Now, Miss Martineau is clearly an earnest and sincere religious believer, -nay, she is a believer in the plain and ordinary sense of the term, and if she were not, we should have neither right nor inclination to criticise her opinions. There is certainly a danger in adhering too exclusively to the facts connected with religion, and neglecting the idea which they embody; and if her endeavours had been simply directed to the object of exalting and bringing out the purely spiritual element of Christianity, we should admit that her labours were directed to a worthy end: but when she adopts as her means of attaining it a popular and declamatory tone when she quotes with applause still shallower appeals to the people-when she even rejoices in the prospect of free discus. sion, which is to take place in a hall to be built for the purpose at Boston, among persons of all denominations or of none, we cannot but deeply regret that her own earnest convictions should be allowed to serve as a support to the frivolity, vanity, and vice of vulgar unbelief. Grapes shall grow on thorns, and figs on thistles, before spiritual religion or wisdom arises from the passionate emptiness of a popular debate. Let us first try the experiment of referring a chancery suit, or a disputed surgical question, to the wisdom of a public meeting.

The real object at which we believe she is aiming, is not new, or peculiar to America. From the decline of the French school of infidelity to the present day, the great philosophers and critics of Germany have been employed in bringing out the true relations between historical fact and essential truth; one class by analysis of the abstract notions, the other by laborious investigation of authorities and rules of evidence. But they all agree in the opinion, that the unlearned cannot rightly apprehend the results at which they arrive; and, like chemists dealing with poisons, they have covered their dogmas, either with the obscurity of a learned language, or the stronger safeguard of a ratiocinative and abstruse style. However much we may regret or differ from some of their doctrines, we hold that Schleiermacher, Paulus, and Strauss, have pursued a fitting object of enquiry in a worthy manner, appealing only to the learned, and withholding from the world the opportunity of prejudi

cating the question. But we can give no such praise to Miss Martineau's American luminaries.

We fear that the genius of Mr Carlyle must be responsible for having familiarized the minds of the American public with a phraseology, belonging to systems which the more flippant and shallow amongst them were certain to misunderstand and misuse. The Coryphæus of this set must, we should suppose, be one Mr Orlando E. Brownson, a preacher of the tenets which Miss Martineau approves, in language which she has thought it worth her while to report and eulogize. A more empty specimen of inflated rhetoric, more servile docility to the authors of the few thoughts he expresses, with more elaborate ostentation of originality in discovering them, we should seek in vain elsewhere. Truth itself would come injured from such a tongue. It is not by clouds of words that earnest belief is expressed and propagated. Simplicity, directness, and point may be attached to falsehood, but they must accompany truth.

We hope that Miss Martineau's better taste has only been tempted into the admiration of this and similar declaimers, by their casual agreement in an error which we think pervades her views of politics, as well as of religion. She takes the world for a tabula rasa, or perhaps for a tabula radenda till the blots which disfigure it are removed. History is the standing protest against her views, and history she never regards. It would be easy to form smooth and regular prospects for the future, if the past were not so rugged and complicated. We do not, indeed, look on the course of the world as a series of recurring parallels, and we deny that it contains fewer warn. ings than examples. Still we are bound either to regard experience, or to explain it away; and if we find that democracy has not produced liberty without the accompaniment of a strong government, or that the spirit of religion has declined when facts and symbols have been disregarded, we must reconcile the phenomena with our visions of improvement before we can fitly proceed to realize them. If Miss Martineau would impose on herself the golden rule of Coleridge, to understand her adversary's ignorance or to presume herself ignorant of his understanding, she might sometimes have the positiveness of her own convictions shaken, by finding men opposed to revolution, who neither love nor admire aristocracy, whose ambition might be gratified by change, and whose sympathies are all in favour of the people whose restlessness they counteract: she might then think them wrong, but she would respect their opinions-at present she has no respect for opposite views. We might forgive her intolerance, for it is a lady-like failing, and it involves no uncharitable feeling to the individual-for her spirit is always that of a kind and generous woman; but she will accept of no allowance on account of sex. She claims equality in all things-not contented that to the complete human being the left side should be as vital and essential as the right, she would have it ambidexter; and she must take the consequent responsibility. It is not enough to admit that an adversary is right at heart; he may claim, till he is answered, to be considered as possibly right also in his opinions. While we make this demand, we retain a right in our own minds to make excuses for this fault of intolerance, though we may disclaim them in public, as we find that they would be unacceptable to their object.

