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for a time what is termed a parish student; after which he entered the University of Aberdeen, and there he took his degree. Having decided to enter the ministry he studied for that profession at Independent and Kings Colleges, and at Owens College in Manchester. On the completion of his preparatory theological studies, he preached two years for the Independent body in the counties of Surrey and Sussex ; but finally left the pulpit, and, becoming a layman of the Church of England, devoted himself entirely to literature.

His productions show diligent application, profound thought, large experience, and a religious purpose. It is impossible for the rea ler not to feel the personal force and magnetic individuality of the man, and he must acknowledge that not only are these not subordinate to any other influences, but that their supremacy is manifested and upheld throughout all his writings.

Although an author of fiction, he inspires his readers with the idea that he is thoroughly in earnest, and his success is in some degree due to this fact. It is worthy of note that the kind of fiction known as religious, when undertaken by the majority of authors is almost sure to fail, but by him it is invested with a peculiar charm. He so intermingles the moral and religious with other elements of his work, that the reader unconsciously yields to their elevating influence, and sees none of that incongruity which in general characterizes this class of literature. He who would write fiction has a difficult task to perform. While presenting to his readers matter productive both of enjoyment and reflection, he should closely follow the course marked out for him by the requirements of the literature he has undertaken. While rememberingit is when in fairy fancy drest that romance gives utterance to truths severe," yet the aim and purpose of his work must be in chord with the spirit and adapted to the advancement of the age which he addresses.

One of the first peculiarities noticed in George MacDonald's works is their naturalness and originality, but it is possible to detect numerous agencies by which his mind has been influ

enced. They disclose an intimate acquaintance with philosophy, classic literature and the best results of ancient and modern thought; and to these we may add a great familiarity with the traditions and mythology of different countries.

His stories are characterized by quaint humor, pathos, wisdom and purity of thought. Though children may be interested and benefited by them, though a simplicity almost childlike seems at times to pervade them, nevertheless, in their widest range they can be grasped only by those who from experience and observation of the world have enlarged and strengthened their intellectual powers, and developed an ability to comprehend truths that are concealed in the forms of symbols.

His poems are full of beautiful imagery and lofty sentiments, and in them without doubt his most exalted ideas have been embodied. It might be said of them that they largely form his confession of faith, so brightly do they reflect that spirituality and religious fervor by which all his works are more or less pervaded. But notwithstanding their great beauty and merit, the works which are the most strongly written are his prose productions; and it is from his descriptive narratives of real life that we receive the most direct and powerful impressions of his genius.

A characteristic peculiar to his writings is that certain qualities belonging to them are not realized at once, but dawn upon the mind at a later period. Indeed, his books have been written for the future, and in coming years will be even more extensively read and appreciated than now.

To the sympathetic and intelligent reader MacDonald seems to exhibit his own spiritual and mental conditions as elements of his work, and from these he skilfully builds. It has been said that his genius seems rather to reflect what comes to it, than to reach out and gather in." But his genius not only reflects what is received from foreign sources; it appropriates and assimilates, and thereby new creations are developed and vitalized.

It is evident from the delineation of his characters that he

is one who searches the inner nature of his fellow-men, and studies and analyzes it with true and philosophic discrimination. His great experience of the world, and his high regard for humanity, are shown by the faithfulness with which he pictures the noblest developments of moral and intellectual life. He believes so firmly in enduring patience, exhaustless charity and moral beauty, that in almost all his books are found characters exemplifying these great principles by which he is so powerfully impressed. His Scotch heroes are grand personifications of his own ideals. In them he embodies his beliefs and opinions, and his ideas of right and wrong. dowing them with attributes almost divine, he yet makes them human and natural. He voices through their agency his own sublime ideas and lofty sentiments, and by them influences the minds and lives of his readers.

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In order that human needs may be ascertained and human misery relieved, he evidently believes and teaches that constant personal sympathy and effort, coupled with a spirit always patient and hopeful, are more effective than the devices of machine philanthropists. The characters, therefore, which embody his ideals are broad, vigorous, earnest and wholly unconventional; free from bigotry, cant and all manner of Phariseeism. They are strong and majestic in the simplicity of their faith, and magnetic in the directness and unselfishness of their methods.

