* * * * *
_How Could He Help It? or, The Heart Triumphant_. By A.S. ROE. New
York: Derby & Jackson.
A fair representative of a class of books that are always pleasant
reading, although written without taste, cultivation, or
originality,--because they are obviously dictated by a kind heart and
genuine earnestness. In this volume the numerous heroes (so similar
in every respect that one might fancy them to be only one hero
mysteriously multiplied, like Kehama) and the fair heroines (exactly
equalling the heroes in number, we are happy to assure the
tenderhearted reader) are not in the least interesting, except for
sheer goodness of heart. This unaided moral excellence, however,
fairly redeems the book, and so far softens even our critical
asperity that we venture only to suggest,--first, that the utterly
unprecedented _patois_ of Mrs. Kelly is not Irish, for which a
careful examination of the context leads us to think it was
intended,--secondly, that "if he had have done it" is equally
guiltless of being English,--thirdly, that, if our author, desiring to
describe the feelings of a lover holding his mistress's hand, was
inspired by Tennyson's phrase of "dear wonder," he failed, in our
opinion, to improve on his original, when he substituted "the fleshy
treasure in his grasp.
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