"A tafte for the ftudy of polite learning, or the belles lettres, revived in Scotland about the fame time that it revived in England; and this take was cherithed by government, and even enforced by law. By an act of parliament already quoted, every freeholder of fubftance was obliged to keep his eldeft fon at fome grammar fchool till he had acquired a perfect knowledge of the Latin language, and then to put him three years to fome univerfity to ftudy philofophy and the laws. In confequence of this prevailing taste, a competency, at least, of learning became gradually more general among the gentlemen, and even among the common people of Scotland, than in any other country of Europe; and feveral ingenious men in this period became eminent for their claffical crudition. But of thefe our limits will permit us only to mention a very few. ceffion of Henry VII. A. D. 1485, to the to the archbishopric of St Andrew's; "Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, was not only one of the greatest poets, but also one of the best scholars and moft amiable men of his age. He was the third fon of Archibald, commonly called Bell-the-Cat, fixth Earl of Angus, and uncle to Archibald the feventh Earl, who married Margaret Queen-dowager of Scotland, the eldest sister of Henry VIII.* He was born about 1472, and having early discovered a tafle for learning, he was defined for the church, in which, from the power and influence of his family, he had a profpect of the higheft promotions. He received the first part of his education at home, and when he had gone through a course of philofophy in the univerfity of St Andrews, he went to Paris for his further improvement. There he spent several years in ftudy, and acquired an uncommon ftock of knowledge of various kinds, though he delighted most in poetry and the belles lettres. On his return to Scotland, he was promoted to the provoftry of St Giles in Edinburgh, and to feveral other livings, and among others to the rich abbey of Arbroath. He enjoyed little comfort in this promotion, owing to the troubles in which his country was involved in the minority of James V. He was prefented by the Queen-regent Hume's History of the Douglaffes, p. 219. Epiftolæ Regum Scotorum, tom.i. p. 328. reception from Henry VIII. and was careffed by all the most eminent perfons in the court of England. In the mean time, the archbishopric of St Andrew's became vacant, and Henry exerted all his influence at the court of Rome to procure the promotion of the Bishop of Dunkeld to that fee. His competitor, the Archbishop of Glasgow, (whofe life he had lately saved) wrote to Chriftiern King of Denmark, earneftly intreating him to counteract the intereft of the King of England at the court of Rome with all his might, and giving his rival a moft odious character, as a rebel to his king, and an enemy to his country*. But a fuperior power put an end to this conteft. The Bishop of Dunkeld died of the plague at London in April A. D. 1522. As the works of this learned and excellent, but unfortunate, prelate, which do so much honour to his name and country, were poetical, they come moft properly into the hiftory of poetry, in the next chapter of this book. "Patrick Panter, Latin fecretary to King James IV. was one of thofe who, . by applying with peculiar ardour to the acquifition of claffical learning, and the imitation of the writers of the Auguftan age, contributed to introduce a better tafte, and to give a better direction to the ftudies of their countrymen, than that which had long prevailed. He was born in the town of Montrofe about A.D. 1470; and having gone through a courfe of education at home, he went to Paris, (as was then the cuftom) where he spent feveral years in the profecution of his ftudies. On his return to Scotland, he he entered into holy orders, became Rector of Fetterresso in the Mearns, Master of Domus Dei in Brechin, and preceptor to Alexander Stewart the king's natural fon. In that office he acquitted himself so well, that when his pupil was put under the care of the great Erafmus about A. D. 1505, his royal mafter rewarded him with the abbacy of Cambuskenneth, and took him into his own fervice as his fecretary; a ftation for which he was peculiarly fitted, and in which he did honour to his king, his country, and himself, by the elegance and claffical purity of the language of his dispatches ‡. In that office he con tinued during the King's life, and the regency of the Queen. As he was attached to the party of the Queen and her fecond husband the Earl of Angus, he was reprefented as a dangerous man to the Duke of Albany, who, on fome pretence or other, threw him into prifon. But when that prince was better informed of his worth and abilities, he released him from prifon, rettored him to his office, and carried him with him into France. There he fell into a lingering difeafe, of which he died at Paris A. D. 1519 * "Hector Boethius, or Boyce, was a native of