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    over his champagne , were it not for certain anti-German allusions to the gchleswi g-Holstein question . In short , it is a religious , or rather a polemical , novel ; and , like all other stories of its class , succeeds in nothing but in boring the reader , who , as we have had occasion in these columns to remark with reference to other novels , regards himself as having been entrapped by a false pretence , and made to attend a theological lecture when le had been induced to expect a little mental relaxation in the shape of an amusing fiction . The celebrated phrase from Hamlet , which gives its title to the story , is intended here to moot the important psychological question . Are we , or are we not , to exist hereafter ? and the tale itself relates the life-history of one Niels Bryde , who passes from a state of religious faith to one of complete infidelity , and ultimately back again to faith . The narrative on which the author ' s theological reasonings are hunjr is of

    the very slig htest texture , and may be told in a brief space . Niels Bryde , at the commencement of the book , is a little boy , the son of Poul Bryde , ¦ who attends on the students at Regentsen , a college in Copenhagen . His father is killed in the streets by an accident , and an old Jutland clergyman , Japetus Mollerup , who was formerly a student at the college , and who is on a visit there at the time of the catastrophe , takes the boy , whose mother is already dead , under his own care , and brings him up at the Manse , where he is regarded as one of the family . He exhibits considerable quickness of intellect , combined with a nature at once generous and passionate , and with great strength of will . He is intended for the church , and at the proper age is sent back to Kcgentsen to study . Here he falls in with a student who lends him a copy of Strauss ' s Life of Jesus . He reads it with breathless awe and with much horror at its opinions ; but it makes a lasting impression on

    his mind . He begins to question and criticise what he had before regarded as too sacred for anything but adoration . He travels for a few months in Germany ; sees more of ' life' than ever he liad seen before ; and day by day becomes less orthodox in his opinions , liy the time he pays his first visit to the Manse since quitting it , he has floated far away from the opinions of his benefactors , and stands on totally different grounds . He shocks Mrs . Mollerup , pains his adopted sister , Bodil , and positively enrages the clergyman himself , who , it must be confessed , is a great bigot , though a fine-hearted old fellow in other respects . Niels leaves in dudgeon ; gives up all intention of becoming a minister ; and studies medicine . His scepticism increases , and at length he becomes a thorough materialist , notwithstanding the fascinations of a young Jewess , Esther Arons , who has become a Christian , and who tries to overthrow the scepticism of the young student .

    At this point , the war of 184 S-49-50 , between Denmark and the Duchies of Schleswig andJHolstein , breaks out , and Niels joins the Danish army as an assistant-surgeon . He is wounded , and is brought by pain to give up something of the arrogance of his former opinions . His self-reliance had been such that he had been led to think that man might , by the aid of science , acquire an absolute command over the universe , and be enabled to imitate the most secret productions of Nature , even to the creation of human beings themselves . He now recognises the existence of a God , but still denies the immortality of the soul . While these mental struggles are going on , he returns to Copenhagen , becomes more and more impressed with the beauty and gentleness of Esther , and at length feels that she is essential to his happiness . But cholera has broken out in Copenhagen , and Esther is struck down . He attends her deathbed , and receives a new lesson

    in faith : — " Thank you for coming , " she said ; her voice sounded as if it had come from a distance . Only tell me , will it bo over soon ? Science says that this is " " Death ! " said Niels Bryde , involuntarily and calmly—he was stupified by this unexpected misfortune . Everything seemed swimming round with him . " And Faith says , " she whispered , "it is Life ! " —she pronounced the last word with emphasis , while she pressed his hand in hers . It was not a moment for conversation , not another word was said . Her eyes seemed to sink deeper in , and as when warm air passes over a figure of ice , it loses its impressed shape , thus annihilation passed over that form the soul ' s image of beauty , her hand became like marble , and yet it grasped firmly . " It is lifel" These three words were the bridge between " To bis , on not to be V" hero , amidst those who loved her . " She is dead ! " sobbed her mother .

