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202 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
. « *». The Courtship Of Miles < Long St...
In spite of all this , lie conveys his message in a very unattractive form .
" Did Thus not lie embellish delivered the his message themenor , the dexterous it in beautiful writer of letters hrases , E But ven caine the captain straight himself to the point could , , hardl and array blurted y have it said put it like more p a bluntl schoolboy , y . " ;
Priscilla refuses ~ the offer , and John Alden urges it in a still more injudicious manner . At last the young lady
" Said in a tremulous voice , * Why don't you speak for yourself , John ?'" He rushes out making no answerbut overcome by very
exag-, gerated reproaches of conscience . With the usual mistaken idea of duty which suggests that what is disagreeable must necessarily
_Ibe right , he resolves to ~ sacrifi . ee Priscilla ' s happiness and his own , without in the least securing that of his friend .
Priscilla , undaunted , follows up her purpose , and excuse as we can her first naive exclamation , the perseverance with which she
presses the matter is so unnatural as to be positively ludicrous . Miles Standish very indignantly breaks with John Alden and goes
away . A report comes of his death ; and here , the friendship of John Aldenwhich led him to so very heroic and unnecessary a
, sacrifice , appears totally to fail : he has no feeling save joy at his friend ' s untimely decease , and his first impulse is to clasp Priscilla
to his heart and to exclaim "' Those whom the Lord hath united , let no man put asunder !'"
This heartless proceeding leads very quickly to the wedding , in the midst of which Miles Standish appears ; and hewho has resented
, an imaginary wrong , overlooks a real one , and seems to consider it quite right and natural that his friend should immediately take
advantage of his supposed death , and celebrate it by a marriage festival . So the story winds up , and the impression left , is , as we
have said , of a clumsy rendering of rather unnatural and somewhat absurd incidents .
Among the smaller poems , " Children , " " Haunted Houses , '' " The Rope walk" and one or two othershave all the charm of
? thought and ring , of melody of our old favorites , among Mr . Longfellow ' s earlier poems ; and we doubt not they will take their place
also in many memories , with the vague and tender , yet earnest power , of his elder children . The following poem is one of the
best in the present little volume . _SANDALPHCXNT .
In Have the you Legends read in the the Rabbins Talmud have of old told , ,
Of the limitless realms of the air ; H Of av Sandal e you p read hon , it the , — Angel the marvellous of Griory s , tory
Sandalphon , the Angel of Prayer ?
202 Notices Of Books.
202 NOTICES OF BOOKS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1858, page 202, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111858/page/58/
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