Dundee, and born about A. D. 1466. After he had finifhed a course of education in the univerfity of St Andrew's, he went to Paris, where he ftudied several years in the college of Montacute, in which he was advanced to a profeffor's chair. On his return to Scot land, he was appointed Principal of the newly-founded univerfity of Aberdeen, and had fome other preferments in the church. When he refided in France, he contracted a friendship with Erafmus, by whom he was much efteemed and commended, for his tafte, his learning, and other good qualities. He compofed feveral treatifes upon various subjects; but his principal work was-Hiftoria rerum Scoticarum a prima gentis origine ad A. D. 1436-" A Hiftory of the Scots from the Origin of the Nation to the Year 1436." It is with the ftyle of this work only that we are here concerned, and that hath been highly admired, and affords a fufficient proof of his good tafte and claffical erudition, which entitles him to be ranked among the restorers of learning †. "An account of feveral other writers who flourished in Scotland in this period, and contributed, in fome degree, to the revival of learning, might be here inferted; but this would exceed our limits, and to many readers of general hiftory would appear tedious. It is fufficient to remark, that the youth of Scotland at this time, in proportion to their numbers, discovered as good a taste, and as great a thirst for knowledge, as thofe of England, though they laboured under fome difadvantages; particularly many of them not finding proper eftablishments at home, were obliged to seek * Præfat. Epiftolæ Regum Scotorum. + Nicholfon's Scots Hift. Tanner, Bale, Dempfter. for for them in foreign countries. The hiftory of John Lefley bishop of Rofs, and of his great opponent in politics, Mr George Buchannan, belongs to the fucceeding period." The account of Scottish poetry during this period, may very properly be quoted as being, in fo far as it concerns Gavin Douglas, connected with the former extract; and because it furnishes a fpecimen of the manner in which Mr Laing's contributions are written. "It was different in Scotland, where poetry, fuch as Chaucer might acknowledge and Spencer imitate, was cultivated in a language fuperior to Chaucer's. Dunbar and Douglas were distinguished poets, whofe genius would have reflected luftre on a happier period, and whofe works, though partly obfcured by age, are perufed with pleasure even in a dialect configned to ruftics. Dunbar, an ecclefiaftic, at least an expectant of church preferment, feems to have languished at the court of James IV. whofe marriage with Margaret of England he has celebrated in the Thitle and the Rofe; an happy allegory, by which the vulgar topics of epithalamium are judiciously avoided, and exhortation and eulogy delicately infinuated. The verfification of the poem is harmonious, the stanza artificial and pleasing, the language copious and selected, the narrative diverfified, rifing often to dramatic energy. The poem, from its fubject, is defcriptive, but Dunbar improves the moft luxuriant defeription by an intermixture of imagery, fentiment, and moral obfervation. The following is a fpecimen : The purpour fone, with tendir bemy's reid, In orient bricht as angell did appeir, Throw goldin fkyis putting up his heid, Quhois gilt treffis fchone fo wonder cleir, neir, To luke upone his frefche and blisfull face, Oluvaris fo, away thow dully nicht, wicht; Hail May, hail Flora, hail Aurora schene, Hail princes Nature, hail Venus, Luvis quene. "The Golden Terge is another allegorical poem of Dunbar's, conftructed in a stanza similar to Spencer's, but more artificial, and far more difficult *. In defcription perhaps it excels, in fentiment it fcarcely equals the Thistle and Rofe. Its narrative is not interchanged with dialogue; its allegory refers to the paffions, the dominion of beauty, the fubjection of reason, and is lefs fortunate than the Thittle and Rofe, whose occult and fecondary fignification is an hiftorical truth that fubfifts apart, and however embellished, cannot be obscured by the oftenfible emblem. When the paffions or the mental powers are perfonified and involved in action, we pursue the tale, forgetful of their abstraction, to which it is relative; but to remedy this, the Golden Terge has a merit in its brevity which few allegorical poems poffefs. The allegorical genius of our ancient poetry discovers often a fublime invention; but it has intercepted what is now more valuable, the reprefentation of genuine character, and of the manners peculiar to ancient life. These manners Dunbar had fometimes delineated with humour, in poems lately retrieved from oblivion t; and from them he appears in the new light of a skilful fatirift, and an attentive observer of human nature. "Gawin Douglas, his contemporary, was more confpicuous by the rare union of birth and learning, and is ftill diftinguished as the first poetical translator of the claffics