    " Dead ! " was echoed around , but not uttered by Niels Bryde , he had not that word on his lips or in his mind . Esther , in whom were centred his happiest thoughts , she the bright , clear , living spirit , away—extinguished ! Extinguished like a fire , with nothing but ashes remuining of her ! Ashes that never more could be revived ! No , he could not entertain that thought , could not admit that idea ; ho felt convinced that ehe was not dead , passed for ever from consciousness and life into nothingness Ha ! what sound was that ? every one heard it—thoro passed a tone , a musical note , as it were , through the room—higher and higlier it swelled , and then it died away . What could it bo ? " Only a string of the pianoforte broken , " said tho oldest sister . " Which string ?" " Tho E string ! " she said , as she stooped over the instrument . "El Esther ! " ho exclaimed hastily ; and ho remembered what ho had once said in jest to Esther , If I die first , and there is an everlasting life , I shall reveal mysolf to you , as a chord , or a tone . Esther had taken up those words , and now—ho who doapised Belief—he with whom proofa visible to the understanding wore needed for conviction—ho became , at that moment , the child of superstition .

    His conversion is thus completed , and tho story ends with his reconciliation with the old clergyman and his wife and daughter . This meagre scheme is drawn out with tedious minuteness nnd with continual repetitions . Long theological discourses , in which tho chief nrgu ments for and against materialism arc reproduced without a touch of novelty either in the reasoning or the treatment ; elaborate analyses of tho spiritual condition of Niels Brydo at various stages of hie career ; and an ample Hood of tho uaual washy , coininon-placo moralising of good and bad boy booka , conceal tho buroness of the narrntivo , and hel p to make out tho volume . But , when we have finished the perusal , wo find ourselves asking what , good tie author can expect to produce by his—and tho reader ' s—trouble . No new light whatever is thrown upon tho great questions hero discussed ; tho arguments arc precisely those with which all ordinarily reflective minds must bo already familiar ; und thoy are not made to ansumo any now clearness or forco by means of dramatic illustration . In fact , tho painting of character

    is throughout of the- feeblest kind . The chief personages of the story are little more than the mouthpieces of certain opinions ; and the Christian convert from Judaism , Esther Arons , is merely a repetition of the pious dr . ughter of Japetus Mollerup . When the course of the story removes Niels from the sphere of Bodil , Esther takes up the thread of the argument in favour of Christian faith . The best characters in the hook are a gipsy woman with a deformed and idiot child , and an old tailor , who _ carries honesty to an ultra-sensitive degree , and goes mad under suspicion of having committed a theft of which he is quite innocent ; but of these persons we do not hear as much as we could desire . A good-humoured scholar , Herr § vane , who , owing to an early disappointment in love , is subject to occasional attacks of low spirits and spleen , might have been elaborated into an excellent character ; but he is a mere sketch , and indeed

    all the dramatis personce are singularly devoid of substance and completeness . The tale , in truth , is dull , and , as we have said , seems as if written for a special class of readers . The course of the Schleswig-Holstein struggle i 3 followed with a wearisome particularity , and a total absence of all picturesqueuess or power of striking the glare and horror , the hurried vehemence and hot tempest of war upon the page . The best part of the book is that in which the quiet , almost primitive , life at the old parsonage in Jutland is described . We have here an interesting glimpse into a remote nook of Scandinavia and into the pastoral simplicity of its people , among whom , at the period spoken of—less than twenty years ago— " all traffic and money transactions were carried on by barter , " and who only possessed , in the way of circulating medium , one five rix dollar bank-note . ^ But since those days a town has been built in the solitary regions described by Mr . Andersenand matters are of course greatly altered .

    , We cannot say much for Mrs . Bushby ' s rendering of the original into English . Without giving any opinion as to its faith fulness as atranslation , we are at liberty to say that the composition is not good . It is deformed by Ilibernicisms or Scotticisms . The sentences are often very clumsy , the grammar defective , and the punctuation equivocal ; and we meet with such phrases as— " the ground was arid and red like . " At one part we hear of " a lark "—not in the ornithological , but the slang , sense of the word . And there is surely a little needless detai l in this bit of description , notwithstanding its truth : — " A butcher ' s stall , with pieces of meat hung out , and bloody livers and lights , was near the crossing . " But this is rather the fault of Mr . Andersen than of Mrs . Bushby , though the lady might perhaps have softened the Scandinavian plain-speaking . On the whole , we cannot recommend this volume to our readers .

