140

20.

ART. XV.-. The Garland of Grief-An Elegiac Tribute to the memory of his late Majesty. By John Gwilliam. London: E. Wilson. 1830.

4to. pp.

or

NOBODY of the world at large can know what a personal grievance, (to say nothing of it as a national calamity,) is the death of a British monarch to a periodical critic. The gates of Parnassus are then thrown wide open; every man, woman, and child, has a right to enter; and we do not believe that even the condition of " a respectable dress" is imposed on the freedom of admission into this hallowed place. We and our critical cotemporaries are then assailed with such a quantity of waste paper covered over with metrical lines; our table groans under the accumulation of elegies and tributes, insomuch that we fear to face the huge heap of lamentation, to single out one cypress wreath, or "tribute,' "garland," for perusal. We observe, however, in those loyal strains, which we have occasionally ventured to read, that the affliction of the poet is uniformly capable of the easiest consolation. He compromises with our mortal aggressor-death, in a marvellously brief time. This is easily accounted for; since the bard, being a sensible man of the world, is sufficiently contented for the loss of so good a king as has gone, by the presence of so excellent a king as has succeeded him. Thus, much as the 'Garland of Sorrow,' before us, indulges in desperate repinings for the death of George the Fourth, it displays a resignation and a susceptibility to consoling reflections that are truly philosophic, if not absolutely christian. The author begins by calling on all those, who were wont to charm their Patron with delicious strains throughout the varying year, to hang up their harps; for the purpose, we were going to say, of letting Mr. Gwilliam play alone on his-but, no; it is becauseHe, who us'd to cheer

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With his distinguished presence those domains,

Which taste had chosen for their matchless charms,

Lies senseless now in Death's destructive arms!'

The bard then calls on Music' and Painting' to join in the mourning throng, ' for,' to these ladies, he says,—

'For he encouraged you with the design
Of calling all your powers into play,

That men might grow enamoured of your worth,
And blend-amelioration (!) with their mirth.'

After numerous invocations in a similar strain, our bard now comes to his subject, and, in indignant rhymes, vindicates the character of the recent Sovereign,' as he calls him, from the aspersions of his posthumous libellers. It takes but a few stanzas to confound these rogues; when the bard gives to them a hint which, if they had any hope remaining, would inevitably destroy it.

'Enough of such declamatory knaves,
We have sufficient evidence in store
(In spite of all their miserable staves)

To prove we never had his like before
In all those qualities, which e'en the grave's
Voracious appetite can not devour;

And, though their slander for a time may last,
The truth will neutralize their dull bombast!

We have the proofs of his consummate taste,
In works that seem determin'd to defy
That desolating hand which hath displac'd
The proudest temples Sculpture could supply:
In these alone his greatness can be trac'd,-
But let the storm of prejudice pass by,

And those who now are foremost to assail,

Ere long shall blush and tell another tale.'-pp. 9, 10.

But what makes the Monarch's memory infinitely dear to our bard, is the distinction which his Majesty made in his lifetime between good and bad poets,

Poets he foster'd; but mere men of rhyme,"

He look'd upon as mountebanks of taste,
Fools that were tickled with a silv'ry chime,
Wherein no mental property was trac'd;
We've many thousands of them in our clime,
By whose productions nothing is embrac'd,
Except that common, evanescent stuff,

Which lives alone by paragraph and puff!'-p. 11.

We are told by the poet of his Majesty's love for music, and how vainly they calculated on his taste, who supposed that he could mistake a rush of sounds' and 'sleight of hand' for musical skill; and we are still further informed

And there are spirits in existence still,

To prove his judgment never was debas'd
By all that trick which never can fulfil

What music's principles at first embrac'd,
And the mere run of the chromatic scale,

He deem'd a ruse, too vulgar to prevail !'-p. 12.

Windsor, proud Windsor, the seat and sepulchre of Royalty, is next apostrophized, and the imagination of Mr. Gwilliam beholds the grass turning black, and the trees assuming crape, and the birds of the forest converting their carols into lamentations.

The very rooms where happiness prevail'd,

Are hung with darkness, and the breathless space
Frightens the spirits that have there regal'd,
So awful is its melancholy grace:

A sudden chill the palace hath assail'd,
Dejection saddens ev'ery menial's face,
And where the voice of revelry was heard,
Triumphant Death prohibits e'en a word!'-p. 17.