in Britain. Early in youth he tranflated Ovid's de Remedio Amoris, (a work that has perished); at a maturer age, Virgil's Eneid into Scottish heroics; a tranflation popular till superceded at the clofe of the laft century by others more elegant, not more faithful, nor perhaps more fpirited ‡. His original poems are King Hart and the Palace of Honour, allegories too much protracted, though marked throughout with a vivid invention; but his moft valuable performances are prologues to the books of his Eneid; ftored occafionally with exquifite defcription. As a poet he is inferior to Dunbar, neither fo tender nor fo various in his powers. His taste and judgment are lefs correct, and his verses lefs po "Like Spencer's it confifts of nine verses, restricted however to two rhimes inftead of three, which Spencer's admits of." + Vide his Poems in Pinkerton's Col lection." "It was finished in fixteen months; and till Dryden's appeared, seems to have been received as a standard tranflation : till then it was certainly the best tranflation." lished. lifhed. The one defcribes by felecting, the other by accumulating images; but with fuch fuccefs, that his prologues defcriptive of the winter folftice, of a morning and evening in fummer, tranfport the mind to the feafons they delineate, teach it to fympathife with the poet's, and to watch with his the minuteft changes that nature exhibits. These are the earlieft poems profeffedly defcriptive; but in defcription Scottish poets are rich beyond belief. Their language fwells with the subject, depicting nature with the brightest and happieft felection of colours. The language of modern poetry is more intelligible, not fo luxuriant, nor the terms fo harmonious. Defcription is ftill the characteristic, and has ever been the principal excellence of Scottish poets; on whom, though grofsly ignorant of human nature, the poetical mantle of Dunbar and Douglas has fucceffively defcended *" A Sketch of the War with Tippoo Sultaun; or a Detail of Military Operations from the Commencement of Hoftilities, at the Lincs of Travencore, in December 1789, until the Peace concluded before Seringapatam in February 1792. In Two Volumes 4to. By Roderic Mackenzie, Lieutenant 52d regt. Calcutta printed. Sold by John Sewell, Cornhill. THIS narrative of the war in India, which the author modeftly terms a Sketch, and which, indeed, cannot be faid to afcend to the dignity of history, fupplies many particulars of interefting information to the European reader. Whether a company of merchants, pursuing their commerce at the distance of many thoufand leagues from the seat of empire, will be able, for many years, to maintain an authority, acquired and cemented by force and violence, is a queftion which it is not very difficult for philofophy to decide. That there is a ftriking inferiority in the inhabitants of India, when compared with their northern conquerors, not only in bodily vigour, but also in intellect, the pages of the present work, were there no other facts to prove it, clearly demonftrate. Inacceffible fortreffes, in appearance, defended by immenfe multitudes in arms, and supplied with cannon of the most capacious calibre, are poffeffed in a fingle night by a handful of Europeans, who afcend precipices, only not perpendicular, with fuch artillery as they can drag along with them. Events fo extraordinary may happen in a particular inftance, without forming any evidence of national character. A fudden panic, a great effort of enthusiafm, an accefs unexplored before, the treachery of a confidant, have fometimes given fuccefs to the weaker affailants. But victories like thofe which are recorded in the volumes before us, happen not by chance. They proceed from radical and decifive qualities, which excite the European foldier, like the ferocious tenant of the foreft, to affault without condcending to number his foes. Mr Macken This work confifts of two volumes, the firft of which is beautifully printed, and confers great credit on the art as practifed at Calcutta. The printing of the fecond does not appear to have been zie tells his readers, in the preface, that executed with equal care. he is not folicitous of literary fame, but fubmits a plain and impartial sketch of the late war in India, without any attempt at cloathing it in a fhowy dress, or a wish to obtain any commendation beyond what is due to a candid and clear narrative of recent and important events. Each volume is divided into five chapters; and the firft comprehends the ftory of the war, till the time when Lord Cornwallis affumed the command in perfon: the fecond narrates the principal occurrences after that period, till the final fubjugation and submission of Tippoo Sultaun before the walls of his own metropolis. To each volume is prefixed a glossary, certainly very neceffary to an English reader; but it is in neither cafe fufficiently copious, to be as ufeful as the author intended. Though war be the oftenfible