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as he is , on securing the best berth for himself ; and , passing into a graver mood , it indicates tie inexhaustible store ofspeculation , meditation , and reverential emotion that is unlocked for us in the study of Life , as it presents itself in the simpler organisms . The series of papers headed , ^ ' The Scot Abroad , ' hai a continuation , or rather a supplement , in an article on diplomatic Scotchmen ; there are ' Sketches on the Way to Stockholm , ' which -will perhaps give a useful hint here and there to people who are looking out for a less hackneyed tour than the Rhine country and Switzerland ; ' A Brookside Dialogue , ' with a descriptive introduction , much better than the dialogue itself ; an article on ' The Poetry of Christian Art ; '
one on ' Macaulay , ' defensive of Scotland , Scotchmen , and Calvinism , against the epigrammatic severity of the historian . The -writer is indignant , not only with Macavlat , but with [ Dickens and Matjbice and Kingsijby , because they ' calumniate Calvinism , and he winds up by assuring " Mr . MacAuX-ay that he ¦ will but splinter his lance if he tries it upon the shield of adamant ¦ which defends from every weapon of offence a true and pure religion "— -a statement which Mr . MacatjjuAt would hardly deny . Suppose we were to tell a Scotchman that , ' with , all deference' we considered the singing in Scotch churches to be little tetter than howling , and he were to reply , that we should but splinter our lance if we tried it against pure and dulcet harmony , — -what "would the ¦ writer think of his countryman ' s logic ?
" We have left ourselves no room to speak of the Jhibli ? i University Magrcc zine , which has its Natural History article of course ; contends against a * Uew Translation of the Bible ; ' gives some sketches from the history of * The Irish in Spain , ' in which the reader may perhaps learn something more than he knows at present about General O'Domniuu and his family ; discusses in a thorough and interesting way * The United States Navy ; ' and has its tales for the tale-loving .
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mild svray , the negroes on . the plantation have a protectress . The cholera arrives ,. and Nina exercises a healing charity . The " last scene of all " then opens like a surprise . It is in the presence of Clayton , who has a ri ^ ht to call her " my rose , my bride , my lamb" : — ° A lo-w tap at his door at last aroused him . The door was partly open , and a little hand threw in a half-opened spray of monthly rosebuds . " There ' s something to remind you that you are yet in the body ! " said a voice in the entry . " If you are rested , I'll let you come down now . " And Clayton heard the light footsteps tripping down the stairs . He roused himself , and , after some little attention to his toilet , appeared on the veTanda . " Tea has heen waiting for Borne time , ' * aaid Nina ,. " I thought I'd giye you a hint . " "I * w&s lying very happy , tearing you sing , " said Clayton . " You may sing me that song again . " " Was I singing ? " said Nina ; " why , I didn't knew it ! I believe that ' s my way of thinking sometimes . I'll sing to you again after tfca . I like to sing . "
After tea they were sitting again in the veranda , and the whole heavens were one rosy flush of filmy clouds . "How beautiful ! " said Nina . "It seems to me I ' ve enjoyed these things , this summer , as I never have before . It seemed as if I felt an influence from them going through me , and filling me as the light does those clouds !" And as she stood looking up into the sty , she legon . singing again the words that Clayton had heard before" I am come from the happy land , Where sorrow is unknown > I have parted a joyous band To make thee mine own . " Haste , haste , fly with me , Where love ' s banquet waits for thee ; Thin © all sweet snail be Thine , thine alone . " The summer has its heavy cloud , The rose-leaf ranst fall—" She stopped her singing suddenly , left the veranda , and went into the house . " Do you want anj'thing ? " said Clayton . " Nothing ! " said she , hurriedly ; " I'll be back in a moment . " Clayton watched , and saw her go to a closet in which the medicines and cordials were k « pt , and take something from a glass . He gave a start of alarm . " You are not ill , are you ? " he said fearfully , as she returned . "Oh , no ! only a little faint . We have become so prudent , you know , that if we feel the least beginning of any disagreeable sensation , we take something at once . I