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    THE FRANKS . The Franks , from their First Appearance in History to the Death of King Pepin . By Walter C . Perry , Barrister-at-Law . Longman and Co . The object of the present volume is to prepare the way for a careful and judicious History of the life and times of Charlemagne . At first sight , it might seem as if the subject had already been exhausted by the researches of those historians who have directed their enlightened labours to the elucidation of the early annals of their country . But , for the most part , French writers have too closely adopted the conclusions arrived at by their immediate predecessors , without paying sufficient attention to the collateral lights furnished by the learning and industry of their fellow-crattsmen in doubtanswerable in degree

    Germanv National prejudices are , no , some for this omission . The Celtic origin of the race is still a popular fiction , while the Latin and German elements that were superimposed on the trallic substratum are treated with disdain . It is impossible , however , to form a proper judgment of tho early period of the French monarchy without allowing a very large consideration to the Teutonic institutions that were crafted on the Gallo-Latin , or Romance stock . In this respect , Mr . Perry has rendered essential service to the students of French history , for he has brought to bear upon those dark though important ages an ample and accurate knowledge of the distinctive characteristics oi the German conquerors . To Englishmen it must ever be a matter of deep interest to trace the various meanderings of the old Teuton race , as they deviated into Rti-iiiwrn mid unaccustomed channels . It is a curious subject for reflection , to

    mark the difference in tho same people as conquerors or conquered , as exemplified on the opposite sides of the narrow sea that separates * ranee from Kn «» land . The triumphant Frank and the subjugated Saxon issuea from tho ° sume swamps and forests , sprang from the same blood , possessed tho same intense individuality , and in their rude manliness concealed the same germs of future chivalry and civilization . Majestic in stature ( says Mr . Perry ) , high in spirit , with fearless hearts , on which no shackle b « d been laid , they came forth from their primeval forosta to wrestle v th iho masters of tho world . They dared to meet tho Romans when they were mlglK ; "when their armies , schooled in a thousand battles with the bravest foes wore led by " Pnnger ' a own twin brother , " whoso military goniua laid the Roman Empiro 1 t ?; iafeet : and he himself . .. as told u . that hisJ ^^^ r ^ S ct of their iant foes that throughout his eyer-vktorlou .

    wh or or at the wy aspe g ; army t . Koman soldiers " on the eve of their first conflict with * J" Jj **"* ^™" viatus wcro engaged in making their wills in the recesses of their tents , lhis more horde of uailiactpUned barbarians , with naked bodies , and swords eo badly tempered hat they lient a every stroke—with no fortifications but their waggons , and no reserve but Sr wives and children-rushed fearlessly on the flneat armies that the indent world produced , and came off vith honour , and somothnes with eucceas , according o ° e testimony of their not over-truthful enemies . Triumphed over in he street " of Bo no , they remained unconquoroxl on tho Hhino . The tide of German life whk-hsot towards the East , was one of which no imperial command from Rome could ^ tnv tlfo nmot ous course . When African , Parthian , Greek , and Ciaul had bent the nock a ulb S" chain , the Herman , nlone kept up a doubtful str ugglc . with the uSversa 1 conqueror * and laughed at their pompous threats and empty triumphs .

    , Tho initmiors , customs , and institutions of those splendid barbar ana a c described with considerable eloquence ; chiefly of oourso , on tho au ho J of Tacitus whom Mr . Perry vindicates from M . Guizot ' s charge of having ufo ^ oly Piifled in < , «*« r&m * r by . Arising , the vtoea f ^ JXTweS men . Tho Franks themselves , ' as it w now umyorual y 'f ^ ZXvJtwn a powerful confederacy of certain tribes who inhabited the noitu-western

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    June 13 , 1857 . ] THE LEAD E B ,. 569 ______ . : : : . ¦ - ' . . .... = _______ ______________

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 13, 1857, page 569, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2197/page/17/