Text: H. C. Watson (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), October 18, 1845, vol. 2, no. 15, p. ??

[page 228, column 1, continued:]

Praise and Principle; or For What Shall I live. By the author of “Conquest and Self Conquest” New-York: Harper & Brothers.

If we say that this book is evidently written by a sensible, discreet, judicious woman, we indicate all its best properties as well as though we dwelt on it through a dozen pages. The style is clear and simple, the sentiments excellent and proper, and the narrative gracefully conducted to the end.

It indicates in various passages a greater knowledge of life, in its actual, out-of-door struggles, than generally falls to those who can write with such lady-like propriety and refinement. We have been particularly impressed by the naturalness and good judgment with which her school-boy scenes are managed: they are in an excellent tone, and denote in the writer quick sympathies and an observant eye. The nice taste of the authoress is shown, as might be expected, even in the selection of her mottoes: they are obviously of her own choosing. The book is, in a word, of a kind we are glad to see: we hope it will not only be — it has already been to no inconsiderable degree — a source of honor to its fair writer, but may be such in all its results as to prompt and encourage her to further undertakings of the same kind. Constant purchasers as such books are likely to command, and a few copy-rights like this, well deposited in the hands of liberal publishers, should be an estate for the gentle worne.