392 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITER ATUUE. 



broad humour of Paulding, or such sudden bursts of keen, vivacious satire, 

 as emitted by Mrs. Trollope ; yet she is held, by the transatlantic public, 

 with great justice, in higher esteem than her American literary competitors. 

 Her novels are imbued with an irresistible charm, the charm of truth, and, 

 by consequence, its never-failing companion that of sympathy. Without 

 the superfine, metaphysical process of minutely scrutinizing and portraying 

 the secret mechanism, the various movements and phases of the human 

 heart, Miss Sedgwick exhibits at once, and without seeming effort, the 

 " open secret " of our affections and impulses, in a manner so quiet though 

 not the less unerring as must engage the sympathies of every reader, be they 

 ever so homely. Moreover, her characters are evidently not the creations of 

 imagination; but actual studies from the great " life academy " of nature. 

 We find, in the novel before us, no exaggerations of fact, in no one instance 

 a departure from probability, but an easy, calm, and no less interesting flow 

 of events, presenting a more healthy, nay, greater source of excitement to the 

 "reading public," than the sudden transitions or "remarkable events" em- 

 bodied by the great " wizard of the north" himself. 



The title of the book, " Sixty Years Since," immediately refers its readers to 

 the commencement of the American struggle for independence a retrospect 

 peculiarly favourable to the novelist, and of which the authoress of the 

 Lin woods has availed herself judiciously and effectively. We shall present 

 our readers with an extract, affording a peculiarly favourable specimen of the 

 description of talent we have given Miss Sedgwick credit for ; as also one of 

 the easy unobtrusive humour she possesses. It describes the parting of Eliot 

 Lee from his family, his village friends, and the home of his childhood, on 

 starting to volunteer in the cause of his country. 



" A fine black saddle-horse, well equipped, was at the door. Little Fanny 

 Lee stood by him, patting him, and laying her head, with its shining flaxen 

 locks, to his side ' Rover/ she said, with a trembling voice, 'be a good 

 Rover won't you ? and, when the naughty regulars come, canter off with 

 Eliot as fast as you can/ 



" ' Hey ! that's fine ! ' retorted her brother, a year younger than herself. 

 ' No, no, Rover, canter up to them, and over them, and never dare to canter 

 back here if you turn tail on them, Rover.' 



" ' Oh, Sam ! how awful ; would you have Eliot killed ? ' 



" ' No, indeed, but I had rather he'd come deused near it than to have him 

 a coward.' 



" ' Don't talk so loud, Sam Bessie will hear you.' 



" But the young belligerent was not to be silenced. He threw open the 

 ' dwelling-room' door, to appeal to Eliot himself. The half-uttered sentence 

 died away on his lips. He entered the apartment, Fanny followed ; they 

 gently closed the door, drew their footstools to Eliot's feet, and quietly sat 

 down there. How instinctive is the sympathy of children ! how plain, and 

 yet how delicate its manifestations ! 



" Bessie was sitting beside her brother, her head on his shoulder, and 

 crying as if her heart went out with every sob. The youngest boy, Hal, sat 

 on Eliot's knee, with one arm around his neck, his cheek lying on Bessie's, 

 dropping tear after tear, sighing, and half- wondering why it was so. 



" The good mother had arrived at that age when grief rather congeals the 

 spirit than melts it. Her lips were compressed, her eyes tearless, and her 

 movements tremulous. She was busying herself in the last offices, doing up 

 parcels, taking last stitches, and performing those services that seem to have 

 been assigned to women as safety-valves for their effervescing feelings. 



" A neat table was spread with ham, bread, sweetmeats, cakes, and every 

 delicacy the house afforded all were untasted. Not a word was heard, except 

 such broken sentences as ' Come, Bessie, I will promise to be good if you 

 will to be happy ! ' 



