The Life and Letters of John, Brown. Edited by F.
B. Sanborn. (S. Low and Co.) —We regret to say that this volume is disappointing, and from the literary—though certainly not from the literal—point of view, rather thin. The " Liberator of Kansas and Martyr of Virginia" was, it is needless at this time of day to say, a man whose story is worth telling ; and Mr. Sanborn, from his personal know- ledge of Brown and his family, and from his having had access to family and other papers, was eminently competent to compile a book setting forth that story. He has been engaged in this task for more than five - and - twenty years; he has striven to be accurate ; and he has dispelled the darkness that has hitherto rested on a number of the passages in Brown's life. Yet a good deal of this labour of love seems to be lost. Mr. Sanborn ought to have edited his hero's correspondence better, to have given less of it, or extracts in place of whole letters. John Brown was a simple, God-fearing man, whose life was irradiated with a noble idea, if ever there was one. In his simplicity he found strength ; in his fear of God, courage and consolation. But his nature and experiences alike were narrow rather than rich ; and a very few letters reveal that nature in its entirety. In ordinary life there is nothing finer—sometimes there is noth:ng more tragic —than the " God bless you !" which is the last word in the letter of an anxious mother in the country to her son, who, while his char- acter is yet unformed, is exposed to the dangers of the town. Given once in a book, it is beautiful ; but even Mrs. Carlyle's "Gad bless yon!" given a hundred times, would become tiresome. So John Brown's letters, composed largely of earnest religions precepts and of a direct narrative of family events, would have been all the better for such " reduction " as has been suggested. Perhaps this may yet be accomplished.
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