Of the Essays just named, we must be content to speak in brief. They
are each and all beautiful, without being characterized by the
polish and adaptation so visible in the tales proper. A painter
would at once note their leading or predominant feature, and style
it repose. There is no attempt at effect. All is quiet, thoughtful,
subdued. Yet this respose may exist simultaneously with high
originality of thought; and Mr. Hawthorne has demonstrated the fact.
At every turn we meet with novel combinations; yet these
combinations never surpass the limits of the quiet. We are soothed
as we read; and withal is a calm astonishment that ideas so apparently
obvious have never occurred or been presented to us before. Herein our
author differs materially from Lamb or Hunt or Hazlitt- who, with
vivid originality of manner and expression, have less of the true
novelty of thought than is generally supposed, and whose
originality, at best, has an uneasy and meretricious quaintness,
replete with startling effects unfounded in nature, and inducing
trains of reflection which lead to no satisfactory result. The
Essays of Hawthorne have much of the character of Irving, with more of
originality, and less of finish; while, compared with the Spectator,
they have a vast superiority at all points. The Spectator, Mr. Irving,
and Mr.
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