means.

The former want to become merchants If teachers for the children are wanted, or shopkeepers, in order to participate they can only be had at great expense. in urban enjoyments, and the latter Men of wealth even, who retire into the dream of nothing but city fashions, city country, very soon find themselves dedelights, city beaux. London is getting prived of many of the comforts to which to be more and more the heart of Eng. they were accustomed, of ordinary huland, as Paris has long been the heart of man intercourse often, and are glad to France. Glasgow grows six times faster hurry away to the watering places in than the rest of Scotland, Berlin twice summer and to return to the cities in as fast as the rest of Prussia, and Dublin winter. The remedy for this is in some holds its own while Ireland depopulates. sort of united settlement, where the Such being the fact, it becomes one of lands, though not owned in common, the most important questions, how the may yet be laid out in common, and people of the towns can be made most where a sufficient number of families will comfortable, most healthful, most re- be joined together to command a good fined, in a word, most civilized. Mr. market, good mechanics, good teachOlmstead's answer is, by the proper ers, and an adequate social intercourse. regulation and planting of the streets, We have heard of one or two of these and the multiplication of parks which settlements, not far from this city, will admit of all kinds of neighborly where all the advantages of both town recreation. Nor, in our opinion, does and city life are combined to a surprising he exaggerate the importance of these degree. The residents have their sep

The gregarious instincts of hu- arate houses and patches of ground, man beings are nowhere so safely, har- but a common park to ride and walk moniously, innocently, beneficially gra. iv, plentiful supplies, good society, a tified, as in the free, open-air assembla- frequency of amusements, and, in short, ges of well planned and well-regulated such attractions, that instead of going to parks.

Newport or Saratoga in the hot months, We New Yorkers, who have felt the and instead of returning to the Fifth inestimable benefit of the Central Park, Avenue Hotel or the Everett in the will commend with all our hearts to the winter, they stay all the year round residents of smaller cities the wise re- in their own homes. Such rural parks, marks of Mr. Olmstead, than whom no if more generally established, would man in the nation is more competent to counteract the tendency to concentrate give advice on the subject.

in towns, and lend a charm to country life which, to the greater part of people,

it has not now. To ruralize the cities, We do not believe, however, that the

as Mr. Olmstead proposes, by shade-trees country is going to be wholly deserted and public grounds, and urbanize the for the cities ; on the contrary, we

country by contiguous buildings and the think that by means of a park-like clustering of estates, are at this time arrangement, rural neighborhoods may

the supreme desiderata of a higher civilbe made as attractive as any towns.

ization ; and without them, it appears The great drawback of country life,

to us, both city and country will degennow, is its solitariness, or the want of

erate. those conveniences which are to be found only in larger aggregations of What our correspondent says of the families. The farmer and his family. scheme of building houses in flats has are comparatively isolated, or, if they a good deal of practical sense in it, and have neighbors, they are so remote as his suggestions will be heeded by capitalto be of little use as society. Each ists who, like Mr. Stuyvesant and Mr. house must suffice for itself, not only Livermore, will undertake the introducraising its own supplies, but furnishing tion of the new system. But one form its own recreations and amusements. in which "apartments" are likely to

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RURAL NEIGHBORHOODS.

APARTMENT HOUSES.

.

VOL. VI.

neous.

a

come up le bas not yet maturely con- some friends of Mr. Caoning. Although sidered. It is that in which a number of this circumstance is narrated as a fact families unite to put up a common edi- in the "American Cyclopedia,” we fice, and conduct, on the joint-stock now learn that the statement is erroprinciple, a kind of combined household.

