laboring under the same obliquity of vision, and who was supposed to import good for tune, became a very angel in their eyes. Dreams were held of marvellous account; but, if a crumb fell from the table, or but a grain of salt were spilled on the morning of "the drawing," what losses did it not portend! But the eventful day which was to decide the fortunes of thousands-the question of life and death to many-pregnant with joy and misery, success and disappointment -now approaches, and the sanguine holder of a lottery-ticket, already the confident possessor of a prize of twenty thousand pounds, disdains to walk to the scene of his anticipated triumph, and hires a hackney-coach from the nearest stand, or perhaps a brass-nailed leather chair, to carry him to Guildhall. What! walk? He, the holder of a ticket which will soon be drawn a prize? Psha! "Coach coach! To Guildhall-as fast as accessory does be seem to have been to his own fortune! But, hark! something withdraws the attention of her audience: a buzz had recommenced at the upper end of the hall, but now every thing is hushed. Once more the wheel of fortune flies round, and this time is drawn--a blank! Note yonder man, who has been straining and stretching his neck to see the number exhihited, or hear it pronounced-he is the possessor of the ticket. Poor fellow! Mark his countenance-how the ray of hope which had previously illumined it disappears! This was his last attempt; for years he had been hoarding up a little money for a risk in this lottery, and had invested it in an entire ticket, and now he has lost it all. For himself he cares not; his days can not be very many more, and the workhouse is open to him; but it was for his orphan grandchild -to support her when he was gone, to keep you like!" No quibbling about the fare her from the streets and wretchedness. Poor there is no occasion for economy now; the fellow! He buries his face in his hands, but only consideration is speed, for the specula- dare not think of home. Rich peer, who tor is impatient to grasp his coming fortune. standest by his side, and hast come merely How crowded is the old hall with anxious, for amusement, and to see the drawing, a faces-some beaming with hope; others be- score of pounds taken from your great store traying a mixed sensation, half hope, half would not be missed-take pity on the fear; others, again, bent seriously on the wretch, and save, oh! save the child! ground, their owners wondering, evidently, Equally unsuccessful have been all his forwhen the drawing will commence-when mer attempts: he feels that he is doomed. their respective numbers will be drawn And this, which had been the constant theme -what they will be, prizes or blanks; if of his conversation and the subject of his prizes, of what amount; if blanks thoughts by day, and the substance of his See! the sleeves of the Bluecoat-boy, who dreams by night, when, awaking, he had is to draw the numbers, are turned up at the fondled the child, and, calling it by endearwrist. And why is this? To prevent his ing names, cried in his maddening hopefulness, concealing, as he was once suspected of doing, "You shall ride in a carriage, Nelly-you a prize beneath his cuff. And now the wheel shall be rich, Nelly, and keep your poor old revolves a prize is drawn! What number? grandfather!"-this, for which he had deHush! Silence there! Ha! is it possible? nied himself the few luxuries which his Yes, yonder buxom servant, whose counte- scanty means would have enabled him to nance has been changing alternately from enjoy, and perhaps, even robbed Nature of white to red, is the happy possessor of her due-this, for which he had at last sacritwelve hundred pounds, a sixteenth of the ficed his self-respect, and carried his longprize. That babe, who is fretting and scream- preserved and carefully cherished wedding ing in its mother's arms, is the all-unconscious suit to the pawnbroker's-this, for the issue owner of another portion-and a long his- of which he had induced his importunate tory the proud mother has to tell to the sur- and clamorous creditors to wait this last rounding crowd of that same screaming babe: chance lost, his last hope went with it. how that she had purchased the share with There was now nothing before him but the the money she had saved up when "in serworkhouse or the jail. Stay! Yes, there vice"--how she had held him forth, and allow-was-the river! For the poor little or ed his tiny hand-oh, bless it!-to dive phan at home-lost child-the carriage among the numbers-and how he drew forth never came! from among the mass-bless his little heart! Frightful evils grew out of these State lothe did-the identical one that had obtained the teries; in many cases they rendered the unprize; and, as he kicks and frets in the op- fortunate speculator a maniac and a suicide pressive heat of the hall, what an innocent--in many more they encouraged dishonesty and crime In 1754 the agents and their friends, it was discovered, were in the habit of monopolising the tickets by means of using various false names-although the Lottery Act specially prohibited any one person from holding more than twenty tickets-and carried this system on to such an extent, defaulting if unsuccessful, and causing serious deficiencies in the revenue, that a committee of the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the evil, and one man, on its suggestion, was prosecuted in the Court of King's Bench, and fined a thousand pounds. Neither were these agents considered by the public immaculate or incapable of cheating their infatuated customers, for, in 1774, Hazard & Co. advertise that they have made an affidavit before the Lord Mayor that they will “ justly and honestly pay the prizes"-an assurance intended to inspire confidence, which hints significantly at the