NEW TALES.*
Tre author of 3fignonette tells us, that his tale was sketched as a distraction, when he " was suffering under severe trial and dis- appointment" ; and that he could not altogether help " in some degree embodying past sorrows " in his story. This may be, for who can attempt to measure the direction which employment for solace may take in individual minds. In 3fignonette, however, the elements appear too complicated, the incidents for the most Part too common, and involving too many petty characters and characteristics of a country place, to be the result of passions powerfully working ; unless indeed they worked themselves off in much writing. There is a kind of clerical air about the book, as there is a distinct moral to be established. Pride is the sin peached at throughout. The father of the heroine is induced to break off his daughter's engagement, because his pride is offended in Various ways, but mainly because the engagement is clandestine. The lover, who for the convenience of the story is treated some- what cavalierly, resents this conduct from pride ; and when at a future period he drops into a fortune, and being brought into the eemPany of his old flame, renews his suit, she too rejects him from pride, while this dangerous passion shows itself in other per- sons. As is usual in didactic works the moral is strained too tight; but the defect of the book as a tale is less in its ethical de- ficiency than in its management and mode of telling. There are seven and thirty chapters in the two volumes ; and we really think that in skilful hands seven would suffice to present the story effectively. The opening scene indicating the betrothment might stand something as it does ; three would suffice for the retrospeo- tivesketch of Herbert Capel's career, his dismissal, and his accession to an unexpected fortune ; while three, more would be enough for his rejection by Enemy " and the winding up. Indeed not very much more than this is occupied by the author himself, except in extraneous matter that a story-telling artist would reject or condense. The remainder of the volumes is filled with other 141119flonette. a Sketch. By the Author of " The Curate of Holy Cross." Pub-
ed by J. Parker.
fieccitectioas of a Maiden Aunt. Published by Saunders and Orley. pueksa adv. A Tale. By Anna Lisle. Author of " Self and Self-Sacrilloe," See. baked by Groombridge and Sons. love stories or marriages, that are rather contemporary tint* connected with the main tale ; or with elaborate sketches of the persons and local interests of Bishops Lamford. Some of the discussions are on parish affairs, or social and morel questions that the incidents turn up. These last are interesting in themselves ; • and not badly argued from the writer's point of view which is that of the High church ; but like all the rest of the book they have a sermon-like elongation about them. Even the interview of the lovers is spun out by metaphysics ; they analyze their feelings rather than express them. As in many other fictions, cross purposes become too much a means of action. There is nothing in the nature of the case that need have prevented Emma Melton's making it up with Herbert. Indeed, the pith of the matter is touched by his friend Dacre, in a conversation with Mr. Motcombe, one of the curates of Bishops Lamford ; which talk digresses to preaching and confession. " I dare say,' said Dacre, yawning; but the whole subject is incom- prehensible to me. To my mind, when people are very much in love there are few obstacles which they won't surmount to gratify it. Miss Melton, according to Capel, is just as fond of him as ever. What, in the name of fortune, then, can be the wisdom of her acting in this fashion ?'
" ' It is not an easy subject to follow out,' replied Moteombe; ' but, nevertheless, her feelings are pretty intelligible to me.'
" Well, it is a lesson against trifling with the affections, as you say,' re- turned Deere ; though I do not apply it quite in the same way as Ion would. I think it is a warning to men not to trifle with their ow* S8b6- tions, as Capel has done.' " Which they do by trifling with those of the woman they really love: interrupted Moteombe : ' yes, it is a warning which I have been thinking how I might render available among the poor and lowly, for the evil exists as much among them as in higher ground, and with consequences, too, that are sometimes much more fearful.'
" Preach a sermon upon it,' said Dacre, and then you drive Capel out of church after old Mr. Harbottle.'
" Motcombe smiled. No,' he said, I am not of opinion that sermons are in all cases the most effective mode of inculcating a lesson among the poor. The mania for preaching, which is one of the religious features of the day, does not exist among the very lowly. It is the better class of arti- sans, the mechanics and their families well to do in the world, that are carried away by it. Take the metropolis, for instance. See how thederleesrs6 advertise sermons,. to induce the poor to go to them. They get well- people in swarms instead, and always the same set, whether the preacher be Dissenter or Churchman.'
" That is a remarkable fact, certainly,' replied Deere ; but I should think it were not difficult in the country, at least, to inoculate the lower orders with the same.' " Very difficult, and for the simple reason that the difficulty in the lower orders is to keep their attentions fixed.' " Well, what mode would you hit upon for teaching such a lesson as our present conversation has suggested ? ' " I find this a difficulty,' said Moteombe. ' The great obstacle to the ef- fectiveness of our teaching in the present day is the want of intimacy be- tween the poor and their clergy. We may know them, and be well with them, but, excepting in rare instances, we never get to their hearts. This we cannot do, because there is no reciprocation of confidence, and there never will be generally, until confession is restored.'