Mr. Disraeli was a boy, and No one who has thought of the subject wholly unknown, at the time this shortwill for a moment doubt the practica- lived paper was started. 3d. That Mr. bility, the economy, and the convenience Disraeli believed " in the success of the of such a union. Families may coöper- rebellion." This was not the case, and rate in their expenses in a way which there was a prevalent impression in this will be a great saving to each, while it country at the time to this effect. On procures for all the luxuries of a large the other hand, whatever may have establishment. The success of the club- been their private sympathies, both Mr. system for bachelors has been demon- Disraeli and the late Lord Derby held strated in all the large cities abroad, and a contrary opinion, and the consequence even in our own city, and we see no of this opinion was that the Tory party, l'eason why the club-system could not be during our war, never made any demonapplied to families, without in the least stration, as a party, in favor of the infringing on their privacy. Some gen. South, although isolated Tories, as well tlemen, indeed, have already devised as isolated Liberals, did. We make such a system, have procured their these corrections without comment, as architectural plans, and made some pro

due to the truth of history. gress in the organization of a company; and doubtless as soon as the cold weather

ANOTHER PLAN FOR BROADWAY. arrives,-if such a consummation erer If Broadway is to be given up to a comes--will bring their scheme before railroad, the best plan for one yet prothe public.

posed is that of Mr. Richard P. Morgan, of which we published a view last

month. It seems to us to combine more We published in our July number an advantages, with fewer disadvantages, article entitled “Disraeli as Statesman than any other that we have studied. and Novelist," by Mr. J. M. Bundy, Our readers will remember that it prowhich contained as few errors of fact as poses a sort of iron gothic arch, to be most magazine contributions of a bio- stretched from one side of the street to graphical sort. These errors we cor- the other, and supporting a platform on rect, at the instance of the author of the which the cars are to run. article mentioned, and are as follows: ticability of it will be confessed by any

1st. That Isaac Disraeli, the father of competent engineer, while its superiorthe novelist, was a foreigner in Eng- ity to other plans consists in this, that land. The former was born in England it will not interfere with the street in 1765, and it was the grandfather of traffic below, will not obstruct access to Benjamin Disraeli who was a Venetian the stores already built, and will cost, acmerchant, came over to England in the cording to the estimates, some two milreign of George II, and was the founder lions of dollars less than the underof the family. 2d. That Benjamin ground plan. Besides, as a structure it Disraeli was tlie editor of the “Repre- will be ornamental, which is more than sentation," a daily paper founded by can be said of most things of the kind.

DISRAELI AGAIN.

The pracLITERATURE-AT HOME.

English Fiction is more largely in life, and his novels degenerated in condebted to Charles Dickens than to any sequence, many of the characters therein novelist of the century, for more than standing for ideas, the effect of the any other novelist he brought it home whole being that of a blue-book giving to "the bosoms and business of men,” itself life in a dream. We forgive this Before his time fiction occupied itself in Dickens, (as what do we not forgive with the lives and fortunes of the great, in writers whom we love ?) and were it not necessarily royal personages, and the confined to him we should say nothnobility and gentry, but those who move ing about it. But unfortunately it is in the upper walks of society; but he not confined to him, fur, being his weakcame and changed all that, effecting a est and worst trait, it is the very one Revolution without parallel in the world which his imititors have seized upon, of letters. He saw, like Shakespeare, and reproduced with most success. They that there was nothing in humanity be. have caught the trick so completely that neath his notice,-nothing too low for we cease to think of the great magician his art, except unmitigated wickedness, whom these little jugglers have elbowed which happily does not exist in nature. off the stage. What a brilliant player, Whatever concerned man interested for instance, is Mr. Charles Reade, him, as it did Shakespeare, particularly manipulating the balls of prison-reform, whatever concerned man in the lower mad-houses, and trades-unions; and walks of life, whence he drew his most how dextrous is Mr. Wilkie Collins, admired creations. His sympathies were with the abuses of Irish and Scottish averted from high life, so called, of marriages! Mr. Collins a man of which he knew nothing, or only so much genius, whose greatest defect is an exas enabled him to caricature it, but they cess of cleverness in the construction of overflowed in all o her directions, rejoic- plois, and whose greatest excellence is ing to expend themselves in the service insight into character of a certain sort. of the poor and the suffering.

