Page:The Atlantic Monthly Volume 13.djvu/784

 778 Reviews and Literary Notices. [June, and reproduced the spirit of the times in which we dwell. It has one quality to a high degree, and that is, a minute knowl- edge of the peculiarities of the natural world as it appears in New England. In his long woodland walks, he has kept open an eye of observation as practised as that of the naturalist. The trees, the shrubs, the flowers of New England are known to him as they are to few. He is tempted to draw too largely upon this source of inter- est : in other words, there is too much of description in his volume. Life is hardly long enough for such elaborate painting. We may admire the skill of the delinea- tion, but we cannot pause sufficiently be- fore the canvas to do full justice to the painter. Those poems in which Mr. Tuck- erman expresses the emotions of bereave- ment and sorrow are those which have the highest merit in point of thought and ex- pression. They are full of tenderness and sensibility ; but the poet should bear in mind that strings which vibrate such music should be sparingly struck. It may be somewhat paradoxical to say so, but it appears to us that the poetry of Mr. Tuckerman would be improved, if it had more of prose in it. It does not ad- dress itself to common emotions and every- day sympathies. His flour is bolted too fine. One must almost be a poet himself to enter into full communion with him. In intellectual productions the refining pro- cess should not be carried too far : beyond a certain point, what is gained in delicacy is lost in manliness and power. ous and interesting enough, if comprised in a single essay, but rather long-drawn-out, when spread over four hundred pages. Suppose, for instance, is the writer's mode of argument, a malicious demon let loose, with power to set the earth topsy-turvy, on condition of keeping it still an earth. With what exultation does he bestride the Himalayas to watch the convulsions which he causes ! How does he kick his heels against the mountain-flanks, in ecstasy at seeing men bleached and blistered with the chlorine or nauseated with the sulphuretted hydrogen which he has substituted for our wholesome and pleasant air ! Or what should we do, if potato-roots had happened to be moistened with gin instead of water? What if men, instead of standing god- like erect, had been great balls of flesh, rolling along the ground as best they could, if Young's poetical figure had been a practical truth, and this globe were the Bedlam of the universe, if the fixity of Nature had been shattered, and we sat down at our feasts to find the soup bitter as strychnine, the wine changed into vine- gar, and mild ale fiery as vitriol ? What if wrinkles and gray hairs came in the twink- ling of an eye, if children were born with matured minds, if no one were capa- ble of anger, and men started at the same point to arrive at the same conclusions? In short, " If all the world was apple-pie, And all the sea was ink, And all the trees were bread and cheese, What should we have for drink? " Possibilities of Creation ; or, What the World might have been. A Book of Fancies. London : Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. THE author describes his work as a trea- tise of the Bridgewater class. We should rather describe it as a reductio ad absurdum in Natural Philosophy. A great deal of humor, ingenuity, and information are brought into play to turn the world upside- down, for the very laudable purpose of demonstrating that it is better to be right side up, a method of demonstration curi- To all which startling inquiries we are fain to say, that, if Merrie England sits un- der her present squally skies in such a frame of bliss that she must have recourse to her imagination, when she wishes to contemplate a nice little imbroglio, she must be awarded the palm for being what Mark Tapley would call "jolly under cred- itable circumstances." For ourselves, we frankly confess that we find quite trouble enough in steering among the realities of creation, without caring to venture far out among its possibilities.