ADELA CATHCART.*
THERE werd many defects in Mr. Macdonald's " David Elgin- brod" as a work of art; yet only a real artist could have conceived such a book, and only a man with a distinct moral purpose and a considerable insight into the diseases of our age could have executed it. Contrasting the manly faith of a Scotch peasant, a faith which made him stronger every day to work in this world and more truly a denizen of the other, with the sickly faith which makes nervous young ladies the victims of quacks and impostors— yet acknowledging their faith as the clear indication that they are spiritual beings, and require to be treated as if they were—the author suggested a most precious truth and developed at least one noble character. The other characters in his book were sadly dwarfed by the superiority. of that one, and the lesson, important for his design, that a man after he has left the earth may exercise such an influence over those who are in it as spirit-rappers can- not dream of, was enforced to the injury of the general effect. The persons who survived the hero had only a precarious existence derived from his posthumous vitality. Yet with all these deductions the experiment was a noble one. A novel was produced in the strictest sense earthly and human which recognized an abiding supernatural influence as necessary to sustain the order of earth and the life of men, and which treated that recognition as the only cure for the irregular supernatural influences that overturn the laws of the universe,—that enfeeble action, that substitute the flutter of expectation for hope.
Adela Cathcart, we are rejoiced to say, is a far higher exhibition of the same kind of power which was visible in its predecessor, a far more consistent development of the same principle. When we opened the novel we had a little fear that Mr. Macdonald might forsake his own calling, and might attempt to compete with some of his illustrious contemporaries. Had he done so he would have failed grievously. A story in the manner of Trollope, or• of Kingsley, or even of George Eliot, would have been in his hands utterly feeble and unreal. On the other hand, we were not with- out dread that he might be tempted in his own line to be too purely fantastic, or too ambitious of allowing that lie was not fantastic. Both temptations have assailed him,—he has occa- sionally yielded to each ; but, on the whole, his new work may be considered a real triumph over great difficulties, and a successful achievement in the department of literature which he is vindi= eating for himself.
Adele Cathcart is not a specially interesting young lady. At the beginning of the novel she is specially uninteresting,—a most unpromising specimen of the morbid type of character, sick in body for no assignable reason, and apparently vacant in mind. She has ones hopeful indication. She has an evident dislike— one might almost say a cordial dislike—to a stupid young gentle- man, her cousin, who would be fast if he knew how. His mother, a woman who is trying " to make the best of both worlds," * Adele Cathcart. By George Macdonall, M.A. In three vole. Loudon : Hurst . ;nd Blacken 18C4.
securing the rewards-of heaven by her orthodoxy, and hoping to get some of the wealth of earth for her son by an advantageous match, has destined him for Adela. Her father, a wealthy country gentleman, is in great trouble about his daughter's condition. A good-natured old friend, the relater of the story, conceives a scheme for her moral and physical restoration. It is a simple one, indicating much simple faith in the projector. A curate and his wife, his brother, an unmarried doctor, a schoolmaster and his wife, come to the hall. Each tells a story. The girl is gradually aroused and interested. Of course the young doctor prescribes for her ; of course he ultimately marries her. The restless hysterical patient is raised into a thoughtful, earnest woman.
We do not know that we have any great admiration for the separate persons who engage in this plot. They are distinct indi- vidual men and women ; they have all fought and suffered ; but we have met people in books and in society who have impressed us much more deeply than any of them. Their stories, however, enable Mr. Macdonald to pour out a wealth of thought, of poetry, and even, we are glad to say, of humour, for which, not- withstanding our knowledge of his previous works, we had not given him credit. What is better still, there is a unity of pur- pose amidst the great variety of his tales and narratives which show how thoroughly he is mastered by his leading idea, and yet how much mastery he has been able to gain over his instru- ments. Whether he fetches his incidents from the common earth or from fairy land, they illustrate the great law that all things above us, around us, beneath us, ar•e working for the education and emancipation of the human spirit. However much it may be crushed under the pressure of artificial habits, of low vices, of cruelty, even of Pharisaism, the Father of it has resources, inex- haustible resources, for• its renovation. Whatever obstacles may interfere with it, that is His will, and that is to prevail.
This, if we read it aright, is the principle of Mr. Macdonald's book, that which gives it all its force, and which will create a sympathy for it in some readers of both sexes and of all ages. We say the principle of his book, not the moral of it. Mr. Macdonald has a righteous horror of morals; his story-tellers perplex Mrs. Cathcart, who always insists upon one, by assur- ing her that she must look for it herself, and that perhaps: after all, none is to be found. Good ladies and gentlemen will, like her, be often perplexed by the tales ; good boys and girls- perhaps sometimes even naughty ones, will generally have a sense of their meaning. And the sense will grow stronger and clearer if they themselves become men and women without ceasing to be little children. We have no wish to spoil any of the stories by giving extracts from theta, but we should be glad if we had space to extract some of the poems, and especially some of the very good translations, from Uhland and from Heine, which Mr. Macdonald has introduced into them. We hope to see more of these, but we hope still more to meet Mr. Macdonald again as a story-teller• and a teacher of truths which can only come forth in living forms, which perish when they are reduced into for- mulas.
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