existence of distrust. secured against intruders before the agent would enter upon the business of insurance. To practice a fraud upon these insurers was excusable, and tolerably safe, seeing they had no redress at law. Persons were in the habit of attending the drawing of the lotteries, which usually took place at about eight o'clock in the evening, and, posting their agents along the shortest cut to the insurance office, the instant a prize was drawn a messenger was sent to communicate the number of it to the first of these living tele. graphs, or, as they were popularly called, "carrier pigeons." The information was rapidly conveyed along the line till it reached the last, who forthwith rushed into the office and insured the number heavily; in a few minutes the insurer received intelligence by some less rapid mode of communication that it was a prize, and the sum insured was accordingly the booty of the party insured and his accomplices. To guard against this fraud, the keepers of the insurance-offices subsequently closed their doors as soon as the drawing of the lottery had commenced; but even then they were cheated, for the number of a prize just drawn has been thrust through the keyhole, and received unnoticed by one of the crowd who was waiting inside the office, under lock and key, to insure. But the agents were sometimes victimized themselves by a class of adventurers yet more cunning and unscrupulous. Several of the lottery-office keepers," as they were called, had a small room at the back of their shops, in which they pursued the lucrative business of "insuring numbers." Thus a person having a superstitious prejudice in favor of any particular number, but without The keeper of one of these offices is made the means sufficient to purchase the ticket to say, in a farce written in 1781, and enti of the corresponding number, would, on pay- tled "The Temple of Fortune :" "Bolt the ment of a shilling to the agent, effect an in- door, for it grows near nine o'clock, and surance on it, by which, in the event of its mind that no one stands near the door, as a being drawn a prize, he would receive the carrier pigeon may fly through the keyhole, amount for which he might have insured it. for such things have been known." From This betting practice (for such it was), the same farce it would appear that the lot-which, in fact, formed a lottery on a smaller tery-office keepers would sometimes sell a scale, was strictly prohibited by the gov-number twice over, for, on a Frenchman apernment, as it superseded in some degree the purchase of tickets. The consequence was, that these illicit proceedings were carried on in a surreptitious manner, the door being plying for No. 45, the keeper says, aside, after selling it to him, "That was drawn yesterday, by-the-by, but he will have nearly as good a chance with that as any other." VICTOR HUGO'S RHETORIC.-Victor Hugo, in an address to the exiles of Europe, speaks of "that logic of continued progress, that thirst for the horizon." He says "Every where that mighty victory which is called labor in that mighty effulgence which is called peace." "War is a wholesale gravedigger who asks high wages for his work." "There now hang, above the head of Bona parte, two winding sheets-the windingsheet of the people, and the winding-sheet of the army; let us wave them without respite. Let our voices be heard incessantly and above all other sounds, at the bounds of the hori zon-let them have the fearful monotony of the ocean, of the tempest, of the winter storm, of the hurricane, of all the great protesting voices of Nature!" From Hogg's Instructor. DELTA AND HIS WRITINGS. BY W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D. d. SOME ten or twelve years ago, there might be seen, any day between the hours of ten and two, perambulating the streets of Musselburgh, or, mounted on a vigorous hack, pursuing some one of the many roads and cross-roads that intersect the parish of Inveresk, a tall, well-built man, of kindly but somewhat pensive aspect, and with a clear gray eye, that ranged, with dilated orb, over the outspread landscape, or, in quick and furtive glances, surveyed the manners and forms of those who are moving around him. In his general exterior there was nothing to indicate to the stranger that he was in any remarkable way distinguishable from the many. There was nothing professional about him, and nobody would have taken him for a literary man. He cultivated none of those oddities or eccentricities by which artists and literateurs often think meet to single themselves out from the herd. His hair was cropped and his beard shaven like those of any ordinary Christian; his costume was that which convenience and usage dictated; and he indulged a very commonplace taste for clean linen and reputable hats. His whole appearance was that of a respectable country gentleman, whom one would expect to find learned in the matter of road-trusts, profound on poor-laws and vagrancy, and skilled in the mysteries of breeding and cropping. If, however, you applied to him the test which Johnson suggested as sufficient to elicit the manifestation of the extraordinary powers of Burke, you would speedily find that you had got into the presence of no ordinary man. And if you felt anxious to know who he was that had so struck you during the few moments of a casual interview, you would have needed only to call to you the first boy you met, and put "Sir, if a man were to go by chance at the same time with Burke under a shed to shun a shower, he would say, this is an extraordinary man.'"