MR. ISAACS.*
THIS story contains anfficient of the supernatural to make it a sort of cross between the ordinary novel and fairy-tale. It pur-
ports to be narrated by one Paul Griggs, who edits a paper in India, and is Roman Catholic, half-Italian and half-American, and one of those amiable cynics who are constantly giving the lie to the disbelief in human nature they profess, by discovering in all their acquaintances some one or more of the good quali- ties the possession of which they deny to the race at large. At a hotel in Simla he chances to meet a stranger, a Persian, who has abbreviated his proper designation of Abdul Hafiz-ben-Isa into Mr. Isaacs, and who is the hero of the book. There is a decided flavour of the Count of Monte Cristo about the descrip- tion of this gentleman, with his lavish wealth, and wonderful and varied talents, powers, and information ; he is romantically brave and generous, an excellent linguist, musician, sportsman, man of business, &c., reads thoughts as though by magic, has a dangerous, mysterious, and infallible remedy for injuries, possesses all kinds of remote knowledge, and is exceptionally beautiful to look at :—
"An easy grace marked his movements at all times, whether deliberate or vehement,—and he often went to each extreme,—a grace which no one acquainted with the science of the human frame would be at a loss to explain for a moment. The perfect harmony of all the parts, the even symmetry of every muscle, the equal distribu- tion of a strength, not colossal and overwhelming, but ever ready for action, the natural courtesy of gesture—all told of a body in which true proportion of every limb and sinew were at once the main feature and the pervading characteristic. This infinitely supple and swiftly-moving figure was but the pedestal, as it were, for the noble face and nobler brain to which it owed its life and majestic bearing. A long oval face of a wondrous transparent olive tint, and of a decidedly Oriental type. A prominent brow and arched but delicate eyebrows fitly surmounted a nose smoothly aquiline, but with the broad well-set nostrils that bespeak active courage."
Yet it was neither by his graceful figure, nor his perfect Iranian features, that he at once enthralled and fascinated the sus- ceptible, would-be cynical editor; but by his eyes, which are described in the following glowing terms :—
"I once saw in France a jewel composed of six precious stones, each a gem of great value, so set that they appeared to form bat one solid mass, yielding a strange radiance that changed its hue at every movement, and multiplied the sunlight a thousandfold. Were I to seek a comparison for my friend's eyes, I might find an imperfect one in this masterpiece of the jeweller's art. They were dark and of remarkable size; when half-closed, they were long and almond- shaped; when suddenly opened in anger or surprise, they had the roundness and bold keenness of the eagle's sight. There was a depth of life and vital light in them that told of the pent-up force of a hundred generations of Persian magii. They blazed with the splen- dour of a god-like nature, needing neither meat nor strong drink to feed its power."
Enamoured (how could he help it ?) at first sight of this paragon, Griggs is immediately ready to risk life and death on his behalf, and to do his utmost to promote Isaacs' courtship of an English girl with whom he has fallen madly in love. Considering that Isaacs does not credit women with the possession of souls, and has already three wives (of which fact he frankly informs the young lady he admires), most people would have been likely, in the interests of the girl, to hesitate about helping on this love-affair ; but Griggs has no scruples on the subject (and possibly his staunch support of his friend's suit under such extremely unusual circumstances may be intended by the author as a warning of the folly of allowing cynics to interfere in matchmaking). It happens that the irresistible Mr. Isaacs has also captivated the affections of one Ram Lal, an extra- ordinary personage, whose powers are quite as supernatural as those of the enchanter in any child's fairy-tale, only with the difference that in Barn Lars case they are attributed, in some hazy way, to a sublime disregard for mortal pleasures and con- quest of mind over matter to which he, as one of the order of higher Buddhists, has attained. He is spoken of as an "adept," and though the precise meaning of that term is not given, yet it is evidently equivalent to "magician," since there is no other theory which can explain his ubiquity, mysterious appear- ances and vanishings, knowledge of things said and done in his absence, and correct prophecies. We will quote an instance of his astonishing power. Three men wish to carry off a prisoner from fifty hostile soldiers, who are resolved to kill both him and his rescuers. In these circumstances, ordinary mortals
• Mr. Isaacs. By P. Marion Crawford. London: Macmillan and Co.
would hardly expect that the three would be able openly to accomplish their purpose when the soldiers were broad awake and looking at them ; but Ram Lal thinks nothing of making such a performance feasible. He causes a sudden dense mist to obscure a clear and brilliant moonlight, and manages the affair so easily, that the only wonder is why he did not do it altogether alone; and the reader thoroughly sympathises with the bewilder- ment of Griggs, who, having had a considerable share of da,nger in the adventure, confesses himself "completely at a loss to ex- plain why, if Ram Lal can command the forces of nature to the extent of calling down a thick mist under the cover of which we might escape, he could not have calmly destroyed the whole band by lightning, by indigestion, or some simple and efficacious means, so that we need not have risked our lives in supplementing what he only half did." Buddhists do not seek European converts, and we are, therefore, not a little surprised to find the omnipotent Ram Lal anxious for Isaacs to join the brotherhood to which he himself belonged. Such, however, being the case, one feels that Isaacs is provoking his fate, when he states that if anything were to occur to make him permanently unhappy beyond the possibility of ordinary consolation, he believes he would seek comfort in study- ing the pure doctrines of the higher Buddhists. Obviously, then, if the earthly joy he most covets should be dashed from his lips, that will tend to bring about what Barn Lal wishes ; con- sequently, the latter withholds information that would have been likely to prevent the downfall of Isaacs' hopes, and the story closes in the triumph of the enchanter, as he carries off the hero to devote himself to endeavouring to attain to neh'ban, that cold and comfortless condition, hardly to be distinguished from annihilation, which forms the final goal of a Buddhist's desires. We have great doubts, however, as to Barn Lars having thought fit to impart to his neophyte the full amount of non-entity at which the Buddhist hopes eventually to arrive ; for when we leave Isaacs, he is looking gladly forward in the future to being, "not alone, but wedded for all ages to her who has gone before me,"—which state of anticipated bliss is not easy to reconcile with the description that a recently published book gives of nelaan, as an existence where a man "knows nothing of others or of the world, and so is a stranger to all feelings of joy or sorrow." For such a severing of ties and loss of individuality as that, would seem little likely to satisfy the aspirations of one so full of vital energy, and possessing so strongly marked an ego, as Mr. Isaacs.
The foregoing sketch will show that this book has some absurdities; bat apart from this, there is much to like in it. It is entertaining, and contains capital bits of description of travel- ling and general mode of life in India, besides fresh and pleasant writing, and sufficient cleverness and imagination to make us hope that the same pen will produce another story, constructed on a basis of probabilities, and without any admixture of super- natural elements. And, finally, we would caution Mrs. Crawford
that it is possible to be too learned. A novel-reader does not generally hanker after conversations which are of the nature of essays on metaphysics, cynicism, philosophy, psychology, and other abstruse subjects, and which give the impression of being intended to display the extent and variety of the author's informa- tion rather than to advance the story ; nor is the average student of light literature very likely to care for discussions on
transcendental analysis, wherein occur such sentences as the following :—
"Consider the theories of Darwin, for instance. What are they but an elaborate application of the higher calculus ? He differen- tiates men into protoplasms, and integrates protoplasms into monkeys, and shows the caudal appendage to be the independent variable, a small factor in man, a large factor in monkey. And has not the idea of successive development supplanted the early conception of spontaneous perfection ?"
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