Never have we seen
natural religion more beautifully expressed; never so well discerned
the influence of the natural nun, who needs no veil or cloister to
guard from profanation the beauty she has dedicated to God, and which
only attracts human love to hallow it into the divine.
The lonely life of the girl after the death of her parents,--her
fearlessness, her gay and sweet enjoyment of nature, her intercourse
with the old people of the neighborhood, her sisterly conduct towards
her "suitors,"--all seem painted from the life; but the death-bed
scene seems borrowed from some sermon, and is not in harmony with the
rest.
In this connection we must try to make amends for the stupidity of an
earlier notice of the novel, called "Margaret, or the Real and Ideal,"
&c. At the time of that notice we had only looked into it here and
there, and did no justice to a work full of genius, profound in its
meaning, and of admirable fidelity to nature in its details. Since
then we have really read it, and appreciated the sight and
representation of soul-realities; and we have lamented the long delay
of so true a pleasure.
A fine critic said, "This is a Yankee novel; or rather let it be
called _the_ Yankee novel, as nowhere else are the thought and
dialect of our villages really represented.
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