Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

known what particular precepts and examples it was most expedient to inculcate upon him. Compare those who have had a public education with those who have been educated at home; and it will not be found, in fact, that the latter are, either in virtue or in talents, superior to the former. I speak, Madam, from ob. servation of fact, as well as from attending to the nature of the thing."

SECOND SIGHT,

"The book of second sight has not, I fear, given you much entertainment. The tales are ill-told, and ill-chrosen, and the language so barbarous as to be in many places unintelligible, even to a Scotsman. I have heard many better stories of the second-sight, than any this author has given, attested by such persons, and accompanied by such circumstances, as to preclude contradiction, though not suspicion. All our Highlanders believe in this second sight but the instances, in which it is said to operate, are generally so ambiguous, and the revelations supposed to be com municated by it so frivolous, that I cannot bring myself to acquiesce in it. Indeed this same historian has made me more incredulous than I was before; for his whole book be'trays an excess of folly and weakness. Were its revelations important I should be less inclined to unbelief: but to suppose the Deity working a miracle in order to announce a mar riage, or the arrival of a poor stranger, or the making of a coffin, would require such evidence as has not yet attended any of these tales, and is indeed what scarce any kind of evidence could make one suppose. These communications are all made to the ignorant, the superstitious, and generally to the young; I never heard a man of learning, sense, or observation, that was favoured with any of them; a strong presumption against their credebility. I have

been told, that the inhabitants of some parts of the Alps do also lay claim to a sort of second-sight: and I believe the same superstition, or something like it, may be found in many other countries, where the face of nature, and the solitary life of the natives, tend to impress the imagina. tion with melancholy. The Highlands of Scotland are a picturesque, but gloomy region. Long tracts of solitary mountains covered with heath and rocks, and often obscured by mist; narrow vallies, thinly inhabited, and bounded by precipices that resound for ever with the fall of torrents; a soil so rugged, and a climate so dreary, as to admit neither the amusements of pasturage, nor the chearful toils of agriculture; the mournful dashing of waves along the friths and lakes that every where intersect this country; the portentous sounds, which every change of the wind, and every increase and diminution of the waters, is apt to raise in a region full of rocks and hollow cliffs and caverns; the grotesque and ghastly appearance of such a land. scape, especially by the light of the moon-objects like these diffuse an habitual gloom over the fancy, and give it that romantic cast, that dispo ses to invention, and that melancholy which inclines one to the fear of unseen things and unknown events. It is observable too, that the antient Scottish Highlanders had scarce any other way of supporting themselves, than by hunting, fishing, or war; professions, that are continually exposed to the most fatal accidents.-Thus, almost every circumstance in their lot tended to rouse and terrify the imagination. Accordingly, their poetry is uniformly mournful; their music melancholy and dreadful, and their superstitions are all of the gloomy kind. The fairies confined their gambols to the Lowlands; the mountains were haunted with giants, and angry ghosts, and funeral proces

sions, and other prodigies of direful import. That a people, beset with such real and imaginary bugbears, should fancy themselves dreaming, even when awake, of corpses, and graves, and coffins, and other terrible things, seems natural enough; but that their visions ever tended to any real or useful discovery, I am much

inclined to doubt. Not that I mean to deny the existence of ghosts, or to call in question the accounts of extraordinary revelations, granted to individuals, with which both history and tradition abound. But in all cases, where such accounts are entitled to credit, or supported by tolerable evidence, it will be found, that they referred to something which it concerned men to know; the overthrow of kingdoms, the death of great persons, the detection of atrocious crimes, or the preservation of important lives.

ORIENTAL POETRY,

I have never seen Mr Jones's imitations of the Asiatic poetry. From what you say of them, I am sure they will entertain me; though I am entirely of your opinion, that, if they had been translations, they would have been much more valuable, and the more literal the better. Such things deserve attention, not so much for the amusement they yield to the fancy, as for the knowledge they convey of the minds and manners of the people among whom they are produced. To those who have feelings, and are capable of observation, that poetical expression and description will be most agreeable, which corresponds most, exactly to their own experience. I cannot sympathise with passions I never felt; and when objects are described in colours, shapes, and proportions, quite unlike to what I have been accustomed to, I suspect that the descriptions are not just, and that it is not nature, that is presented to my view, but the Sept. 1806.

dreams of a man who had never studied nature.

