A SUNDAY NOVEL*
Tam. novel appeared originally in the Sunday Magazine. The author reminds us frequently of Mr. George Macdonald, but of Mr. Macdonald without the poetry. As a work of art it is worth little, but as a book of wise suggestions, of wholesome thoughts, and of manly Christian charity it is worth a great deal. The thread of fiction upon which the work is strung together is not always strong enough to bear the moralizing with which the narrative is weighted, and the fictitious Edward Garrett, an old gentleman who is supposed to relate the story, is apt occasionally to maunder, so that the reader is sometimes tempted to skip, and can do so without detriment. The novelist moves a little as if his (or her ?) wings were clipped. It is hard to tell a good story and preach a good sermon at the same time, passing hard to provide suitable matter for a Sunday magazine while satisfying a worldly appetite for fiction. Indeed the publication of a "novel" for Sunday reading in a journal edited by a Presbyterian clergyman is a significant proof of the advancement of liberal thought with regard to the keeping of the Sabbath. Time was, and not many years ago either, when young people in religious families were expected to read sermons upon Sunday, or for livelier reading were treated to the Pilgrim's Progress, or to that odious story the Fairchild Family. In those days a Sunday walk in the fields was accounted a sin—we have ourselves heard it likened to adultery—and the spirit of the old Puritan creed which made John Bunyan think it wrong to ring the church bells, and -which caused the colonists of Massachusetts to ordain that " no one shall run, cook victuals, make beds, or shave on the Sabbath Day," was, perhaps, almost as vigorous as ever. Twenty years ago, too, there were scores of English fami- lies, belonging chiefly to the Evangelical school of Dissenters and Churchmen, to whom the perusal of novels even upon week-days was almost, if not wholly, prohibited. Such books were not to be found in the library, they were never circulated in the book society, and when at length a few clergymen and Dissenting ministers ventured to utter their thoughts under the guise of fiction, they found it necessary to apologize for so perilous an innovation. But in this respect the straitest sects have grown more tolerant, and the novel, instead of being written solely by worldly men for worldly readers, is employed as a medium of spiritual teaching.
The Occupations of a Retired Life, if viewed from an ethical standing-point, may be regarded as successful. It is a sincere book, it is wholly free from cant, it is freshly written, and while the tone of the story is healthy and Christian, there is no attempt to thrust a moral in the face of the reader. The plot indeed is meagre, the incidents rarely exciting, nevertheless, the interest for the most part is quietly maintained, and of the prominent char- acters in the story several have a perfectly distinct individuality.
• The Occupations of a Retired Life. A Novel. By Edward Garrett. 3 role. London . Tinsley Brothers. 1868.
We like best, notwithstanding some defects, the bachelor brother and the spinster sister who after a life of separa- tion and difficulty are brought together once more in the near neighbourhood of their native village. Both have earned an independence, both have had in early life some slight love passages which serve to keep their hearts warm and youthful ever after, and both are intent upon spending their retirement in doing good. Their efforts in this way conduce to the plot, if such it may be called, of the tale. They devise a village refuge and a village hospital, help a young rector out of his slough of despond, encourage matrimony on two hundred a year with profound con- tempt for Malthus, and matrimony upon nothing at all between a disinherited son and a penniless niece. Ruth Herbert does indeed try to convince the young lady of the risk she is running in ven- turing across the seas with a prodigal ; nevertheless, she respects her all the more for her pluck in determining on the venture.
" Miss Herbert resisted all your arguments, Rath,' I remarked, when my sister and I were once more alone.—' Yes,' said Ruth shortly, and I like her the butter for it. Of course she is a simpleton, but such simpletons are the oil which keeps the world's wheels from grating hope- lessly.'—' Then do you think she will realize her loving hopes ?' I ques- tioned, rather sentimentally.—' Twenty years hence,' said my sister, 'she will be a quiet, timid, middle-aged woman, a little faded, and a little given to defer overmuch to "Mr. Herbert," who will in general patronize her very kindly. But perhaps sometimes ho will say, "Little woman, where should I be without you?" And then Agnes will have her reward. And I think her children will rise up and call her blessed. And she will have a harder life than many a noisy woman who fancies herself a victim to her zeal for public good, and in heaven, may be, she will have a brighter crown.' "
This generous old maid evidently believes that marriage is ono of the first and pleasantest duties of man. She remembers the dream of her youth, and wishes she " could be such a fool now " as she was then. Altogether, Ruth, with her brusque manners, her incisive sayings, and her practical sagacity, is a character it is pleasant to have to do, with whether in fiction or in life. But the tale is not likely to attract the ordinary novel-reader. The story is too slight, the characters too thinly drawn. There is a murder, or what seems like one, and the suspicion rests upon a young man who with his sister occupies a prominent position in
the narrative ; there are a few genial love scenes, there are a few of the strange coincidences which are as familiar in novels as they are rare in actual experience,and there are a good many well-ex- pressedthoughts upon what it is the fashion to call the questions of the day. The writer advocates short sermons, dislikes ritualism, is in favour of free churches, thinks the assertion of woman's rights a folly, and possesses an evident turn for controversy, yet it is no small praise, of a tale written for Sunday readers and a religious
periodical, to say that it is full of human Sympathy and of com- prehensive charity. To the author of this story humanity is better than sectarianism, and sinners are dearer than dogmas.
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