-Boswell's Johnson. the question to him, to be told-" Him? ou, that's just the doctor;-Dailta, ye ken." A man universally known and much esteemed in "the honest town," was this same Delta. Musselburgh, albeit not greatly smitten with the love of letters, was proud of him proud of his literary reputation, and of the honor which she felt to be reflected on her own gray front from the brightness which had gathered round the name of this one of her sons. And he was beloved as he was honored; for he had grown up, in the view of all men there, as a man of pure morals, of kindly speech, and of most benevolent action. On the monument which his fellow-townsmen, with the aid of others who admired his genius or loved his worth, have erected to his memory, it is recorded that he was "beloved as a man, honored as a citizen, esteemed as a physician, and celebrated as a poet." This is no lying epitaph. The eulogy is as true as it is lofty. In all these respects David Macbeth Moir had claims upon public respect; and the eulogium his friends have engraven in stone on that monument only expresses what all knew to be true. It is not the design of the present paper to dwell on Mr. Moir's merits as a man, as a citizen, or as a physician; nor is it the purpose of the writer to attempt any narrative of the events of his life. That duty has been already done, in a manner that leaves little to be desired, by his friend Mr. Aird, in the biographical sketch prefixed to his collected poems. It is as a literary man, and chiefly as a poet, that I would now consider him; with a view to point out, in such measure as I can reach, his peculiar qualities as a writer. I am not about to pronounce his eulogy; I would only, with his works in my * The Poetical Works of David Macbeth Moir (Delta). Edited by THOMAS AIRD. With a Memoir of the Author. 2 Vols. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood & Sons. able to weave. Still hand, attempt to describe what I find in, ceedingly interesting, exhibiting, as they do, them that is characteristic and praiseworthy. not only admirable narrative power, but a As one who much esteemed him in life, and fine genial spirit, a hearty sympathy with who still feels his loss, I crave permission genius, and a generous, though at the same reverently to approach his sepulchre, and time discriminating, appreciation of the merhang on it such simple chaplet as I may be its of brethren of the same craft. more conspicuously are these qualities exhibited in his "Lectures on the Poetical Literature of the Past Half Century," delivered only a few months before his death at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution. The English language contains few works of criticism so deeply imbued with a sincere, candid, and genial spirit as this is. In estimating the merits of each of the numerous writers whose works he passes in review, the author never seems for one moment to forget the respect due to genius, or to allow one feeling of a sectarian or party kind to bias his judgment. Unlike many critics who are continually on the outlook for faults, his eye seems ever to be scanning the page in search of something he can hail and laud as a beauty and an excellence; and when he finds this, he never fails to speak of it heartily, and with a manly sincerity. At the same time, his judgments are not indiscriminate. He was not a mere voracious devourer of poetry, to whom nothing would come wrong. On the contrary, his taste was refined, and in some respects even fastidious, and he was quite as sensible of what was offensive or feeble in composition, as he was apprehensive of what was pure and good. But in expressing his censures there is nothing bitter-nothing that strikes the reader as prompted by personal feeling-nothing that you can put down to the score of vanity, sensoriousness or malice. It may not be possible always to agree with the judgment he pronounces; but it is just as impossible to doubt that it was uttered by him in perfe good faith, and as the result of a candid and careful survey. Mr. Moir's literary career may be said to have extended over a period of very nearly forty years; his first publication having made its appearance in a provincial journal in 1812, and his latest having been contributed to "Blackwood's Magazine" only a few weeks before his death, in 1851. During this period his contributions to literature were many and various. To "Blackwood" alone he furnished 370 articles in prose and verse, and on a great diversity of subjects, as well as in almost every conceivable style. Besides these, he wrote history-he wrote biography -he wrote criticism--he wrote fiction-he wrote poetry--he wrote papers on antiquarian, on medical, and on agricultural subjects. Few men, exclusively devoted to literature as a profession, have contributed more largely or more variously to the literature of their day than he did. A most facile pen he must have commanded, to write so much!--a most versatile genius he must have possessed, to write on such diversified topics-and a most active, diligent, industrious, time-redeeming habit he must have formed, to be able, amid the burdens and engrossments of a laborious and anxious profession, to find either mental freedom enough to compose, or time and strength enough to commit to paper, such a large amount of literary work, on such a variety of subjects, many of which required both much thought and elaborate research! Of all his literary productions it is not possible to speak here in detail. I must, therefore, dismiss several of them with a mere passing notice. Of his professional publications it may suffice to say, that they have commanded the respect of those in the profession most competent to judge of their merits; and of one of them, his unfinished "History of Medicine," it may be permitted me to say that, even for the unprofessional reader, it possesses many attractions, from the pellucid stream of its narrative, the large amount of authentic information which it supplies, and the interesting light it throws on