Mr. Herrick has selected several principal characters for his remarkable study--the Rev. Roper Elwell, a noted New England divine of a bygone generation; Mark Elwell, his son, who made a fortune in the wool business; John Elwell, grandson to old Roper Elwell, who spent two riotous years at Cambridge, and then was married suddenly; John's daughter Leonora, and Jarvis Thornton, who had been granted a degree in medicine, but who intended to devote his life to scientific studies instead of practicing his profession, being enabled to do so owing to a small fortune which had been acquired by his father. As a story it is far above the ordinary offering; as a study of the disintegration of a fine old family it is admirable; as an argument as to the laws of heredity--well, men of science will debate that question for a long time to come.