" And areyou sanguine as to that ? ' asked Deere, with a smile.
Yes ! I think it is making progress under the term "counsel and ad- vice." It is only the title that frightens.' " ' Well ! I do not say that I see harm in it,' said Dacre, in the hands of single-hearted and conscientious priests. But it has fallen into disuse ; its revival is ever suggesting fears of its being abused; and its revival, too, is contrary to the spirit of the age, even if the ordinance itself be not.' " I don't like that term " spirit of the age," ' replied Motcombe its revival will, I fear, if thwarted, be owing to those of our cloth who act too much up to that " spirit of the age " which is Antichrist. But I did not wish to draw you into controversy. Look at the practical advantages of it in the present state of morality. How many a tale of sorrow would not be- come a tale of sin, if the sufferer were taught where visibly on earth, as well as spiritually in heaven, he or she could confide their griefs ! How many a seducer's designs would be laid bare in time ; how many a guileless heart on the brink of ruin would, by habitually consulting her pastor and Mend, and receiving from him timely aid and instruction, be saved from the tor- ture of the " worm that never clieth!" ' " True narrowly. In particular cases confession, regulated as it is in the Romish Church, to prevent as far as possible, moral abuse at all events, may occasionally be good. So may despotism in particular cases, or as some think, with particular men. But
the question is not occasional good that may be done, but the general evils that follow, especially indirect evils. Where one person is benefitted under the best regulations, numbers may be corrupted mentally. Every clergyman is not immaculate in morals, and many are very coarse in mind.
It is a curious thing to say, but the defect of Recollections of a Maiden Aunt is in being too truthful. With a few allow- ances, it is just such a story as a lady of seventy might have lived, suffered through, and survived to peaceful resignation at last. The father of Isabella Craven is painted as one of the old school of domestic tyrants, who ill-treats his wife, quarrels with his son relentlessly, and opposes the marriage of his daughter the remi- niscent. These things, and troubles springing out of these things, with duties to fulfil and the happiness of fulfilling them origina- ting in other quarters, form the substance of the narrative, varied by love affairs among a second generation. It is all told with a species of dramatic consistency ; there is a quietness in the man- ner appropriate to the septuagenarian, and an apparent know- ledge of the age in which the writer's early years are assumed to be passed. But the narrative is too quiet for this " fast " time, manners are rather indicated than pourtrayed, and there is not even the moderate degree of force and depth expected in fiction. Of the lighter style a ludicrous mistake will furnish an example. " Amongst our visitors, there was frequently a young man, the son of an old friend of my father's, who was awkward, shy, and stupid, to an extra- ordinary degree ; he had been encouraged by his father to go into society. as * last hope, that being constantly with young men of his own age misfit
improve him. He was the laughing-stock of the party, and was almost en- tirely left to himself, until seeing how dull he was, and thinking his shy awkward manner arose from a painful knowledge of his own deficiencies, I took him under my protection, and did my best to amuse him. Many a time did I place my sketch-book in the greatest jeopardy of having a fall in the mud by letting him carry it, that he might have something to do with his hands, and never complained, though he always turned the leaf of my music at the wrong time.
" Imagine my surprise one day at receiving a letter from him, beginning by broadly hinting that he had long seen my affection for himself, that he bad not originally intended marrying so young, but that he was sure he he should add much to his happiness in securing a wife so devoted to him, and therefore offered his hand and heart to my keeping for the rest of his life. At first I did not really believe that he had written the letter, and fancied that it might be some vulgar joke to take me in, but I soon found it was serious, and that he was coming for his answer the next morning. How bewildered he looked, poor youth, when I told him that it was quite impossible I could accept his generous offer, and I believe had a vague idea that I did not consider myself good enough, for he hastened to assure me that I was ! But I soon undeceived him, and for the future was very care- ful how I befriended thy young gentlemen."
There is a faculty of story telling and a dramatic power in Quicksands, which are wanting in both the other tales ; but the book itself is of a lower caste. The ideas of life are not so just, nor does the writer seem to have so much knowledge of the actual world, as are visible in " Mignonette " and the " Recollections." The stage and the older novel have suggested, if they have not furnished, the materials and mode of treatment ; from the faithful servant "Marty," to the startling melodramatic manner of con- ceiving and presenting the incidents. The general idea too has been derived from the above sources, though we have never seen it used in the same way. Hereditary madness is a common theme to produce distress and cross true love. In Quicksands it is made the means, assisted by sordid motives, of a complicated conspiracy, to induce the heroine to marry a man with the taint of insanity in his veins; and the parties to this conspiracy are the respective mothers of the lover and the lady. The germ of insanity becomes developed with all its miseries, and the additional evil of an old lover who has been thrown over ; so that there are plentiful in- gredients " for a charm of powerful trouble." The morals sought to be elicited are against flirtation, vanity, and pride.
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