the early speculations of ingenious and thoughtful men on the sources of disease, and the best methods and means of cure. The biographical sketches which he furnished of some of his literary friends, especially those of Galt, Balfour, and Macnish, are ex As he took a deep interest in public questions, his pen was sometimes employed on articles of a political kind. In this depart ment, however, he was less successful, I'ven ture to think, than in any of the others he attempted. The kind of writing which is required for telling political articles was not congenial to his peculiar cast of mind. It was not that he wanted knowledge; it was not that he was deficient in zeal; but he lacked gall, and his pen was not sufficiently bold and dashing to produce what would stand comparison with the leaders of our great newspapers, or the political articles of our first-class journals. more exquisite pathos than in some of the scenes in both of these fictions: in the scene, for instance, between the Antiquary and the Fisherman, whose stern and iron nature broke down under the loss of his son, and carried with it the stoic pride and cynicism of his learned visitor; or in the scene in which Davie Deans receives the news of his daughter's sin and shame, and in his deep agony, which all human sympathy or aid is impotent to relieve, entreats his well-meaning friends to leave him?" Leave me, sirs Many of his compositions consist of short prose tales, contributed originally to the Magazines of the Annuals. In these stories he confines himself usually to a simple and explicit narrative; without any intricacy of plot, or any attempt at minute analysis of character or motive. His style and method in these compositions, may be designated the Scottish, as distinguished from that which the great masters of English story-telling exhibit. He does not play the philosopher like Bulwer Lytton; nor does he paint in minute and often gossamer lines, like Dick-leave me. I maun warstle wi' this trial in ens; nor does he wield the scalpel, and lay bare, with the coolness and precision of an anatomist, all the secrets of the human heart, like Thackeray. He tells his story rather as Galt or Hogg tell theirs, or as Scott used to tell his oral fictions to his friends after dinner, in a plain, straight-forward way, with the air of a man who believes the whole to be literally true, and who enters himself heartily and wholly into his relation. This style of narrative was admirably adapted to his peculiar cast of mind, and it enabled him to give full scope and free play to two of the most decided of his mental peculiarities-his power of the pathetic, and his power of the humorous. privacy, and on my knees;" or in the scenes between Jeanie Deans and the Duke of Argyle and Queen Caroline, where the stout but tender-souled girl pleads with all the rich eloquence of the heart for her sister's life? In the "Heart of Midlothian," indeed, the humor and the pathos are so intermixed, that it is hard to say sometimes whether one should laugh or cry. In such a combination we feel at once the attribute of genius. It is the product of that delicate susceptibility, bestowed only on the finer spirits, which makes the soul respond at once to all the touches of nature, as the strings of an Eolian harp murmur to every breeze that sweeps across it. In men of genius these two powers are These remarks are intended to apply exusually developed in unison, and almost in clusively to humor, properly so called-huequal measure; for, though according to the mor as distinguished from that cold, clear, popular belief smiles and tears are the very sparkling vivacity which comes forth in what antitheses of each other, it generally happens is commonly denominated wit. By many, that men who are easily moved to the one, indeed, these two are regarded as only difare no less easily moved to the other. Not ferent forms of the same faculty; but an that every man of genius is endowed with accurate analysis shows them to be esseneither susceptibility; for there are instances tially diverse; and experience confirms this, of men of the highest genius who seem to for it is rare to find a man who excels in have possessed hardly any sense of either both. We may, indeed, be reminded of the pathetic or the ludicrous-men over Shakspeare, who is equally humorous and whose calm and statue-like souls no rippling witty; but Shakspeare's is an exceptional wave of tenderness or of fun ever seems to case, in all such questions; for in his manyhave broken. What I mean is, that when-sided genius there was such a combination ever a man of genius has the one suscepti- of faculties, that he stands by himself in unbility, he usually has the other in an equal, approachable majestyor nearly equal degree. In such men the fountain of laughter and the fountain of tears usually lie hard by each other, and the gushing waters of the one often flow over and mingle with those of the other. How strikingly is this seen in Sir Walter Scott! What can be more deeply pathetic than some of his scenes what more richly humorous than others! Take, for instance, the "Antiquary," and the "Heart of Midlothian:" where shall we find richer humor than that which sparkles in the delineation of Oldbuck of Monkbarns, and the Laird of Dumbiedy kes? where "Not one, but all mankind's epitome." In men, as we ordinarily find them, the two might be expected, for their nature is differare usually disjoined; and this is only what ent. humor of the imagination. The former is Wit is more a quality of the intellect; usually associated with quickness and acuteand keenness of sensibility. Wit is critical, ness of perception; the latter with breadth often sarcastic and biting; humor is genial, sympathetic, and kindly. The witty man makes us smile at his dexterity; the humor |