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ROMANCES.*
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But " Eve , " we are informed , " was present when Adam , as a mortal man , was revolving that admirable plan of language in his mind , and trying its application with his mouth . To say all , she even laughed at him oftentimes for his passing whole days in uttering strange sounds which she did not understand . This has been the lot since then , " moralises our philosopher—because Eve did what any spirited g irl would be apt to do if she found her lover " littering strange sounds with his mouth which she did not understand "—" of almost every great discovery , to be first derided even by those who were afterwards to profit by it . "
Again , according to this work , there has never been in the world any such things as false religions , idolatries , or superstitions . The 2 Hi majorum gentium , or , Gods of the great nations , were incarnations of the most powerful spirits that dwell in heaven , and were sent down to mortals as special " envoys from God . " In the heathen world they appeared as Jupiter , Saturn , Yenus , Mars , Mercury , Apollo , &c . In the Christian world they were the Apostles , " , " in the spirit-world , " begged to be born as poor men and women about the same time , in order to have the honour of ministering , in different capacities , to Christ , and of co-operating to his great mission . " We have had Mars and Neptune among us in very recent times . In the individual life of Nelson , who won for England
her proudest naval victories , the author of " Miranda" marks the identity of the spirit of Neptune . In Napoleon , who lost Waterloo , is marked the identity of the spirit of Mars . We wonder what spirit had its avatar in * Wellington , who conquered the very god of war himself . Napoleon III . was originally Mercury , and he has been , in his extraordinary migrations , Seth , Cadmus , St . Paul , the Bible , " says this anonymous author , "is the 119 th Psalm . Mahomet , William III . of England , Robespierre , &c , &c , &c . With one illustration more of the peculiarity of this work , we shall close our remarks upon it , " The longest chapter of That Psalm contains 176 verses . The first coincidence which I shall notice in that Psalm consists iri this , that , being composed of
176 verses * every one of these verses eulogizes the Bible . This is -done in a variety , of manners , as , for instance , by such beautiful ejaculations as these -. ^—' JBlessed are the wndefiled in the way , who -walk in the Law of the Lord , ' ' With , niy whole-Jieaft Jtave-I nought Thee ; Oh , let me iiot wander from Thy commandments V 'Quicken me after Thy lovingkindness ; so shall I keep the Testimony of Thy mouth / " The _ c 6 incidenee here meant is the relation of these words to the doctrine of the Bible . " The second coincidence is that this very Psalm , the longest of all biblical chapters * is a great acrostic from beginning to end . There are more than one million of different books extairt ; how many will you find in which the longest chapter is an acrostic ? How many ,
again , in which the same chapter , besides being the longest of all , besides being an acrostic poem , will be found to repeat with uninterrupted regularity , at more than a hundred measured intervals , in every verse , the name or periphrasis of the very book itself P What writer of poetry or prose ever subjected himself to so hard and strange laws of composition P Had he broken nine strings of his decachord psaltery ; and , as he did in a later age , when he became -P ^ guninir-stpuck ^ ut-from ^ charming melody , the psalmiwt would not have done by much so -wonderful a thing as writing these hundred and seventy . six verses , -which shall delight the sons of men , and lift up their hearts to fieaven till the end of the world "
. Though much tempted to do po , we shall not prolong our remarks upon this extraordinary work . What skiey influence , or intellectual law , or moral instinct , the author of it is governed by we are unable to determine . It is the vain and foolioh work of a powerful mind . According to his own theory , if it be true , we may say that he has migrated , not into the body of an owl or a spider , but , at certain intervals , into some poor Egyptian , Indian , Chinese , and other zealots , gettingequully saturated with and enamoured of all their superstitions , _^ * _ ¦ . . ¦ _^ ^ L " 7 J _ «_ _* ¦ _ 1 a ~_ - ' * i - _ _~ b A- 7 ^ h ^ -. _> ¦ . A ^ L K «« ^ k ^ * - Jfc l ~ M « mW 1 % ^^ ^ fe « h ^ rfh * B ^^ ^ k \ h ^ h andin his lastand it be orst incarnationhe has become the
. . _ , , may w , reconciler and advocate of their respective systems ; carrying out according to a pre-determination , his scheme of engrafting them all upon a nobler and purer system pf religious truth for the satisfaction and delight of his ancient co-religionists . But , conjecture apart , while we sympathize with one so earnest and sincere as the author of this work seems to be , we regretthat he has so strangely and foolishly misapplied his great talents in the production of a work which must , from the very nature of its views , inevitably sink into the limbo of oblivion . AUVU V 1 JO JAIUWVA WAAVAUJIli
Beforo , however , we * put the final stop to our remarks , if any reader should be curious to know the nume of the author of " Mirandn , " and should he be gifted sufficiently to read the stars , he may ascertain it by solving the following- problem put by the author himself : "To the seven stars which constitute the two lines , mutually perpendicular , of the northern cross formed by the brightest stars of the swan , nine more stars are added * in a manner which would be highly reinarkuble even if it were destitute of any known signification ; but they are so ingeniously arranged that the sixteen atara , combined in different manners , figure my own name in capital Roman letters : " Tjbe initials and address of tlie uuthor have already been intimated . This problem certainly has a slight touch of insanity about it , and , notwithstanding : the numerous marks of a logical mind which the work evidently bears , and the pure morality of its pages , wo must lay that the writer's devotion to his beloved theory has in no small iegree disturbed his reason .