What is the reason, Madam, that the poetry, and indeed the whole phraseology, of the eastern nations (and I believe the same thing holds of all uncultivated nations) is so full of glaring images, exaggerated metaphors, and gigantic descriptions? Is it, because that, in those countries where art has made little progress, nature shoots forth into wilder magnificence, and every thing appears to be constructed on a larger scale? Is it, that the language, through defect of copiousness, is obliged to adopt metaphor and similitude, even for expressing the most obvious sentiments? Is it, that the ignorance and indolence of such people, unfriendly to liberty, disposts them to regard their governors as of supernatural dignity, and to decorate them with the most pompous and highsounding titles, the frequent use of which comes at last to infect their whole conversation with bombast? Or is it, that the passions of those people are really stronger, and their climate more luxuriant? Perhaps all those causes may conspire in produ cing this effect. Certain it is, that Europe is much indebted, for her style and manner of composition, to her ancient authors, particularly to those of Greece, by whose example and authority that simple and natural diction was happily established, which all our best authors of suc ceeding times have been ambitious to imitate; but whence those ancient Greek authors derived it, whether from imitating other authors, still more ancient, or from the operation of physical causes, or from the nature of their language, particularly its unrivalled copiousness and flexibility; or from some unaccountable and peculiar delicacy in their taste ; or from the force of their genius, that, cónscious of its own vigour, despised all adventitious support, and all foreign

orba

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

In my younger days, I was much attached to solitude, and could have envied even the " shepherd of the "Hebride isles, placed far amid the "melancholy main." I wrote Odes to Retirement; and wished to be conducted to its deepest groves, remote from every rude sound, and from every vagrant foot. In a word, I thought the most profound solitude the best. But I have now changed my mind. Those solemn and incessant energies of imagination, which naturally take place in such a state, are fatal to the health and spirits, and tend to make us more and more unfit for the business of life; the soul, deprived of those ventilations of passion, which arise from social in tercourse, is reduced to a state of stagnation, and, if she is not of a very pure consistence indeed, will be apt to breed within herself many "monstrous, and many prodigious things," of which she will find it no easy matter to rid herself, even when she has become sensible of their nox

ious nature.

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. Sunday, 15th August, we propo. posed (Dr and Mrs Beattie) to have gone yesterday to Arno's Grove, but Sir Joshua insisted on it, that we should stay till to-morrow, and partake of a haunch of venison with him to-day, at his house on Richmond Hill. Accordingly, at eleven, Mrs Beattie, Miss Reynolds, Mr Baretti, and Mr Palmer, set out in Sir, Jo. shua's coach for Richmond. At twelve, he and I went in a postchaise, and by the way paid a visit to the Bishop of Chester, who was very earnest for us to fix a day for dining with him: but I could not fix one just now, on account of the present state of my affairs. After

dining at Richmond, we all returned to town about eight o'clock. This day I had a great deal of conversation with Sir Joshua Reynolds' on critical and philosophical subjects. I find him to be a man, not only of excellent taste in painting and poetry, but of an enlarged understanding, and truly philosophical mind. His notions of painting are not at all the same with those that are entertained by the generality of painters and critics.

Artificial and contrasted at. titudes, and groupes, he makes no account of; it is the truth and simplicity of nature, which he is ambi tious to imitate; and these, it must be allowed, he possesses the art of blending with the most exquisite grace, the most animated expression. He speaks with contempt of those, who suppose grace to consist in erect posture, turned-out toes, or the frippery of modern dress. Indeed, whatever account we make of the colouring of this great artist, (which some people object to) it is impossible to deny him the praise of being the greatest designer" of this, or perhaps of any age. In his pictures there is a grace, a variety, an expression, a simplicity, which I have never seen in the works of any other paint

er.

[ocr errors]

His portraits are distinguished from all others, by this, that they exhibit an exact imitation, not only of the features, but also of the character of the person represented.His picture of Garrick, between tragedy and comedy, he tells me, he finished in a week."

[blocks in formation]

whether we consider what he felt here, or what he hoped for hereafter, we must admit, that no man ever had more reason to wish for a dismis sion from the evils of this transitory life. His Lordship died, as he lived, a most illustrious example of every Christian virtue. His last breath was spent in comforting and instructing his friends. "Be good and virtu. ous," said he, to Lord Valencia *, "for know that to this you must come." The devout and chearful resignation, that occupied his mind during his illnesss, did not forsake him in the moment of dissolution, but fixed a smile on his lifeless countenance. I sincerely sympathise with your Lordship on the loss of this excellent man. Since I came last to town, I have had the honour and happiness to pass many an hour in his company, and to converse with him on all subjects and I hope I shall be the better, while I live, for what I have seen, and what I have heard, of Lord Lyttelton."

JOHNSON'S JOURNEY.

