New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-04-04
TX MARTELS .:NEW. BOOK.
SOME DELIGHTFUL TALKS ON OUR Ma
TIVE LITERATURE
AMERICAN LANDS AND LETTERS. THY
MAYFLOWER To RIP VAN WINkl.E y!
Donald G. Mitchell Illustrated. Octave, pp
vii c.,


AMERICAN LANDS AND LETTERS THE
MAYEL0wER TO RIP VAN WISkL.E BY
xiii. 400. Charles Sc.ibasrs Sons.
The name printed ON the title rage of this book
is undoubtedly as familiar 10 the public. and IS
beloved, that one behind which 1t used to
Turk: yet the associate which cluster round the
pseudonyme will make many reader wish thai
II had been employed upon the present occasion.
Only TX Marvel could have written these pages
on the American writer's Of bygone days. The
spirit which drifts through them Is the spirit
pervading the "Reveries of a Bachelor" and 1t
works so artessly, so sympathetically. that
there is no surprise felt at its revival in the
dustier spaces of American letters. In fact, the
dust is forgotten and, significantly. not merely
because Mr.. Mitchell has so captivating way
with him in turning phrase. but because he
himself has half forgotten the lifeless elements
in his theme. He has gone to the heart Of his
subject to the hearts of his authors and old
remote pedagognes and sermonizers whom the
world has lost sight of completely, come back
from their oblivion at Mr. Mitche's bidding and
ere alive once more They are not all justified
in returning in any permanent sense. We have
contrived to rub along without communion
with 1.-THE Simple Cobler of Aggawamm in
Rev. Nathaniel Ward. But even Ward becomes
communicable as Mr. Mitchell introduces him,
because the reader grasps him somehow
creature of flesh and blood. Mr. Mitchell's por
traiture may work by Implication. suggesting a
man rather than deliberately presenting his
image, but there is no mistaking the essential
accent of that mans mind
Moving among who. in many cases. are
mere literary relics the author Of this book has
declined to be himself merely literary. To turn
the pages of the table of contents Is to wonder
il the writers indicated were ever on the whole
to be taken seriously. Mr. Mitchell reminds us
that they were, for one reason If for no other
because they were actuated by spirit OF in
tense sincerity. That is a quality which lies
at the root Of all good literature yet its fruits
would hardly be expected to prove very attrac-
i've under the conservative conditions. to give
them no stronger description which governed
our Colonial development. The fact is that. as
Mr.. Mitchell's pages very clearly reveal what
would seem restriction to US was as natural as
air to the pioneers of American literature
They were indeed thinking OF other things than
literature and when they wrote they bad some
thing to say. Mr.. Mitchell thinks 1! very doubt
full that IL John Milton had come to these shores
with his friend Winthrop we might have had
paradise Lost dating from Hggcr um or Paw
tucket 1.-THE great spring floods would have
drowned Castalia. Even the Samson Agons
tes' would / think, have had his classi, locks
shorn at Naumkeag: plenty Of thunders there
would have been but no murmurous
diapason of sweet sounds abou. 'russet lawns
and fallows gray" On the other hand, when
the inspiration fitting to the time and place de-
scended upon some hard-headed divine or bound
l. y,
astonishing results The Rev. Michael Wiggles-
worth who came to New England in 16tS. offers
good illustration OF this. He little. feeble
shadow of a man. says Mr. Mitchell quoting
from Cotton Mather. but he put "a fiery scald Of
Calvinism upon his pages" and the "poetical de-
scription Of the great and last Judgment which
he published in 1862 is book with a backbone.
When the argument reaches the plea Of the in
fants against the eternal condemnation visited
upon them for the sins of Adam, the Rev. Mi
chael Wigglesworth introduces these cheerful
lines:
You sinners are, and such share
As sinners may expect
Such you shall have; for do save
None but my own elect
Yet to compare your SIM with their
Who live a longer time,
do confess yours IL mucn less
Tho every sins a crime
crime 1t is, therefore, in bliss
You may not hope to dwell
But unto you, shall allow
The easiest room in ell.
They wiring their hands their caitH hands,
And gnash their teeth for terrour;
They cry, they roar for anguish sore
And gnaw their tongues for horrour;
But get away, without delay.
Christ pities not your cry.
Depart to He'll; there may you yell
And eternally.
The value OF this. its illustrative significance.
lies In its enforced, entirely natural rote. Mr.
Mitchell says that 1t had a vast popularity, and
that for 100 years The Day Of Doom" was In
demand. Thus the dustiness. as We have said
above. disappears: and In place of an antiquated
shadow, as the author OF those sinister lines
might seem Mt first sight to be. we have a man
OF inextinguishable vitality. There in Wig
Rlesworth'a observes Mr.. Mitchell. mo great
graces Of expression. nothing to be called ele-
gance; but there is weighty terseness. which is
notable, and which here and there makes single
words cut like a fiery dart; and more than ALL
there is commingling with the ballad-like jang-
ling sound concentrated, Illuminating personal
belief I'm his warnings and in his seership which
puts a heat into the words that blazes and
scorches. The religious earnestness liz kindred
to that of Bunyan, and vitalizes his thought and
his forecast" That self-confdence belongs to
practically ell the subjects of Mr.. Mitchelrs
analysis or It were perhaps better to say. con.