ARTICLE IV.—MR. MITCHELL'S NOVEL, "DR. JOHNS.”

Dr. Johns; being a Narrative of Certain Events in the Life of an Orthodox Congregational Minister of Connecticut. By DONALD G. MITCHELL, author of "Reveries of a Bachelor; "Dream Life;" "My Farm at Edgewood," etc.

two vols. 12mo.

In

OUR English literature is peculiarly rich, especially at the present day, in the department of novels. The fame of De Foe and Fielding was obscured by the brilliant impression made by Sir Walter Scott; yet those writers have merits so decided, that were it not for the taint of indecency that defiles their writings, they would forever retain their popularity among the classics of the language. Scott in his turn is eclipsed by Dickens and Thackeray, not to speak of numerous others of less renown. It may seem strange to persons old enough to have been the contemporaries of Scott, yet it is nevertheless the fact, that to many of the younger generation, who are not at all deficient in taste and culture, the once fascinating pages of the great novelist have lost their charm. The absence in Scott of what may be called the psychological element, which forms a characteristic feature and a principal attraction of the recent novels, is not atoned for by his powers of graphic description. and by his other unquestionable merits. Without doubt, the decline of his popularity is partly due to that increasing sway of democratic ideas and feelings, in consequence of which the feudal ages are no longer clothed with a romantic interest, and distinctions of rank have less and less power to dazzle the imagination. The delineation of individual character in its growth and development forms no small part of the business of the modern novel. Among the recent works of fiction, not a few are included in the class termed by the Germans tendenzRomanen-that is, novels designed to promulgate some opinion or effect some reform. It is remarkable, we may observe, that England should be the country in which the best novels are

written. The English are generally pronounced an insular people, in their mental qualities as well as in their geographical situation; a people incapable of going out of themselves and of comprehending others. Yet, in England works of more genuine humor, better novels, and better dramas are produced than anywhere else. This would seem to require us to qualify the verdict commonly declared relative to the Englishman's insular quality, and ignorance of all human nature except his own. Germany, the land of scholars and philosophers, is notoriously deficient in novels and dramatic works of high excellence. The finest plays of Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing are decidedly inferior in the distinctively dramatic element, not to speak here of general poetic merit, to the best English plays. German novels are generally dull, and frequently insipid. But it is not our design to enter into a general discussion of works of fiction, but rather to give some account of the late production of one of our own distinguished American writers, Mr. Mitchell.

Dr. Johns, whose name gives the title to Mr. Mitchell's novel, appears at first as plain Mr. Johns, a youthful preacher, fresh from such a theological training as was furnished in New England forty or fifty years ago. Something is told of his boyhood, enough to make us understand that the child was father of the man. After having preached several discourses in the pulpit of the Congregational Church in Ashfield, Connecticut, where the opinion of Squire Elderkin, which is supported by the voice of Deacon Tourtelot, that the young candidate is a "sound sermonizer," carries great influence, he is duly installed as pastor, and with his sweet young wife, Rachel, enters the parsonage in which the remainder of his life is to be spent. A son is born to him, an only child-Reuben. The mother dies young. Her death, and the memories connected with her, form a touching passage in the narrative. The importunities of certain parishioners, especially of Dame Tourtelot, the wife of the Deacon, whose daughter "Almiry" is of marriageable age and of a literary turn, fail of their direct end, but have the effect to induce the parson to procure a new housekeeper and companion, in the person of his sister, a stiff, elderly, unmarried lady, who afterwards fulfills, after her fashion, in the hospitalities of the parsonage and in the parish outside, the duties

expected of a "minister's wife." Little Reuben finds the chilly benevolence of this formal aunt a poor substitute for the warm and gushing sympathy of a mother's heart. But he is partly comforted by the introduction into the family of the little girl Adéle, the daughter of the minister's college classmate, Maverick, who sends from France this vivacious and beautiful creature, that she may be sheltered and educated in a quiet New England home. The mystery that hangs over the domestic relations of Maverick, and over the mother of Adéle, is a very important element in the plot of the story. The mother is living, but how and where? Adéle knows nothing of her, and supposes her to be dead. Reuben and Adéle, the frank, generons-hearted boy Phil Elderkin, and his fair young sister Rose, grow up together in mutual friendship and close association. Unconsciously to all, Adéle is awakening a feeling in the hearts of both Reuben and Frank, that may ripen into some. thing deeper than a childish attachment, and Reuben is inspiring Rose with a like sentiment. With the relations and fortunes of these four persons, the development of the story is closely connected. Reuben, a whole-souled, active, mischievour lad, finds nothing in the religious counsels of his father and aunt to meet his nature. A certain doctrinal austerity in Dr. Johns repels the son, who, nevertheless, is obliged to recognize a deep and sincere principle of godliness at the bottom of his father's whole life. Reuben at length goes to New York, to engage in business as an assistant in an uncle's counting-house. There, after a while, he is caught by the temptations about him, and runs a brief career of dissipation. But happening to hear a fervid preacher discourse upon the fatherhood of God, he is moved by an aspect of Christianity which had not before been impressed upon his attention. Melted into penitence, he gives up his vices and "experiences religion." Once more he is at the Ashfield parsonage, and engaged in the study of Divinity. But the longer he studies, the greater are the difficulties and perplexities in which he finds himself involved. His mind becomes a prey to skepticism, so that at last he throws aside his theological reading, and with it, to the great sorrow of his father, his religious professions. Before this mental change occurs, the influence going out from the freshness and