I have just finished a hasty péru sal of Dr Johnson's journey. It contains many things worthy of the author, and is, on the whole, very entertaining. His account of "the Isles" is, I dare say, very just: I ne ver was there, and therefore can say nothing of them, from my own knowledge His accounts of some facts, relating to other parts of Scot land, are no unexceptionable. Either he must have been misinformed, or he must have misunderstood his informer, in regard to several of his remarks on the improvement of the country. I am surprised at one of his mistakes, which leads him once or twice into perplexity, and false conjecture he seems not to have known, that, in the common language of Scotland, Irish and Earse

3

* His son in law.

are both used to denote the speech of the Scotch Highlanders; and are as much synonimous (at least in many parts of the kingdom,) as Scotch and Scottish. Irish is generally thought the genteeler appellation, and Earse the vulgar and colloquial. His remarks on the trees of Scotland must greatly surprise a native. In some of our provinces, trees cannot be reared by any method of cultivation we have yet discovered; in some, where trees flourish extremely well, they are not much cultivated, because they are not necessary: but in others, we have store of wood, and forests of great extent, and of great antiquity. I am sorry to see in Johnson some asperities, that seem to be the effect of national prejudice. If he thinks himself thoroughly acquainted with the character of the Scots as a nation, he is greatly mistaken. The Scots have virtues, and the Scots have faults, of which he seems to have had no particular information. I am one of those who wish to see the English spirit and English manners prevail over the whole island : for I think the English have a generosity and openness of nature, which many of us want, But we are not all, without exception, a nation of cheats and liars, as Johnson seems willing to believe, and to represent

us.

Of the better sort of our people, the character is just the reverse. I admire Johnson's genius; I esteem him for his virtues; I shall ever cherish a grateful remembrance of the civilities I have received from him: I have often, in this country, exerted myself in defence both of his character and writings: but there are in this book several things which I cannot defend. His unbelief, in regard to Ossian, I am not surprised at; but I wonder greatly at his credulity in regard to the second sight. I cannot imagine, on what grounds he could say, that, in the universities of Scotland every master of arts may

be

be a doctor when he pleases. I ne, ver heard of such a thing, and I have been connected with our universities, ever since I was a boy. Our method of giving doctor's degrees I do not approve of; but we proceed on a principle quite different from what Dr Johnson mentions.

SCOTS AND ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES.

I must confess, I am strongly prepossessed in favour of that mode of education that takes place in the English Universities. I am well aware, at the same time, that in those seminaries there are, to some young men, many more temptations to idleness and dissipation, than in our colleges in Scotland; but there are also, if I mistake not, better opportunities of study to a studious young man, and the advantages of a more respectable and more polite society, to such as are discreet and sober. The most valuable parts of humán literature, I mean the Greek and Latin classics, are not so completely taught in Scotland as in England; and I fear it is no advantage, I have sometimes known it a misfortune, to those young men of distinction that come to study with us, that they find too easy, and too favourable an admittance to balls, assemblies, and other diversions of a like kind, where the fashion not only per. mits, but requires, that a particular attention be paid to the younger part of the female world. A youth of fortune, with the English language, and English address, soon becomes an object of consideration to a raw girl; and equally so, perhaps, though not altogether on the same account, to her parents. Our long vacations too, in the colleges in Scotland, though a convenience to the native student, (who commonly spends those intervals at home with his parents) are often dangerous to the students from England; who being then set free from the restraints of academi.

cal discipline, and at a distance from their parents or guardians, are too apt to forget, that it was for the purpose of study, not of amusement, they were sent into this country.

All, or most of these inconveniencies, may be avoided at an English university, provided a youth have a discreet tutor, and be himself of a sober and studious disposition. There, classical erudition receives all the attentions and honours it can claim; and there the French philosophy, of course, is seldom held in very high estimation: there, at present, a regard to religion is fashionable; there, the recluseness of a college-life, the wholesome severities of academical discipline, the authority of the uni versity, and several other circumstances I could mention, prove very powerful restraints to such of the youth as have any sense of true honour, or any regard to their real in

terest.

We, in Scotland, boast of our professors, that they give regular lectures in all the sciences, which the students are obliged to attend; a part of literary ceconomy which is but little attended to in the univer sities of England. But I will ven ture to affirm, from experience, that if a professor does no more than de liver a set of lectures, his young au dience will be little the wiser for having attended him. The most profitable part of my time is that which I employ in examinations, or in Socratical dialogue with my pu pils, or in commenting upon antient authors, all which may be done by a tutor in a private apartment, as well as by a professor in a public school. Lectures indeed I do, and must give; in order to add solemnity to the truths I would inculcate; and partly too, in compliance with the fashion, and for the sake of my own character; (for this, though not the most difficult part of our business, is that

« ZurückWeiter »