In this reticulation of snow paths the drum is sounded
and the flag raised. Most dignified bipeds we are. Hurrah for progress,
and the extension of the Anglo-Saxon race!
I read the "Recluse," translated from D'Arlincourt's popular novel _Le
Solitaire_, and think the commendations bestowed upon it, in the
translator's preface, just in the main. It is precisely such a novel as
I should suppose would be very popular in the highest circles of France,
and consequently, owing to difference of character, would be less
relished by the same circles in England. I suspect the author to be a
great admirer of Chateaubriand's "Atala," whose death is brought to mind
by the catastrophe of Elode's. Here, however, the similitude ends. There
is nothing to be said respecting the comparative features of Charles the
Bold and Chactas, except that the Indian possessed those qualities of
the heart which most ennoble human nature.
To the readers of Scott's novels, however (for he is certainly the
"Great Unknown"), this pleasing poetical romance, with all its sparkling
passages, will present one glaring defect--it is not sufficiently
descriptive.
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