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500 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ May 36 , , 1860 .
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A NEW romance , by an American author , having previously J \ l achieved a great success in the . New World , has . at length found its way to the mother country . England is thus called iipon to endorse the opinion of America upon this first production ot an author hitherto unknown to fame . We are given to understand by the general advertisements which have preceded this work that it has created among our transatlantic neighbours as great a sensation as Adam Bede" originally excited in England . Such an announcement has necessarily awakened the curiosity of an eager and expectant public , and we feel called upon in our office of critic to bestow upon it more than ordinary care and attention . " Sir Rohan s Ghost , " such being the singular heading of the volume before us , is been enlisted of t
a work in which there has evidently powers a mos extraordinary kind . The author possesses an imagination of unusual fertility , a lively and creative fancy , a keen poetical perception , and a flow of language that at times startles us by the brilliancy of its descriptions and multiplicity of its images . In fact the too-easy possession of this latter faculty is apt to lead him astray , the similes , in many instances , being overstrained , difficult of apprehension , and unequal to the test of careful analyzation . We do not wish , however , by these critical remarks , to depreciate the unmistakeable genius displayed by the author ; the blemishes observable in this his first essay at romantic composition , being the result of exuberrance of talent rather than any shortcoming or incompetency existing in himself , and as sueh they will be readily passed over , and even forgotten by the intelligent reader .
A slight analysis of this work will be necessary to give an insight into the author ' s intention . Sir Rohan , the hero , is introduced in the first chapter as haunted by the consciousness of a great crime , This consciousness has for twenty years pursued him through every phase of his existence . In vain to escape this inward pressure has he rushed into the intoxicating din of the battle-field , travelled through foreign countries , sought relief in intellectual employments ; every thing wears the impression of the one great horror . The image of a fair young girl floating down the unresisting stream * growing gradually fainter and fainter , till at length it disappears beneath the weiglitrof waters , is ever before and blocking up all the avenues of his mental vision . This spectre to him is every wherein "
every thing , making itself palpable in light as in darkness , in crowded thoroughfares as in unfrequented solitudes , infusing itself into every atom of the universe ,-arid converting ail-that is fair and beautiful into a caricature of its o \ yn hideous self—and this is Kohan ' s Ghost . Shortly after the commencement of the story , the conscience-stricken man discovers a new occupation , in tlie active pursuit of which he fondly hopes to allay the fever of tormenting : recollections ; in obedience to this resolve , he devotes himself to the art of painting . But as the legitimate province of the pencil is the realization of the mind ' s ideal , and as Sir Rohan has but one knowledge , one thought , one ideal , ever present to his introspective faculties , it cannot be wondered that every form and countenance impressed iipon the canvass should be but a reproduction of the him with
form , the countenance , with its dark eyes glaring- upon unrelenting ire , till in his frenzy to annihilate the loathsome sem-~ T 51 ance ; the worlr ^ f ~ W 6 lrs ~ finr t ^ r <^^ the labourer aguin commences his toilsome task , again to meet with the like result . Soon , however , two new arrivals make their appearance on the scene—Miss Miriam , whom wo must hereafter designate as our heroine , and her guardian , St . Denis , an old friend and companion of Rohan ' s , both of whom present themselves unexpectedly at the castle of the latter , where for a time they conveniently take up their abode . The gay and light-heurted Miriam speedily exercises a beneficial influence over the mind of her host , and the fascination of her presence releases him for a period from the machinations of his evil genius . Many incidents occur which it
would be useless here to enumerate . One , however , tending to interfere with the high ground upon which the author has hitherto token his stand , we feel compelled to notice . Our heroine , Miriam , while walking , or rather trespassing , upon the grounds of the grand conservatory belonging to the castle , becomes suddenly conscious of another presence , a supernatural development of form , a something 1 " floating toward her , never tinged by any of the gorgeous shades under which she passed . " She , in fact , beholds what the author has hitherto led us to conclude ns the phantom of a diseased and disordered imagination , presented in the shape of a veritable ghost . We think this incident would have been better omitted , as lending 1
to no ultimate result , and a » standing directly opposed to the great object of the work . When the author coiide » cenas thus , as it were , to materialise his ghost , by giving it an existence out of the mind of the guilty person , he destroys at once tho idea of a criminal pursued by the terrors of an ever-wakeful conscience , shaping * and distorting the very atmosphere into visions the likeness of itself , thereby demonstrating- that the seeming spectre , which for him possesses the most vivid and fearful tangibility , is but the consequence and development of his own wicked and perverted thoughts , the personification of evil in his own heart , his own second self There can be no doubt that thin is the idea which the author has
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* Sir Rohan ' s Ghost . A Romance . London : Triibner & Co . t Castle Richmond . A Novel . By Anthony TkolIiOPB . Three void . Chapman & Hull . - Tho Firstborn / or , a Mother ' s Trials . By the Author of " My Lady . " Throe vole . Smith ; Elder , & Co . The Madman of 8 t . James ' s ; a Narrative from tho Journal of a JPJtffsioian . Translated from tho German of Philip Galen , by T . II . Three vols . J , F . Hope .
Romances.*
ROMANCES . *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 26, 1860, page 500, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2349/page/16/
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