soil to be evenly disposed of, and so part of it had to be pushed up
into the sky. But this roughness is better than thinness; and in Mr.
Whipple's book there are passages of swift, grand eloquence, and of
intense peace and depth. Wit and humor, native to our author, with no
malignity or pride for an ally, combine with sentiment and reflection,
and his talent is never wrapped up in a merely elegant phrase, but in
plain and homely words is the delivery of his sense. We would cite, in
proof of the justness of our criticism, such essays as those on
"Character," "Intellectual Character," and "Washington and the
Principles of the Revolution." Those on Thackeray and Nathaniel
Hawthorne show, with appreciative praise, the literary doctor's fatal
feeling of the patient's pulse. The courtesy of Everett is gracefully
owned; and there is a fine glimpse of that face of Thomas Starr King,
which did not seem so much to mirror the sun as to make the sunbeam a
shadow of itself; while a just tribute is paid to the original and
courageous genius and research of our great enthusiast and naturalist,
Agassiz. But this is a book to be mastered only by a thorough perusal,
and no hasty diagonal glance along the leaves can render justice to it.
While deserving attention for its general merits of intelligence,
morality, humanity, and a spiritual faith, which no eye of friendship is
needed to discern, in the judiciary department of letters it has an
unrivalled claim. For faculty of pure criticism we know not Mr.
Whipple's equal. The judgment-seat shines in his eye. We seem to be
hearing all the time the kindly sentence of an infallible sight. We
should be afraid of the decree which such knowledge, intuition,
imagination, and logic combine to pronounce, but that no grudge
provokes, or bribe can ever bias the court; and, while its just
conscience cannot acquit hollow pretensions, over its own decisions
preside an absolute purity and the loftiest ideal of human life.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No.
110, December, 1866, by Various

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME ***

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