticcnce and impassivty, sluggish of intellect,
moreover, and slow to form opinions, she is less
mutable than Argus, and perhaps fundamentally
stronger, Notwithstanding his superior mental
alertness and activity. She is represented as n
fatalst, but her fatalism is evidently more physi-
cal and tempcramental than intellectual Yet Roxa-
lana does not fully disclose herself at the
last Her character is the deepest problem in the
book If not quite the most interesting. When
we turn to the scenes outside OF Temple House, 10
the home Of the Brandes for instance, are con-
scious OF tightening OF the atmosphere. Mr.
Brande, his crazy wife, and Virginia not in
deed explicit after the usual methods, but there
Is much less mystery about them. They CORE
spond 20 those simpler mental combinations in
actual life which the average man or woman can
grasp without special difficulty. Garfield again