glow of his new feelings has had the effect to determine Adéle to a decided act of trust and of self-consecration to God. The accidental visit, and continued stay in Ashfield, of a French lady, a teacher of the French language, had been for Adéle an event of striking significance. An intimacy had established itself between them. Maverick had wished that the intercourse of his daughter with this person, the sight of whom had once led him hastily to leave Ashfield without seeing those whom he came to visit, should be prohibited, and the stranger at length took up her abode with the outcast daughter of the tavern-keeper, with one who was under the social ban of the village, as the victim of seduction and the mother of an illegitimate child. Finally, the French woman dies in the arms of Adéle, who, with the good Dr. Johns, had called to see her at the opportune time; and in the moment of death utters words which, in connection with other evidence, excites in the mind of Adéle the belief that the dying stranger is her mother. It turns out that she is a sister of her mother, bearing to the latter so close a resemblance as to deceive even Maverick. The real mother, in her youth the comparatively innocent party to a guilty liaison with Maverick, penitent for her sin, and a devout Catholic, is at length accidentally confronted with him, after so many years of separation. They are reunited, now by a lawful and sacred bond, and the mother embarks for America, in order to see the long lost Adéle, whom she loves tenderly as a daughter but looks upon as a benighted heretic. It happens that Reuben, who had resumed business and gone to Europe, is on the same vessel, and the two are brought together. As the ship draws near to port, it encounters a tempest. The wife of Maverick perishes. The life of Reuben is barely saved; his injuries are fatal, and he is carried to his father's home to die. In the great church of St. Peter at Rome, he had been struck by the words, "ædificabo meam Ecclesiam." The thought of this majestic sentence, and of its historic fulfillment, fell in with a change of feeling already begun, and served to infuse a new religious faith into his heart-a faith independent of doctrines, and self-sustained in the sentiments of the soul. On his death-bed, this faith supports him and gives comfort to his father, notwithstanding certain misgivings of the latter on

the ground that his son's views are not clearer on the "great scheme of the Atonement," and on some other doctrines. The mutual love of Reuben and Adéle finds expression; and in this death the story reaches the tragic point. It is needless to give further details. After an interval of a few years, Frank Elderkin marries Adéle, his long love thus gaining its reward, while his sister gives her hand to the young minister, the colleague of the venerable Doctor, who has grown old in the progress of the story. We fancy that most of Mr. Mitchell's readers will quarrel with him for bringing his tale to this conclusion. It would seem that Frank might have been allowed to find his consolation and his happiness elsewhere; and what we are told of the young minister will scarcely leave the reader satisfied with this disposition of Rose. The author might at least have raised up Reuben to health by some marvelous remedy, and then have made him the husband of Adéle.

The above is a meagre outline of this entertaining story. It contains not a few genuine strokes of humor and pathos. The interest of the tale constantly increases to the close, the latter half being much more effective than the beginning. In general the characters are skillfully delineated. In particular is this true of Dr. Johns himself, Reuben, and Adéle, the persons in whom the charm of the story chiefly centres. It is a work the artistic merits of which deserve much commendation.

There is another point of view from which this work must be considered. It proposes to be a picture of social life in a New England town, and especially of the religion and religious teaching of New England. Dr. Johns is a Congregational minister who is presented to us as he appeared in the family, in the pulpit, and among his people; the scene of the story is a Connecticut parish. We are called upon to judge of the fairness of the picture which is here drawn of our New England life. The tone of this book is not irreligious or unreligious. Generally speaking, the proper place is given to Christ in the development of a religious life, and a due impression is made in respect to the value and supreme necessity of religious trust. Nor is there a failure to appreciate certain excellent features in that type of piety which the author attributes to the principal character in the story. The reader is made to feel that