But, as we said, Mr. Gwilliam finds ready consolation in King George's successor, of whom he sings,

'We have already from his past career,

Proofs of a lib'ral and enlighten'd mind,-
And, from the pleasing tidings that we hear,
A soul to justice nat'rally inclin'd;
From such a monarch we have nought to fear,
But everything to hope,-and we shall find
In William's reign, whatever change ensue,

Our welfare kept incessantly in view !'--p. 19.

This is about as fair a specimen as we can find of the 'things,' to which the ordinary race of Monarchs give rise when they die. A Princess Charlotte called forth the hall owed strains of a Byron.

ART. XVI.-An Essay on the Creation of the Universe; and Evidences of the Existence of a God. By Charles Doyne Sillery. 1 vol. 12mo. Edinburgh: Waugh and Innes. 1830.

THE Essay contained in this volume may be regarded as a practical illustration of some of the positions, so beautifully developed in Dr. Chalmers' justly celebrated Discourses on Astronomy. But to us, by far the most interesting part of its contents is that in which the author speaks of himself and his strangely varied career; and we should be ashamed of ourselves if we could mark for ridicule the undoubted extravagance which he mingles with the display of the kindliest and most enthusiastic of spirits. The following passages have afforded us, we confess, a great deal of pleasure :

"To search after knowledge" has ever been my greatest delight. My childhood was spent in the study of the sciences, and my whole soul devoted, at that time, to these my favourite pursuits. Often have I sat on the green slope of a sunny bank, apart from my playful schoolfellows, by the side of the silver-flowing Tweed, pondering on the works of Newton, Ferguson, Franklin, Bacon and Paley-many, and many a quiet night. have I stood, in the solitude of my own soul, watching the apparent motion of the stars, when the heavens seemed sweeping over the slumbering country; and thinking, with tear-brimmed eyes, of the mighty philosophers who had once lived in this little world before me, till I had poetically fancied them the spirits of the stars, that shone so brilliantly above me. Nor can I ever forget the rapturous impression that the first reading of Dr. Chalmers' Astronomical Discourses made upon my youthful mind-how my ideas were elevated in the contemplation of the greatness and goodness of God, and how my very soul expanded into a new world of being and of bliss. My cheeks were seldom free from tears-but they were tears of inexpressible pleasure, and I felt such an unspeakable ecstacy in pouring forth my feelings and my prayers to Almighty God in the peaceful stillness of the night, that I never envied the head which was laid in placid forgetfulness on the downy couch of sleep. At this time I constructed a large telescope, which revolved vertically and horizontally on two wheels, and

which magnified to a considerable extent: with this instrument I watched the eclipses of the moon-the belts and spots on the planets-the satellites surrounding them-the comets, and other celestial phenomena. But the sublime study of astronomy only increased my desire to become acquainted with other more amusing, though not more delightful sciences. Chemistry followed, which possessing many branches, led to the study of mineralogy and conchology-thence I directed my attention to botany, zoology, ornithology, &c. From which I proceeded to geology itself; and, lastly, to physics and metaphysics, till I had completed the whole round of natural philosophy. I then began to collect materials for a museum, and wherever I went, I was in search of minerals, shells, fossils, flowers and insects; and I have no hesitation in saying, that I possessed one of the finest collections of native insects and minerals in the country. I was never so happy as when seated at my studies in the centre of my museum-the cases of the seven orders of my own preservation-my native and foreign mineralsmultifarious assortment of shells-arrangement of quadrupeds-variety of birds, amphibious animals, fishes and insects-my antiquities, comprehending armour of every description; ancient busts, marbles, vases, and vessels of various kinds from Herculaneum, Pompeii, Nineveh, and other places; gold, silver, and brazen coins; together with a vast variety of curiosities, partly collected by myself, and partly presented by my daily visitors, were rapidly increasing around me.'-pp. 5-8.

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Apart from all society, and living in a little world of my own, at this time, I had no desire-no ambition to go beyond it-philosophy occupied my thoughts by day, and mingled with my dreams by night-and Newton, Bacon, Boyle, Hervey, Halley, Priestley, Hunter, Herschel, Berkeley, and Jenner, were the intellectual stars that adorned my hemisphere, unto whom my thoughts and soul were turned.