His range is narrow, but within that

range he is a master. One character in " le taught the virtues first and last;

his lat novel, Man and life (Harper IIe tanght us manhood more and morc; The simple courage that stands fast - & Brothers), is an addition to Literature. The patience of the poor :

We mean, of course, Geoffrey Delamayn, Love for all creatures, great and fmall, And trust in Something Over 111."

an athlete, who exhibits in perfection

the ultimate result of the extreme phyThe very quality, however, which sical trining which is having its made Dickens what he was, and which apotheosis in England. We are familiar gave him such power over us, was the with the Muscular Christian of Mr. one quality above all others which Kingsley, and his followers,-a popular needed the most careful watching; for myth, which the author of “Guy Livstrength pushed to excess always ends in ingstone” has done all he could to disweakness. As long as Dickens was credit, without intending it, and which content to draw character he was strong; bír. Collins, fully intending it, has now, as soon as he attempted to correct we think, shattered forever. We comabuses, he was weak. He was by nature mend Geoffrey Delamayn to Mr. Collins's a novelist, not a jurist, a political econo- admirers, as being the finest study of mist, a statesman. He thought other character that he has yet produced, wise, at least in the later years of his the natural result of unnatural causes,

a

now.

not such an arrested development as was as truly the novelist of love as was Mr. Kingsley's Muscular Christian, but George Sand, whom she resembled as such a perfected development as Achilles, much as an English naiure could a the Achilles of the nineteenth century,– French one, and a lesser genius a greater. slow, good-tempered, restrained, but But one day she found her occupation cunning, brutal, murderous—the Muscu- gone, or rather we did,—for in place of lar Pagan. We shall not enter into the her characters came others of the s: me plot of “Man and Wife," partly because race, though of different parentage, who it is difficult to analyze the plots of Mr. usurped their place in our hearts. Collins, and partly because the majority Twenty years ago we should have of novel-readers must already be familiar thought more of Sylvia (D. Appleton & with it. Our opinion is that it is at Co.) than we do to-day, for then it once the simplest and the best that Mr. would have possessed a freshness it lacks Collins has yet constructed; and we It is a pleasant story, however, trust it portends a turning on bis part to and to those whose memories are le:s the world of probable occurrences. thickly peopled than ours with lovers, How clever be can be he has shown us it will have a charm often wanting in over and over again ; let him show us works of profounder and more original now that he can be natural. And let character. The heroine, Sylvia Nardi, him in future drop social abuses, which an Italian girl with a dash of English Mr. Reade will make his own to the end blood in her veins, is such a woman as of the chapter. What we want is not most determined men would be glad to reformers, but novelists—such novelists win; for once won they would be sure as Dickens was in the early part of his of her till death. We prefer her to many career, as Thackeray was all through his heroines with fewer faults, and to any career, and as Mr. Collins can be when

of the present brood, of whom Jane he chooses. He has no equal in the art Eyre, somewhat beautified and softened, of telling a story, and but few equals in is the type. Whether in her place we drawing character, when character should prefer Mr. Meredith to the more “pire and simple” is his object, as it brutal and stupid heroes who are now in evidently was in several of the actors fashion, we bardly know, but we suppose in “ Man and Wife," as Sir Patrick Lun- we should, having a weakness for a gendie, Bishopriggs, and Geoffrey Dela- tleman. There is little that is new in mayb.

Sylvia," but for old work, it is faithThere was a time when Miss Julia fully and well done. Kavanagh was in the front rank of Eng