:. ¦ : ' . ¦ .:. . ¦ . . . . ; '¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ dked . ¦ . - ' . ¦ - . . - ' ¦}¦ ' ]¦¦ JDre ' d : a Tale . By the Author of " Uncle Tom ' s Cabin . " Sampson low . In this story the action of the Cholera is far more powerful than the action of Slavery . Of course Mrs . Stowe could not produce the companion of Uncle Tom , or float her popularity upon the passions of the forthcoming election , without drawing a red-and-hlack picture of manners as influenced by the peculiar institution ; but the sense of misery which , with the susceptible , will be the effect of reading Bred , will arise chiefly from the tragedy of Caneina , with which Slavery has nothing to do . It is only late in the book , indeed , that the negro enthusiast is introduced ; his preachings , his acts , his fate belong almost to a separate narration . The light of the story isjNina , Dred is the shadow ; but their destinies are wholly apart , the one being in ixo way related by circumstance to-. the other , so that the
lady of Canema , upon whose portrait so much elaboration is bestowed , is a mere insignificance as long as the historical conspiracy is under notice , while the conspiracy , which gives the work its name , is totally unnecessary so far as the interest of Nina ' s life and character is concerned . The result'is , not simplicity , but confusion . It is difficult to understand why so many personages are introduced , and we have found it impossible to suggest any artistic reason for the concentration of pathos upon a death from cholera in a tale that has been written with so fierce a purpose . . That purpose has been , unmistakably , to publish a volume that will be scattered over America by the Abolitionist simoon that is expected to rise at the approaching election . In her preface , Mrs . Stowe takes advantage of the assault upon Mr . ^ k . ¦ « . in « p % — — ¦ ^ L ^_ . . _ - — & \ 1 rfk T » _ A ^ L jk—. - ¦ - ¦ ¦ _ „ ^_ _ ¦ ^ - 1 ^ 4 M cf J J . _ -. _ _ __ 3 _^ _ J * __ . ' _^ . __ _ . . L i . i tauiujucitu muibu uitLer uuuui iue ui scaie
^ ^^ ^ ^ .- u , pmagritpu svnmur u sovereign , struck down , unarmed and unsuspecting , by a cowardly blow , and while thus prostrate , still beaten by the dastard arm which had learned its skill in a South Carolina plantation . " The Kansas conflict , and the St . Lawrence disasters , with an allusion to " the British Lion led in cotton bands , " adroitly introduced to natter "the party in America who in the coming election are to make a stand against this tremendous evil , " and to rally the public in England , which has no faith in abstract principles anywhere but across the Atlantic . Emphatically , Mrs . Stowe ' s new novel has many of the equalities of a pamphlet , and it is made up more of assertion than of proof . It is unscrupulous in this sense—that it amasses , a number of exceptional and excessive instances , and presents them as a picture of the South .
Regarded simply as a novel , Dred is an imitation—a clever imitation—of Uncle TonCs Cabin . Of course , it ia not a repetition of the story , but of the idea : it is equally full of sensuous descriptions of material luxury ; there is au attempt to remould Topsy in a masculine form ; Nina fades into a sort of Eva on nor death-bed ; a perceptible anxiety is manifested to render Clayton—a cold mass of formality—unlike St . Clare ; old Tiff is a more lively Uncle Tom ; Harry and Lisette are , in a great degree , reproductions of George and Eliza . JDred alone ia new , and his character is described witli no inconsiderable power . Hunted into a refuge in the Great Dismal Swump , inspired by oppression , possessed of an almost unearthly passion for revenge , he fills his memory with all the anathemas of David and the Prophets , and pours them out , in text and verse , amoncr the consnirators whn
have followed him to his seclusion . He has witnessed an outrage , sanctioned by slave law , upon Henry the Quadroon , who manages the Gordon plantations , and exerts all his eloquence to entice him into the negro plot . Soon atterwardB , upon the death of the young mistress of Canema , the plantations , mi \ as , and Bloyea pass into the possession of a Legree in his own right , and ner-e tue transition takes place from the bright to the black romance of Dred . 1 «> S n f- Colonel Gordon , is left solo mistress of Cancmn : but , onL l « g ( * >* *» n&aed * o a perfect appreciation of herself , and of the t SinlST' 5 * £ ™ tbttt adorn her beauty . foenry , the educated quadroon , S ^^ W&SS ^ w * Cancma Comcs Tom Gordon ' J ° u 9 of U « the rifv ^ SSS r ? i ° , ? ry ' wife , and a feud of blood arises between is rcnCS ™™ Ul ? , ° \" ml 8 t *<» 3- It is by this macl . mery that Dred is rendered necessary , though as long as the lady of Canema exercises her
