ned, at all events too
remote, too shadowy, and unsubstantial in his modes of development to
suit the taste of the latter class, and yet too popular to satisfy the
spiritual or metaphysical requisitions of the former, he must
necessarily find himself without an audience, except here and there an
individual or possibly an isolated clique. His writings, to do them
justice, are not altogether destitute of fancy and originality; they
might have won him greater reputation but for an inveterate love of
allegory, which is apt to invest his plots and characters with the
aspect of scenery and people in the clouds, and to steal away the human
warmth out of his conceptions. His fictions are sometimes historical,
sometimes of the present day, and sometimes, so far as can be
discovered, have little or no reference either to time or space. In any
case, he generally contents himself with a very slight embroidery of
outward manners,--the faintest possible counterfeit of real life,--and
endeavors to create an interest by some less obvious peculiarity of the
subject. Occasionally a breath of Nature, a raindrop of pathos and
tenderness, or a gleam of humor, will find its way into the midst of
his fantastic imagery, and make us feel as if, after all, we were yet
within the limits of our native earth. We will only add to this very
cursory notice that M. de l'Aubepine's productions, if the reader
chance to take them in precisely the proper point of view, may amuse a
leisure hour as well as those of a brighter man; if otherwise, they can
hardly fail to look excessively like nonsense.

Our author is voluminous; he continues to write and publish with as
much praiseworthy and indefatigable prolixity as if his efforts were
crowned with the brilliant success that so justly attends those of
Eugene Sue. His first appearance was by a collection of stories in a
long series of volumes entitled "Contes deux fois racontees." The
titles of some of his more recent works (we quote from memory) are as
follows: "Le Voyage Celeste a Chemin de Fer," 3 tom., 1838; "Le nouveau
Pere Adam et la nouvelle Mere Eve," 2 tom., 1839; "Roderic; ou le
Serpent a l'estomac," 2 tom., 1840; "Le Culte du Feu," a folio volume
of ponderous research into the religion and ritual of the old Persian
Ghebers, published in 1841; "La Soiree du Chateau en Espagne," 1 tom.,
8vo, 1842; and "L'Artiste du Beau; ou le Papillon Mecanique," 5 tom.,
4to, 1843. Our somewhat wearisome perusal of t