Though the thoughts of mankind lish lady-writers, but it was before have turned for ages towards tho East, it George Eliot wrote “ Adam Bede" and is still in certain regions less known than "Romola,” and Mrs. Edwards, “Ste- any other portion of the civilized globe. ven Lawrence” and “Archie Lovell." One would think that Palestine, for exMiss Kavanagh is not equal to these ample, would by this time hare been ladies, but she is superior to many who thoroughly explored ; that its mountains now have the public ear, and who may would have been ascended, its valleys be said to have pushed her from her penetrated, its rivers tracked to their stool-some of them with an impudence sources, its ruined cities excavated, and which is refreshing, dressed as they are its secret places brought to light. But in the very garments they have stolen one would be mistaken .in so thinking, from her wardrobe. What distinguished for much of it is still a terra incognita. her from ber sister novelists of twenty No river in the world is so widely known years ago was the vigorous life she im- as the Jordan, and of none has the world parted to her heroines, and the graphic remained really ignorant so long. Flowmanner in which she painted the love- ing through a land which men have struggles between them and her beroes, agreed to call Holy, and thronglı which who were drawn with equal vigor. She for thousands of years las flowed the

holiest stream of history, it is only Roy to enter three feet into the dense within a year or two that the Jordan hedge of this curious floating forest.”: has been navigated from Tell el Kady to Though admiration of greatness the Sea of Galilee. The record of this is inherent in man, it manifests itself difjourney h:s just been republished by the ferently in men of different lands. We Harpers, under the title of The Rob Roy have never been overburdened with it on the Jordan, by J. Macgregor, M.A., in America, and what we have is generthe Rob Roy being the name of the ally bestowed upon public men, begincanoe in which the journey was perform- ning with our military leaders, and ended. We all remember something of the ing with our leading politicians. Washdifficulties attending Eastern travel, and ington was a great Name sixty or seventy at first sigìt it would seem as if there years ago, but is he such to-day? Does should not be many here: for what can the Father of his Country still have be easier than to paddle one's own power over the minds of his children? canoe? Precisely; but not in a river We doubt it. Of course, we respect bis like the Jordan, to which one has to get memory, or think we do, and we try to liis canoe, from England first, and last like to read about him. Without doubt from Damascus, and along which, when he was a great man--for his age; but one has finally got it there, it must oc- what was his age compared with ours? casionally be carried on land; or the What was his resistance to England and Jordan is not navigable throughout, as George the Third, compared with our Mr. Macgregor satisfied himself, and as resistance to the South and Jefferson he will satisfy his readers, if they follow Davis ? Why, some of our generals lost him as closely as we have done. He is more men in one battle than he ever not a good writer, particularly at the had under him at one time. The beginning of bis volume, but he has so Revolutionary War, indeed! There was much to tell us that is interesting, that no such thing as war then, as we underwe are content to overlook his slovenly stand the word now; at most it was a and over-fervid style. He strikes us as series of skirmishes, some of which were i'eing a narrow man, who has eyes for won by us, and some of which were won nothing but what he set out to see ; con- by the British. Neither side sequently his chapters on the Suez whipped, but they were tired out first, Canal and the Nile are dull and meagre. so we obtained our freedom. This, or lle is better when he comes to Abada something like it, is probably the opinand Pharpar; better still in the giant ion of the average American in regard cities of Baslian, and best of all on the to what Paine called “the times that Jordan. Here is his description of its tried men's souls,” and to the man mouth: At this place the papyrus is whom Henry Lee declared to be “first of the richest green, and upright as two in war, first in peace, and first in the walls on either hand, and so close in its hearts of his countrymen.” We shall forest of stems and dark, recurving hair- not undertake to say that our irreverent like tops above, that no bird can fly into contemporary is wholly in the wrong, it, and the very few ducks that I founà but we will say that a Republic has had wandered in by swimming through forgotten something when it has forgotchinks below, were powerless to get wing ten to honor the men who founded it. for rising; and while their flappings It is more than whispered that some of agitated the jungle, and their cackling our first great men were not really great, slrieks told loudly how much they and the charge may be true; but they wished to escape from the intruder, the were great enough to do their work, birds themselves were entirely invisible, and do it well, which is more than can though only a few yards from me all the be said of our great men now. Is there time. But they were safe enough from one of the later brood in whom we are me or any other stranger, for in no part so interested as to be willing to read could I ever get the p int of the Rob four or five hundred pages about his

was

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