hare felt this faintness quite often—itisntmucb . Clayton . put his arm around , her , and looked at ier with a vague yearning of feat and admiration . " You look so like a spirit , " he said , " ihat I must hold you . " " Do you think I have a pair of hidd « n wings ? * she said , smiling , and looking gaily in his face . " I am afraid so , " he said- " Do you feel quite-well now ?' . ' " Yes— -I believe so—only—perhaps , we had better sit down . I think , perhaps , it is the reaction of so much excitement makes me feel rather tired . "
Clayton seated her on the settee by the door , still keeping his arm anxiously around her . In a few moments she drooped her head wearily on his shoulder . " Ton are ill ! " he said , in tones of alarm . "Ko ! " she said , " no ! I feel very well , only a little faint and tired , ltseemsto me it is getting a little cold here , isn't it ? " she said , with a slight , shiver . Clayton took her up in his arms without speaking , carried her in , and laid her oa the sofa . Then rang for Harry and Blilly . " Get a horse instantly , " lie said to Harry , as soon as he appeared , " and go for a doctor . " " There's no use in sending , " said Nina ; "he is driven to death , and can't come . Besides , there ' s nothing the matter with . ' me , only I am a little tired and cold . Shut the doors and windows , and cover me up . No , no ! don ' t take me up-stairs ; I like to lie here . Just put a shawl over me , that's all— -I am thirsty—give me some ¦ water . "
The fearful and mysterious disease , which ¦ was then in the ascendant , has many forms of approach , and development . One , and the most deadly , is that which takes place when a person has so long and gradually imbibed the fatal poisons of an infected . atmosphere , that the resisting powers of nature have been insidiously and quietly subdued , so that the subject sinks under it , -without any violent outward symptom , by a quiet and certain yielding of the vital powers ; sucll as has been , likened to the bleoding to death by an internal -wound . In this case , before an hour had passed , thougli none of the violent and distressing symptoms of the disease appeared , it became evident that the seal of death iras set on that fair young brow . A messenger had been despatched , riding with the desperate speed which love and fear can givo , but Harry remained in attendance . " Nothing is tho matter with me—nothing is the matter , " she said , " except fatigue , and this change in the weather ; if I only had moie over mo—and perhaps you had better give me a little brandy , or somo such thing . This is water , isn't it , tbatyou have been giving me ?"
Alas , it was tho strongest brandy , bat there was no taste , and tho hartshorn that they were holding had no smell . And there was no change in the -weather ; it yvas only the creeping deadnoss affecting tho whole outer and inner membranes of the system . Yet , still her voice remained clear , though her mind occasionally wandered . There is a strange impulse which sometimes comca in tho restlessness and distress of dissolving nature to sing , and as she lay with her eyes closed , apparently in a sort of trance , she would sing ovei and over again tho verse of tho song which she was singing -when tho blow of tho -unseen destroyer first struck her : " The summer hath its heavy cloud , The rose-leaf must fall ; But in our hand joy wears no shroud-Never doth it pall . " At last she oponcd her eyes , and seeing tho agony of all around , tho truth scorned to come to her .
u I think I ' m called , " she said . " Oh ! I ' m so sorry for you all . Don't grieve so . My Father loves mo so well , Ho cannot spare me any longer . Ho wants mo to come to Him—that ' s all . Don't grieve so . It ' s home I ' m going to—home . ' Twill bo only a little while , and you'll come too , all of } "ou . You are satisfied , aro you not , Edward ?" And again aho relapsed into tho dreamy trance , and sang in that atrango sweet voice , so low , ao weak— 11 In our land joy wears no shroud—Novor doth it pall . " Clayton , what did . ho ? What could ho do ? What have any of U 8 done , who havo
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856 THE lEAPEB . flSTo . 337 , Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 6, 1856, page 856, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2157/page/16/
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