The Portland daily press., 1897-04-05

vision OF calamity (6S EerlCleS said to
Aspasia). while my husband satisfies my
highest ideal and while the graces of
heaven I'LL the hearts OF my children.
Everything else is very external. This
is the immortal life which makes flowers
of asphodel bloom in my path, and no
rude steps to crush them. exult In my
husband.
Into the range Of this circle come EN-
ersop, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller. Daniel
Webster delivering an address wh1cn MIS-.
Hawthorne we'll describes, u. Z. II.
James, Curtis, Holmes Charming, Fields
and Mrs. Fields, Motley, the Thaxters
and others, and abroad English wealth
and title and many distinguished writers
and men of public note.
Here is fine phrase Of Mr.. Alcott's:
"The sympathy Of spirits is the hearts
undersong."
Again Mrs. Hawthorne says, III
there is anything immortal in life, 1t Is
the home relations, and heaven would be
no heaven without them. God never knit
my soul with my husbands soul for such
u paltry moment as this human life! I
have not loved my mother tor one short
dsyi My children do not thrill my
heartstrings with less than an eternal
melody. We know that God cannot
trife. This is all more real to me than
what my human eye rests on.
We follow through this interpreter the
making OF Hnwthorne's romances as he
reads his manuscript aloud in the even
ing, or wanders OF to do his thinking by
solitary paths, back of the "Wayside"
and through quiet wooded stretches and
peaceful ways. Yet in England and in
Italy, Mr.. and Mrs. Hawthorne were
striking figures in social life, and were
responsive to the brillianoy Of elegant
society. "Mr. Hawthorne was Invited to
Monokton Mines to dejeuner, and met
there Macaulay, Mr.. and Mrs. Browning,
Lord Stanley, the Marquis of Lans-
downe. Lord Goderiok, etc. He enjoyed
it very much; end the venerable old
Marquis seemed bent on doing him hon
or and showing him respect Mrs.
Hawthorne refers to Maoaulay an having
a "ferociously lucid style. confusing her
| as with too mu0h light.
| READERS of Burroughs's recent hook will
note Lord Houghton' S (Monckton Milnes)
comments on Whitman in writing to
Hawthorne.
Mrs. Lathrop's best estimate of her
fathers creative genius is given in the
chapters entitled 1.-THE Artist at Work"
and "The Leave Taking" In the final
pages Of the latter no one can read with
out emotion Mrs. Hawthorne's review of
her lifes endowment and blessing
"Tben God joined my destiny with him
who was to be all relations in one. Pain
passed away when my husband came.
Poverty was lighter than thistledown
with such power of felicity to uphold
it,"
To read Memories of Hawthorne is to
live in imagination with the greatest
writers America hos given to the world.
(Boston and New York: Houghton.
Miff1in & Company; Portland: Loring,
Short & Harmon. Price s2.00.)
A Transatlantic Chatelaine. by Helen
Choate Prince. The heroine of this
story, born in America and growing up
in the atmosphere of our Civil War, with
Its exalted ideals, eni seeing her father
and husband march away to it's excite
nents and perils, is BY the changes in
her life finally emerged during her bril-
liant young womanhood into the whirl
of fashionable society abroad. Somehow
it seems not quite consistent that hel
visions of the exalted side of things
should rest upon the re-establishment Of
an old and noble house or that she
should not more closely scan the persona!
record of the man who would reooup hi:
fortunes by rich marriage. Mrs
Choates novels are written with ease and
grace always. But this present volume
is not OF as firm fbre rs its predecessor,
Christine Rocheiort. We miss the motive
, that pulsated In those pages, though We
, ~ likely this most recent story will Prov
, more generally popular. New York ant
Boston: Houghton & Miffiin; Portland
Loring, Short & Harmon. Price $780,
The Little RenauIt. Two Stories of II
linois at Different Periods. by Mar!
Hartwell Catherwood. With illustre
= tions. Mrs. Catherwood has marked
talent in giving picturesque and striking
Q form to historic episodes, infusing int
, her sketches the strong personal magne
tlsm which quite does away with Ger
tain remoteness that belongs to histor,
in fictionRdetaohed from our own times
7 We have here two short stories, boil
!; vivid and full Of action. A very moderl
|. element possesses one. The other deal
with adventure in Touty's Illinois life
in 1850. Both are sad. But Kate keene'
fate seems after all part of her career
We ask ourselves how else she could hav
i been rightly translated. The Little Re
nault leaves a heart pang, there is n
: doubt about it, unrelieyed by any cor
+ sideration-the grief over young all