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    June-13,18570 THE LEADER. 569 ==^SS ' " ...

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    THE PRANKS. The Franks, from their First...

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    A Danish Story. Tha To Bo, Or Not To Bet...

    over bis champagne , were it not for certain anti-German allusions to the Schleswig-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 he bad 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 Jiryde , 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 hung is of the very slig htest texture , and may be told in a brief space . Niels Bryde , at t he co mmencement 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 aee is sent back to Regentsen 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 had seen before ; and day by day becomes less orthodox in his opinions . By 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 thoi-ough 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 and Holstein , 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 Lad come from a distance . " Only tell me , will it be over soon ? Science says that this is " " Death ! " said Niols Bryde , involuntarily and calmly—he was stupified by this unexpected misfortune . Everything seemed swimming 1 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 life ! " These three words were the bridge between " To be , ok not to be ? " here , amidst those who loved her . " She is dead ! " sobbed her mother . " Dead ! " was echoed around , but not uttered by Niels Bryde , ho 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 remaining 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 she was not dead , pasBed for ever from consciousness and life into nothingness . . . . . Ha ! what sound was that ? every one heard it—there passed a tone , a musical note , as it were , through the room—higher and higher it swelled , and then it died away . What eould it be ? " Only a string of the pianoforte broken , " said the eldest sister . » Which string ?" " The E string ! " she said , as sho stooped over the instrument . « E ! Esther ! " he exclaimed hastily ; and he remembered what ho had once said in jest to Esther , If I die firat , and there is an everlasting life , I shall reveal myself to you , as a chord , or a tone . Esther had taken up those words , and now—ho who despised Belief—ho with whom proofs visible to the understanding wero needed for conviction—he became , at that moment , the child of superstition . His conversion is thus completed , mid the story ends with bis reconciliation with the old clergyman and his wife and daughter . This meagre scheme is drawn out with tedious minuteness and with continual repetitions . Long theological discourses , in which the elnef nrgu ments for and ugainst materialism are reproduced without a touch of novelty either in tho reasoning or the treutnient ; elaborate analyses of tho spiritual condition of Niels Brydo nt various stages of his career ; and an ample Hood of the usual wusliy , common-place moralising of good and bad boy books , conceal tho baroness of tho narrative , and help to make out the volume . But , when wo havo finished the perusal , wo find ourselves nuking what good the author cun expect to produce by his—and the reader ' s— trouble . JNo new light whatever is thrown upon tho great questions horo discussed ; tho arguments ore precisely those with which all ordinarily reflective minds must be already familiar ; and they are not made to assume , any new clearness or force by moans of dramatic illustration . In jfuct , the painting of character

    is throughout of the feeblest kind . The chief personages of the story sxe little more than the mouthpieces of certain opinions ; and the Christian convert from Judaism , Esther Arons , is merely a repetition of the pious daughter 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 book 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 Svane , 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 is followed with a wearisome particularity , and a total absence of all picturesqueness 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 b een 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 faithfulness as a translation , we are at liberty to say that the composition is not good . It is deformed by Hibernicisms or Scotticisms . The sentences are often very clumsy , the grammar defective 3 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 detail 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 .

    June-13,18570 The Leader. 569 ==^Ss ' " ...

    June-13 , 18570 THE LEADER . 569 == ^ SS ' " ' i' ' - ¦ ¦

    The Pranks. The Franks, From Their First...

    THE PRANKS . 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 mi ^ ht s eem 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-craftsmen in Gercnany . National prejudices are , no doubt , answerable in some degree for this omission . The Celtic orig in of the race is still a popular fiction , the Gallic

    while the Latin and German elements that were superimposed on substratum are treated with disdain . It is impossible , however , to form a proper judgment of the early period of the French monarchy without allowing a very large consideration to the Teutonic institutions that were grafted 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 brou « ht to bear upon , those dark though important ages an ample and accurate knowledge of the distinctive characteristics of 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 strange and unaccustomed channels . It is a curious subject for reflection , to mark the difference in the same people as conquerors or conquered , as exemplified on the opposite sides of the narrow sea that separates France from Kn- 'land . The triumphant Frank and the subjugated Saxon issued from the same 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 staturo ( says Mr . Perry ) , high in spirit , with fearless hearts , on which no shackle had been laid , they came forth from their primeval forests to wrestle with the musters of tho world . They dared to meet tho Komans when they were mtehtiost ; when their annios , schooled in a thousand battles with tho bravest foes , wore led by " Danger ' s own twin brother , " whoso military genius laid the Korann Empire at his feet : » nd he himself haa told us that his tribunes and prefects wept with terror at tho vory aspect of their giant foes 5 that throughout his ever-victorious first conflict with tho fo of Ano

    army tho Roman soldiers , on tho eve of their rces - viatua , wero engaged In making their wills in tho recesses of their tonta . flila more horde of undisciplined barbarians , with naked bodies , and swords so badly tempered that they bent at every stroke—with no fortifications but their waggons , and no reserve but their wivos and children—rushed fearlessly on tho finest armies that tho ancient world produced , and came off with honour , and somotimo » with success , according to tho testimony of thoir not over-truthful enemies . Triumphed over in tho atroctaof Koine , they remained unconquerod on tho Kh no . The tide of Gorman life which aot towards the Kast , was one of which no imperial command from Borne , could stay tho impetuous course . When African , Parthian , Greek , and Oaul had bent tho nock and bonio tho olmin , tho Hermans alono kept up a doubtful struggle with tho universal conqueror *) , and laughed at their pompous throats and empty triumphs .

    The innnners , customs , nnd institutions of those splendid barbarians arc described with considerable eloquence ; chiefly , of course , on tho authority of Tacitus , whom Mr . Perry vindicates from M . Guizot ' s charge of Imving merely grutified nu ucchs d '' humour by satirising tho vices of his own countrymen . The Franks themselves , as it is now universally acknowledged , were a powerful confederacy of certain tribes who inhabited tho uorth-wostern

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 13, 1857, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13061857/page/17/