haracters of Doctor Deane and Martha we have the
best portraiture of the contrasts which Quakerism produces in human
nature. In the sweet and unselfish spirit of Martha, the theories of
individual action under special inspiration have created self-reliance,
and calm, fearless humility, sustaining her in her struggle against the
will of her father, and even against the sect to whose teachings she
owes them. Dr. Deane had made a marriage of which the Society
disapproved, but after his wife's death he had professed contrition for
his youthful error, and had been again taken into the quiet brotherhood.
Martha, however, had always refused to unite with the Society, and had
thereby been "a great cross" to her father,--a man by no means broken
under his affliction, but a hard-headed, self-satisfied, smooth, narrow
egotist. Mr. Taylor contrives to present his person as clearly as his
character, and we smell hypocrisy in the sweet scent of marjoram that
hangs about him, see selfishness in his heavy face and craft in the
quiet gloss of his drab broadcloth, and hear obstinacy in his studied
step. He is the most odious character in the book, what is bad in him
being separated by such fine differences from what is very good in
others. We have even more regard for Alfred Barton, who, though a
coward, has heart enough to be truly ashamed at last, while Dr. Deane
retains a mean self-respect after the folly and the wickedness of his
purposes are shown to him.

His daughter, for all her firmness in resisting her father's commands to
marry Barton, and to dismiss Gilbert, is true woman, and submissive to
her lover. The wooing of these, and of the other lovers, Mark Deane and
Sally Fairthorn, is described with pleasant touches of contrast, and a
strict fidelity to place and character. Indeed, nothing can be better
than the faithful spirit in which Mr. Taylor seems to have adhered to
all the facts of the life he portrays. There is such shyness among
American novelists (if we may so classify the writers of our meagre
fiction) in regard to dates, names, and localities, that we are glad to
have a book in which there is great courage in this respect. Honesty of
this kind is vastly more acceptable to us than the aerial romance which
cannot alight in any place known to the gazetteer; though we must
confess that we attach infinitely less importance than the author does
to the fact that Miss Betsy Lavender, Deb. Smith, Sandy Flash, and the
two Fairt