Books of the Day [pp. 186-192]

APPLETONVS' JOURNAL.
ture" * can hardly be bestowed in equal measure
upon the book as a whole. No doubt many of the
defects of the work are attributable to the inadequacy of the space at his command; but then it is
no slight part of an author's duty to fit his plan to
his space, and Professor Beers must have known
quite as well before he had begun as after he had
finished that no adequate "illustration of the growth
of American literature from I776 to I876" could be
furnished by such selections from the writings of the
American authors of that period as could be put into
a small, openly printed volume of four hundred pages.
Any other century of American literature might have
been fairly well delineated within these limitations, and that such a book could be made both interesting and instructive has been proved by Professor
Tyler and also by Mr. T. WV. Higginson. But what
idea of Irving can be gained from "Rip Van WVinkle" and "The Storm-Ship," delightful and characteristic as these are? or of Cooper from a twentypage extract from his "Deerslayer"? or of Hawthorne from a few paragraphs of "The House of
the Seven Gables" and "The Marble Faun"? And
what idea of the growth of American literature from
I776 to I876 can be obtained from a collection of
such extracts from authors ranging from Philip Freneau to Robert Kelly Weeks-including William
Cullen Bryant, because he happens to have died the
other day, and omitting Longfellow, and Lowell, and
Holmes, and Whittier, and Dana, and Emerson,
with dozens of others who have made our literature
what it is, because they happen to be still alive?
The principal fault of the book-and it pervades
every part of it-is meagerness. The introductory
sketch of "The Colonial Period" is excellent as far
as it goes, but is too meager to be of material service either to the student of that period or to the
reader who wishes to get a tolerably accurate and
comprehensive idea of it. The list of authors, and
the selections from the several authors, are too meager to accomplish the avowed purpose of the book.
And the biographical sketches prefixed to the selections from each author are too meager to place the
reader at the proper standpoint for judging of the
author himself, of his writings, or of the stage which
they mark in the growth of the literature of which
they form a part. It must be said, too, that even
such value as these sketches possess is greatly im paired by careless and incorrect statements. Rich ard H. Dana certainly did not edit the edition of his
brother-in-law Washington Allston's poems published
in I85o, as asserted on page 52; and in a short notice
of twelve lines concerning Fitz-Greene Halleck
Professor Beers has succeeded in making no fewer
than three mistakes which might have been avoided
had he taken the trouble to consult General Wilson's
memoir of the poet published in I869. Halleck
* A Century of American Literature. 1776-1876.
Edited by Henry A. Beers, Assistant Professor of Eng lish Literature in Yale College. Leisure-Hour Series,
No. Ioo. New York: Henry Holt & Co. i6mo, pp.
407.
was not born in I795, but in I790; he came to New
York in i8ii, not in I813; and "Fanny" was not
published in I82I, but two years earlier. In his
preface the Professor states that he has "gone behind the returns" in all but a few instances where
the original works were not accessible to him, but
he has apparently failed to consult even the most
easily accessible returns in the foregoing instances,
as well as in several similar ones that might be mentioned.
Whatever of positive merit the book possesses lies
in this, that to any one not already familiar with its
contents it offers as large an amount of entertaining
and characteristic reading-matter as could well be
compressed into equal space. It is to be feared,
however, that most readers who are at all likely to
feel any interest in the history or growth of American literature will find by far the greater number of
its selections more familiar than twice- or thrice-told
tales.
IT is a vast subject which Mr. Bayard Taylor
chose as the theme of "Prince Deukalion: A Lyrical Drama " *-nothing less, in fact, than the development and destiny of the Human Race. "The
central design, or-as it might be said-germinal
cause of the poem, is to picture forth the struggle of
Man (which term always and inevitably includeth
Woman) to reach the highest, justest, happiest,
hence most perfect condition of Human Life on this
planet.... Such a struggle, prolonged through a
period of more than two thousand years, the Author
hath endeavored herein to present, using the device
of making Personages stand for Powers and Principles, yet (he earnestly desireth) without losing that
distinctness of visage and those quick changes of
blood which keep them near to the general heart of
Man." The drama opens with the emergence of
Christianity as a popular faith, and the consequent
decay of the old Classic Mythologies; reminiscences
being offered of that primitive period when Prome theus and his brother Titans contended with the
Olympian gods in behalf of man. The next act,
which is placed a thousand years later, portrays the
culmination of the Dark Ages, when the Papal Sys tem had consolidated its power, and "essayed to
shape and compel to its service all the forces of
life." The Poet (Dante) and the Artist (Michael
Angelo) disown allegiance to the ecclesiastical sys tem as typified in Medusa, and prefigure that renais sance of the classic spirit and that new seeking after
knowledge as expressed in science which character ize the present age of the world. This age-the
present time, in short-is delineated in Act III., in
which we witness the decadence of Christianity just
as in Act I. we saw the dying out or supersedure of
the old classic faith. "In the fourth and closing
act, the Author adventureth only far enough into the
* Prince Deukalion: A Lyrical Drama. By Bayard
Taylor. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co. 4to, pp.
I7I.
188