But if we suppress our opinion that the defects of one-sidedness and dog matism may peculiarly characterise the polemics of a lady, no restraint of politeness shall prevent us from remarking on the far more numerous beauties which we think equally characteristic. Miss Martineau's genius is essentially feminine, though its vigour and reach are those of a man; feminine in its earnestness, in its purity, and in the hearty homely interest which it spreads around the small events of daily life. No man ever observed and understood children so accurately, and few women can contemplate them with the same intelligent and playful equanimity; for while to us they are generally playthings, in the minds of women they have too real and living an interest to make their mistakes and evil doings matters of calm speculation. Hence we see that, in the lower classes, mothers seldom speak to their children but in a tone of scolding; and, among the more refined, it is very common to remonstrate and argue with them as with responsible equals; from which proceeds the very undeserved preference which children display for the

society of men over that of their best friends, who care too much for them to laugh at them. Where, as in the present case, the masculine attribute of humour is added to the sympathy of woman, we must give up all hopes of rivalry; and that not merely with reference to children, but in the power of observing and describing the delicate shades of manners, the little pleasures of domestic life, and all the traits which individualize and mark the ordinary characters of society. In this peculiar power no one has, we think, yet equalled Miss Austin; but Miss Martineau in her late novel, Deerbrook, has nearly approached her, and has added to her graphic and happy sketches of society, an analysis of the affections worthy of Madame De Staël, with a picture of female purity and goodness far nobler and simpler than Corinne.

The everyday life of the village of Deerbrook, with the loves, likings, and dislikings of its inhabitants, supply the plot, which is well contrived, simple, and, with one or two exceptions which we shall notice, probable. In the first chapter remarkable skill is displayed in making us acquainted with the circumstances and general character of the dramatis persone. In the drawing-room of the prettiest house in the village, ornamented by a garden and shrubbery which conceal the timber and coal yards stretching down to the river side, we find Mrs Grey and her eldest daughter Sophia, sitting in expectation of their cousins the Misses Ibbotson, who had been invited from Birmingham to stay at Deerbrook, till the affairs of their father, who had lately died, should be in some degree settled. When they arrive, Sophia points out to them the view from their window. "That is Mr Rowland's house, papa's partner you know. Isn't it an ugly house, with that ridiculous porch to it? That house opposite is Mrs Enderby's, Mrs Rowland's mother's. So near as she lives to the Rowlands, it is shocking how they neglect her," &c. Mean time Mrs Grey is exulting in the beauty of Hester Ibbotson the eldest, and as to Margaret, " Mrs Rowland will say she is plain; but in my opinion Margaret is better-looking than any of the Rowlands are ever.likely to be .." "We have a pretty good neighbourhood," she tells them. "I think, Sophia, the Levitts will certainly call.""

....

ap

yes, mama! to-morrow I have no doubt"-" Dr Levitt is our rector; we are, as you know, Dissenters, and Mrs Rowland is very much scandalized at it ..; but the Levitts' conduct might teach her better." Next it appears that Mr Philip Enderby, Mrs Rowland's brother, is staying with the Rowlands, and Sophia and Mrs Grey complain that he is very high. "I don't think he can help being so tall," says Sydney-a fine manly boy of thirteen, who is throughout the book a good specimen of the way in which Miss Martineau understands and preciates his "order." Sophia an. swers that "he buttons up and makes the most of it, and stalks in like a Polish count." Soon afterwards Mr Grey appears, and in a few words shows himself a sensible good-natured man. Then Mr Hope is announced, and the twin little girls, Fanny and Mary, beg to be allowed to sit up a little longer to see Mr Hope. Mrs Grey explains that he is a great favourite with every body, and that they have the greatest confidence in him as a medical man. "He was not handsome, but there was a gaiety of countenance and manner in him, under which the very lamp seemed to burn brighter." When he departs, Mrs Grey asks her husband, "looking at him over her spectacles," if he does not think Hester very handsome; and if he does not think that Mr Hope thinks so too. "He did not speak on the subject, my dear, as he mounted his horse."-" It would have been strange if he had then, before Sydney and the servants."" Very strange indeed!" But Mrs Grey cannot help speculating on what Mrs Rowland would think of Mr Hope's marrying into their connexion so decidedly, and wonders why Mr Grey cautions her to be silent on the subject, and makes such a serious matter of a word or two. "Because a good many ideas belong to that word or two, my dear."