subject of this work, the narrative is often relieved by topics of a milder and more peaceful complexion. Such, for example, is the defcription of the extreme fertility of the diftrict of Coimbatore, which the author thus exhibits to his readers: "The mountains called Ghauts, whilst they deeply indent the plains at several diftinct points, do not terminate, but in their range they frequently advance and recede without any break or diminution of height; confequently they give rife to an incredible number of ftreams. The Cauvery, the Bevany, and the Noel, rivers too, from their interfection of the country in fo many different directions, from the various branches that are for ced out of them into feparate and diftinct channels, as well as the fupply of water that they receive from a double monfoon, contribute in a high degree to the fertility of the foil; and though the religious tenets of the Bramins have a ftrong tendency to forward cultivation, the moral and political doctrines of that fect are not lefs calculated to encourage agriculture. 66 Quiet, fober, diligent, and abftemious, though corrupt as vice can make him with respect to fome other duties, the Hindoo ryot (husbandman) more than compenfates for the want of that active induftry which characterizes the Christian husbandman, by a degree of patient perfeverance unknown amongst the inhabitants of other countries: accuftomed, through every ftage of his life, to bend his body, or to squat upon the ground, he readily becomes an excellent cultivator of the earth; and from the minute attention with which he regards whatfoever is the ob. ject of his purfuit, no weed is so trifling as to escape his cbfervation, no tendril fo concealed as to avoid his research. The land too, as if grateful for fuch extraordinary attention, yields a return beyond any equal space on the surface of this globe. Without any manure whatfoever, and folely dependant on water to fertilize the foil, Hindoftan in general produces two, three, and fometimes four harvefts. Tanjore annually produces five; nay, fix fucceffive crops have been reaped in that country. But though fafcinated beyond all meafure by thefe bewitching fcenes, by thefe choice gifts of nature and of induftry, fill, as the defcription of them is, in fome degree, foreign to the present defign, it must give way to the continuation of military operations." A note is fubjoined to this paffage, quoted from Ayeen Akberry, vol. 2. page 940, which proves, fill more precisely, the vaft power of vegetation in this vigorous foil. "Moft of the rivers of Bengal have their banks cultivated with rice, of which there are a variety of fpecies:—the foil is fo fertile, in fome places, that a fingle grain of rice will yield a measure of two or three feers. Some land will produce three crops a year; vegetation is here so extremely quick, that as faft as the water rifes, the plants of rice grow above it, fo that the ear is never immerfed. Men of experience affirm, that a fingle ftalk will grow fix cubits in one night.Again: The ftalks of rice rife as faft as the water, unlefs the inundation be very rapid before the grain is in the ear, in which cafe the crops are destroyed.”s As, in a review of a military work, fome fpecimen of that part of the narrative will be expected, we shall select for that purpose the defcription of the ftorming of Bangalore in the face of an immenfe army of the Mysorean Prince. "Whilft the troops deftined for the affault advanced to their several stations with awful ftillness, the garrifon, both in the fort and outworks, as if wearied with inceffant exertion, were equally lull: a bright moon, at times obfcured by a paffing cloud, fhone against the bat. tered precipices, over which the affailants had to pass; from the heavens there came not a breath of wind; nothing difturbed thought; and this gallant corps, after beftowing, in reflection, a foldierly and affectionate tribute on their fair friends, bade adieu to all wordly concerns, and riveted their minds to death or victory. "At the hour of eleven a fignal for advancing paffed along the ranks in perfect filence. A causeway of upwards of one hundred yards in length, which would not admit of eight men a-breaft, was the only road that led from the trenches to the point of attack. To render the breach inacceffible, the befieged had cut a wide and deep trench acrofs this caufeway, leaving a wall about two feet thick entire on the right hand. As there was no draw-bridge, it was by this wall that the garrifon communicated with the covert way, and were enabled to fally; but, although fo narrow as to be paffed by Indian files only, it ferved alfo to convey our troops over the ditch, which was no where fordable in this quarter. To the left the causeway, about twenty feet in height, and but little damaged, as it was covered by the glacis, was efcaled in an inftant; but the principal part of the troops, in defiance of all obftructions, advanced ftraight |