"I now finished an astronomical work of 700 closely written folio pages, in which I described the figure, motions, and dimensions of the earth; the different seasons; the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the sea; the moon's motion and phases; gravity, light, transit of Venus; the eclipses of the sun and moon: the ptolemaic, tychonic, and solar system; the parallax of the stars; refractions; occultations, and causes producing the planetary motions. I also gave a history of the rise and progress of astronomy, a description of the principal astronomical instruments and machinery which serve to illustrate the above phenomena, and some observations on the ancient zodiac found in Upper Egypt. The work is accompanied with several illustrations of my own delineation, and is still in my possession.

'My next undertaking was a volume of mechanics and melange of natural philosophy; I then invented a self-acting machine, of very singular construction, and thought of the proverb of Solomon, "I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out the knowledge of witty inventions." Shortly after this, and very casually, I discovered a new syphon, which I named the filtering syphon, because it raises water by means of a filter, or capillary tubes, from the vessel in which it is immersed, to another vessel elevated some inches above it, consequently by this means a perpetual dropping of water is produced. When I had constructed this instrument it was whispered abroad that I had discovered the perpetual motion! and it was

highly amusing, though extremely annoying to me, to see the multiplicity of unknown visitors, who were daily overwhelming and disturbing the "philosophical eccentricity," as they were pleased to term, not the instrument, but its disquieted constructor.

'I now commenced a Series of Philosophical Letters, the principal of which, were, 1st, On Prismatic Light-2d, On Coral →3d, On Sound4th, On the existence of a continent at the South Pole; of this I rest perfectly satisfied, and shall lay my observations and proofs before the public, in a pamphlet or periodical, shortly after this work is published— 5th, Accounting for live toads found in solid masses of rock-6th, Hints on the natural history of Insects-7th, A perpetual motion, on the principle of the Barometer-8th, On the utility of keeping Chronometers in vacuo, and a method of making the changes of the atmosphere wind them by the mercury in the Barometer-9th, A new pump, capable of raising a ton of water with one stroke of the piston, by the strength of a single individual-10th, Tests for proving the illuminating power of various lights --11th, Water Barometer-12th, Suggestion of a perpetual motion by specific gravity, &c. &c.

The study of Chemistry gave me infinite delight, and independent of my museum, I fitted up a regular laboratory, with furnaces, retorts, stills, bottles of every description; and earths, and acids, and alkalies of every kind. Then I made an electrifying machine, then a galvanic battery, then a compass, then a thermometer, then a barometer, and then a steam-engine.

The day was spent in ascertaining, by actual experiment, the elementary, or first principles of which bodies are composed. The night was entirely devoted to study. Often have I plied my unwearied task by the midnight oil. Often has daylight shone through my blind, dimming the light of my lamp, and I have withdrawn it to gaze enraptured on the rising sun. Often have I gone to school wearied and worn out with my contemplations during the night, yet returned in the afternoon with refreshed delight to renew my studies. In the garden, when I looked up to the star-bespangled heavens, I thought of "the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God" In the drawing-room, when I saw the prismatic light beaming from the crystal chandeliers, I thought of Newton's glorious discovery, and the tears unconsciously gushed from my eyes.

I was then but a boy-my mind was daily expanding-every thing I read-every thing I saw was new and novel to me, and though I often experienced, even then, a secret solitary sadness: it was a sadness with which the purest pleasure was blended, and which never went beyond the solitude of my own bosom, to throw the slightest gloom on the individuals with whom I mingled.

But the tenor of man's life never yet flowed smoothly altogether.This could not last for ever and it did not last. My pilgrimage had but begun-I knew not what it was to be in the world, for hitherto I had lived in a world entirely of my own. But I was destined for other things.-The morning arrived when I had to leave my museum-my little universe, for the wild wintry ocean. And ah! that morning-I will never forget it; I visited my repository of curiosities for the last time-gazed around on all the birds with which my very soul had grown familiar; I had sat beside them for weeks and months together; indeed they seemed a part of my being and when I turned to tear myself away from them, I thought my very heart would break.'—pp. 10–15.