He has no taste for ludicrous representation, and manifests but little ability to seize upon those traits to which the caricaturist would be naturally attracted. He feels that there exists a near relationship between him and his fellows, and strives to lessen their faults and deformities, and to disclose and brighten their possibilities.

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No more remarkable pictures of Scotch life and customs have been given to the world than those by this author. Even Scott cannot be regarded as more accurate and vivid. representations are undeniably Scottish, and yet are marked by an individuality so distinct from those of Scott that they might almost be taken as descriptive of another country.

Although Scott and Burns had written and sung of Scotland, the subject was not exhausted, but presented broad and fertile fields to the genius of this author. He describes traits of Scottish life and manners of which we find but little in the poems of Burns, and none whatever in the writings of Scott. The romantic and chivalrous characteristics of Scotland and Scotsmen have been recorded by Scott. Burns has gone a

step further, and has sung of the domestic relations and homely lives of the people. But it was left for MacDonald to combine the two with that profoundly religious feeling which underlies the true Scotch character, and to present them as thus found in persons naturally thoughtful and devotional.

One cannot read his "Robert Falconer" without a feeling of reverence for the youth who, in spite of the trials and sorrows of his weary search for his lost father, persevered to the end; and who, through all the wickedness of the dens and slums of London, not only kept himself pure, but was the means of salvation to many a poor soul struggling with sin but unable to sustain the strife alone. How we rejoice when he leads his father, reclaimed at last, safely to his old mother waiting for him at the gates of day! And we unite with the author in the glad words of thanksgiving for the meeting between mother and son, "When shall man dare say that God has done all he can ?"

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In "Malcolm" and the Marquis of Lossie," the reader enters into the very spirit of the romance. The hero's course is watched with anxiety and sympathy; anxiety because of the trials which beset him, and sympathy for the upright man who dares to suffer for the truth and right. So in all MacDonald's heroes, from David Elginbrod down all the line, are found those manly characteristics and that Christian spirit which inspire us with a higher respect for mankind; and as we lay aside his books we are conscious that our reading has strengthened and uplifted us.

In his portrayal of female character he shows his ideal conception of woman, and heightens it by contrast with his evil women; for those of the first class are radiant with spiritu

ality, goodness and virtue, while those of the latter, though few in number, are the very incarnation of wickedness. He succeeds better in these high ideal representations, than in depicting the gay and frivolous. All through his writings we can discern his great love and veneration for woman, and the recognition of her inalienable right to the respect of man. He feels that the majority of men have an instinct in this direction, and he would that woman should be very careful that the charm be not dispelled by any act of her own. He would have her scorn to descend a step below the level of her highest plane.

But not alone in the delineation of Scotch life and customs does he excel; he is apt and true in his descriptions of England and the English. He has an extensive knowledge of the prejudices and feelings which enter into social life in England. But he seems to prefer Scotch portrayals, and he has written the greater part of his books in the Scotch dialect. He seems to have given himself more freely and earnestly to such works, and in them we find a different spirit, and perhaps a stronger, than in the others.

Having noticed his characteristics as an author, there remains one topic the omission of which would leave this article incomplete,-his Religion. Whatever he calls himself, or is called by others, he is virtually a Universalist. In his works he is constantly affirming the omnipotence and beneficence of the love of God. His own words can best convey his belief concerning the severity and sufficiency of Divine Love, and the persistency with which it pursues the sinful soul until at last it is brought to repentance and faith. From "Robert Falconer" we have such passages as this:

"But tell them that the fire of God without and within them will compel them to bethink themselves; that the vision of an open door beyond the smoke and the flames will ever urge them to call up the ice-bound will, that it may obey; that the torturing spirit of God in them will keep their consciences awake, not to remind them of what they ought to have done, but to tell them what they must do now, and hell will no longer fascinate them. Tell them that there is no refuge from the

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