Nevertheless, Mrs Grey was only wrong inasmuch as she left two elements of the problem out of considera. tion, Margaret and Mr Enderby. The acuter reader will have rightly conjectured, that the loves of these four form the main current of the story; and even from our meagre abridgement he may have derived a sufficiently accurate notion of the rest of the society of Deerbrook. The gossiping jealousy of Mrs Grey is repaid by per

severing malignity on the part of Mrs Rowland; and Mr Rowland, a wellmeaning easy man, is unable to counteract her energy. One very interesting character is added in Maria Young, the governess of the Grey and Rowland children. Poor and crippled, she suppresses an attachment for Enderby, which she had cherished in more prosperous days, and consoles herself by observing and wishing well to all, and by deep and religious resignation. In her person, standing apart as she does from the direct action of the story, Miss Martineau appropriately expresses the reflections which appear to us more peculiarly her own; precepts of duty and rules of happiness which are always wise and sound, and subtle delineations of feeling, which well deserve the attention of the experimental philoso. pher; for the true service of art to science, consists in its presenting facts in bolder relief for inspection. The systematic psychologist is more fitly employed in classifying and explaining the varieties of character and conduct, than in collecting them by observation-a task for which the novelist ought to be far better qualified. All good fiction is an interpretation of nature, and it is likely that the artist will see many isolated truths besides those which he embodies in the agents of his drama; therefore he introduces a passive representative of himself, a chorus, or a Miss Young, that the fragments of his wisdom may not be lost-a supplement of art which is allowable as long as the truths thus preserved are really separate intuitions; as soon as they are combined into a system, they belong to the province of the objective, and violate dramatic propriety.

The characters ofthe sisters are well drawn and strongly contrasted. They have both cultivated minds and generous dispositions, and they both shrink from the gossip and petty quarrels of Deerbrook; but Hester is of a jealous and unhappy temper, always craving for displays of affection, and persuading herself that she doubts it from a morbid anxiety to have her certainty made doubly sure. She knows herself to be the chief object of her sister's thoughts; but, partly from a sense of her own unworthiness, and still more from the impossibility of a practical faith in the harmonious uniformity of feeling, which she has never realized

..

we have to boast of, that some of us begin to suspect that Deerbrook is not the Athens and Arcadia united that we have been accustomed to believe it. The truth is, these girls have brought in a new life among us, and there is not one of us, except the children, that is not some years younger for their presence. Grey deserts his business for them like a schoolboy, and Mr Rowland watches his opportunity to play truant in turn. Mrs Enderby gives dances, and looks

bilities. Faith in mankind is reasonable; for we know that the better parts of our nature exist in all, and with due cultivation may prevail over evil. Faith in friends is easier still, so far as it extends to their principles, their virtues, and their capabilities of disinterested affection; for it is scarcely possible to become closely acquainted with any one without thinking better of human nature; men's faults appear greatest at a distance, and chiefly con. cern their dealings with strangers. But a belief that a given individual will feel an affection for a definite object, though it may be desirable if it is necessary to our happiness, can never be a postulate of reason, or a duty; it is not faith but opinion, and must rest upon outward facts, unless it can be changed into conviction by the consciously reciprocal magnetism of love, or in a smaller degree by the freemasonry of friendship. Those are happy, who in the completeness of their being can dispense with all proofs of returned affection, and be contented with loving, while they are always the most beloved.

Of such a character is Margaret Ibbotson; devoted to all around her without a thought of self, and unconsciously receiving her reward in the affection which she universally inspires. She has all the courage, and firmness, and practical wisdom which man or woman accompany single mindedness.

in

A quiet mind, a patient mood,
And not disdaining any;
Not gibing, gadding, gaudy, and
Sweet faculties had many.

It is not wonderful that both Hope and Enderby fall in love with her. ope before she has been at Deerbrook for many weeks. We will borrow Mr Hope's account of her in a letter to a brother in India.

"There are two ladies here from Birmingham, so far beyond any ladies that

Mr

Levitt is preaching his old sermons. Mrs Grey is wellnigh intoxicated with being the hostess of these ladies, and has even reached the point of allowing her drawingroom to be used every afternoon. Enderby

Neither

is a fixture while they are so. mother, sister, friend, nor frolic, ever detained him here before for a month to

gether. He was going away in a fortnight when these ladies came: they have been here six weeks, and Enderby has dropped all mention of the external world. But who are they? you want to knowthey are distant cousins of Mr Grey's, just over twenty, and their name is Ibbotson.

Are they handsome?" is your next question. The eldest, Hester, is beautiful as the evening star. Margaret is very different. It does not matter what she is as to beauty, for the question seems never to have entered her own mind. I doubt whether it has often occurred to her, whether she can be this, or that, or the othershe is, and there is an end of the matter. Such pure existence without question, without introspection, without hesitation or consciousness, I never saw in any one above eight years old. Yet she is wise; it becomes not me to estimate how wise. You will ask how I know this already. I knew it the first day I saw them; I knew it by her infinite simplicity, from which all selfishness is discharged, and into which no folly can enter. fection for her sister is a sort of passion. It has some of the features of the serene guardianship of one from on high; but it is yet more like the passionate servitudeof the benefited to a benefactor for instance-which is perhaps the most graceful attitude in which our humanity appears. I go, grave and longing to listen. I come away, and find I have been talking more than any one; revealing, dis

Her af