St. Landry democrat., 1889-03-09
A Review of Robert Elsmere.
BY JUNIUs L. Hampstead.

Two volumes of the above named book
were sent to us by friend for criticism !,
and after careful perusal, we were very
much impressed with the wonderful pene-
tration and deep thought that underlies
the framework of the most interesting
story we have had the good fortune to
read. The lady evidently used "Goethe's
Faust" as substratum upon which to
build, for we have in the learned 'Sluire''
u second "Mephistopheles in 'sElsmere"
Faust" in Catherine" Margaret "
The great bette noire of the present age is
substituted for one of the passions of life
In "Elsmere," the hero we trace the
student Faust" transferred to Oxford,
where his thirst for human knowledge be-
comes a consuming fire. and, like "Faust"
striving for that which is beyond his
reach full of the ambition of youth, he
takes seconds at Oxford, marries, and &C
cepts the position of Rector of Murewell,
with his mind filed by all kinds of doubts
and isms. The Squire, who is an en-
larged edition of Scion, wrecks the future
happiness of the Rector's life by cold
living facts and German metaphysics,
until Elsmere sunders the ties of affection
and duty, to start a religion of his own.
The character is powerfully delineated,
but strain of weakness runs side by side
with his maddening lore. His great sor-
rows are pathetically told-after heart
breaking struggles he robs Christ of his
divinity, by denying the incarnation and
resurrection, thus knocking away every
prop that su tains the Christians faith in
a hereafter.
How had he bettered his condition? He
l. l.
who came in contact with him. He was
at Murewell preaching a religion, and
Divine Savior, all of which he believed,
and had little trouble to make others be-
lieve; but with all his years of study he
turned his back upon the church, and was
absurdly trying to foist upon the working
class of London a historical Savior, who,
if he was not divine, must have been
mockery, the most stupendous the world
ever knew, pulling down the true Christ,
apd exhorting them to worship an impos-
ter, that he, himself had created to wor-
ship human being whose claims to di-
vinity were remoreelessly stripped from
him. that the God man might be placed
by the side of Shakspere and Milton then
by denying the resurrection of Jesus he
wrecked all the future hope of mankind to
obliterate the Creator of the Universe. If
such is the fact, what is the use of
Creator? What is the use of anything?
The Squire had poisoned Elsmeres mind
just as Mephistopheles did Faust's. Els
mere poisoned Ca1herine's mind, through
her love for him, just as Faust did Mar
garets.
GATHERINGS character was moulded by
fathers life influence, which partook of
the austere and rugged tenets of the Eng
lish church Rose, her sister, was for the
world and of the world. Religion upon
one side and the world upon the other
The story is a wonderfully interviewer
web of painstaking research of lights and
shades of fashionable society of church
and Oxford lore ; of 1reland's troubles of
art and music
The book does not show up the great
seat of English learning to the best ad-
vantage, with it's Tractarianism, or tracts
that were distributed in favor of Puseyism,
which aimed at the union of the church of
England, and the Roman Catholic, in
which Transu bstantiaton played such an
part. 1t is pictured as the hot
bed of non. conformists and skeptics. 1t
seems to be the gage of battle, and she
is brave little woman to fling it in the
face of the whole Christian world. There
is certain Doubling Thomas" period in
the life of every one alb haven't we
tasted the unrest, when we devoured Oar
win, Huxley and Spencer. and not con-
tented with these plunged into the works
of imaginsu.se Haeckel, and traced life |
upwards from the beginning, spent
months in observing and studying the
pro+oplasmic cells and their in |
tense affinity for water, anu for assimi
lating inorganic matter, and have resolved |
the protoplasm into it's original elements,
urea, carbonic acid, water and the salines,
watched the little moving cell perform it's
perfect functions, we could tear down, but
we could not build up, we had all the ele-
nents, but somehow the thing would not
work, we could not endow it with life, it
was dead and useless matter, we were
brought face to face with an impenetrable
wall. the hand of the Creator was beyond.
We peered into every corner of human
ife, into the osmotic possibilities of new
,eiDg, wherever we turned the wall was
here. ''Thus far thou shall 60 but no far
her." We placed an Arachnoidiscus ia
,onicus, a discoidal Diatom found in
1uano, and Heliopelta upon the stage of
microscope, and with power of 400
1smeterS these little speckS, thousands OF
which could swing from the point of
ambric needle, are SO delicately traced
With the grandest creative designs that
would shame the center piece of the finest
rescoed ceiling upon earth. We plunged
nto the most obtuse problems of German
and when we sifted it all we
lad as grand result, that if man is al
nost dead when he dies, he will be almost
cad when he is dead. We wandered
trough the peripatetic schools OF
Athens, where the general result proved
0 be. That if it is, it is not, and if it is
ot, it is. Robert Eismere, with it's Heidel-
erg tinge will have it's day, because it Is
opular, and because it is popular, future
ook lore will flow into the same channel
he doubling will still doubt, but the
'hristian world will still move forward,
ntil it's shining glory fills the earth.-TAe
Lnaeric0n.
The Hedgehog.
The hedgehog is native of Great
ritain, and of some other countries of
Tee o1,so oh nd 70 |