The leading characters are all fresh
and individual creations. Mrs. Kate Scudder, the notable Yankee
housewife; Mary, in whom Cupid is to try conclusions with Calvin;
James Marvyn, the adventurous boy of the coast, in whose heart the
wild religion of nature swells till the strait swathings of Puritanism
are burst; Dr. Hopkins, the conscientious minister come upon a time
when the social _prestige_ of the clergy is waning, and whose
independence will test the voluntary system of ministerial support;
Simeon Brown, the man of theological dialectics, in whom the utmost
perfection of creed is shown to be not inconsistent with the most
contradictory imperfection of life,--all these are characters new to
literature. And the scene is laid just far enough away in point of
time to give proper tone and perspective.
"We think we find in the story, so far as it has proceeded, the
promise of an interest as unhackneyed as it will be intense. There is
room for the play of all the passions and interests that make up the
great tragi-comedy of life, while all the scenery and accessories will
be those which familiarity has made dear to us. We are a little afraid
of Colonel Burr, to be sure, it is so hard to make a historical
personage fulfill the conditions demanded by the novel of every-day
life. He is almost sure either to fall below our traditional
conception of him, or to rise above the natural and easy level of
character, into the vague or the melodramatic.
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