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But where the ship's huge shadow lay,
The charmed water burnt alway
A still and awful red.

"Beyond the shadow of the ship
I watched the water-snakes:

They moved in tracts of shining white, And when they reared, the elfish light Fell off in hoary flakes.

"Within the shadow of the ship I watched their rich attire:

track

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coiled and swam ; and every
Was a flash of golden fire.

"O happy living things! no tongue
their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware:

Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.

"The selfsame moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea."

In reference to another senseless objection, we may be pardoned for saying, what all but idiots know, that the crime of one man involves in its punishment the death of hundreds and thousands-on shore and at sea-even in the ordinary course of nature-and while death is their doom, life is his, as in this strangest of all shadows of the wild ways of Providence. Nor were the rest of the crew innocent, for they approved the deed-they suffer and die-and after death, the chief criminal beholds their beatified spirits-but he

who in wantonness and madness killed the beautiful bird, that came out of the snow-cloud whiter than snow, and kept for days sailing along with the ship on wings whiter than ever were hers in the sunshine-he lives on a heavier doom-and in his ceaseless trouble has but one consolation, and out of it the hope arises that enables him to dree his rueful penance-the Christian hope that his confession may soften other hearts in the hardness, or awaken them from the carelessness of cruelty, and thus be of avail for his own sake before the throne of justice and of mercy at the last day.

"O wedding-guest! this soul hath been
Alone on a wide wide sea:

So lonely 'twas, that God himself
Scarce seemed there to be.

"O sweeter than the marriage-feast,
'Tis sweeter far to me,
To walk together to the kirk
With a goodly company!

"To walk together to the kirk,
And all together pray,

While each to his great Father bends,
Old men, and babes, and loving friends,
And youths and maidens gay!
"Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou wedding guest!
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
"He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."

DEATH OF MR BLACKWOOD.

Ir is expected, we hope without presumption, that the habitual readers of this Magazine will hear with regret that he to whom it owed its name and existence, and who for seventeen years superintended all its concerns with industrious zeal, is no more among us. Mr WILLIAM BLACKWOOD died at his house, in Ainslie Place, Edinburgh, on Tuesday, the 16th of September, at 6 o'clock A. M., in the fifty-eighth year of his age. His disease had been from the first pronounced incurable by his physicians. Four months of suffering, in part intense, exhausted by slow degrees all his physical energies, but left his temper calm and unruffled, and his intellect entire and vigorous even to the last. He had thus what no good man will consider as a slight privilege-that of contemplating the approach of death with the clearness and full strength of his mind and faculties, and of instructing those around him by solemn precept and memorable example, by what means alone, humanity, conscious of its own frailty, can sustain that prospect with humble serenity.

Mr BLACKWOOD, though his respectable parents were in a much humbler station of life than that which he ultimately occupied, had received an excellent early education; and it was his boyish devotion to literature which determined them in the choice of his calling. He served his apprenticeship with the well-known house of Bell and Bradfute; and before he quitted their roof, had so largely stored his mind with reading of all sorts, but more especially Scottish History and Antiquities, that on his establishing himself in business, his accomplishments soon attracted the notice of persons whose good opinion was distinction. For many years he confined his attention almost exclusively to the classical and antiquarian branches of the trade, and was regarded as one of the best informed booksellers of that class in the kingdom; but on removing from the Old to the New Town of Edinburgh, in 1816, he disposed of his stock, and thenceforth applied himself, with characteristic ardour, to general literature, and the business of a popular publisher. In April, 1817, he put forth the first Number of this Journal-the most important feature of his professional career. He had long before contemplated the possibility of once more raising magazine literature to a rank not altogether unworthy of the great names which had been enlisted in its service in a preceding age: it was no sudden or fortuitous suggestion which prompted him to take up the enterprise, in which he was afterwards so preeminently successful as to command many honourable imitators. From an early period of its progress, his Magazine engrossed a very large share of his time; and though he scarcely ever wrote for its pages himself, the general management and arrangement of it, with the very extensive literary correspondence which this involved, and the constant superintendence of the press, would have been more than enough to occupy entirely any man but one of first-rate energies.

No man ever conducted business of all sorts in a more direct and manly manner. His opinion was on all occasions distinctly expressedhis questions were ever explicit-his answers conclusive. His sincerity might sometimes be considered as rough, but no human being ever

accused him either of flattering or of shuffling; and those men of letters who were in frequent communication with him, soon conceived a respect and confidence for him, which, save in a very few instances, ripened into cordial regard and friendship. The masculine steadiness, and imperturbable resolution of his character, were impressed on all his proceedings; and it will be allowed by those who watched him through his career, as the Publisher of a Literary and Political Miscellany, that these qualities were more than once very severely tested. He dealt by parties exactly as he did by individuals. Whether his principles were right or wrong, they were his, and he never compromised or complimented away one tittle of them. No changes, either of men or of measures, ever dimmed his eye, or checked his courage.

To youthful merit he was a ready and a generous friend; and to literary persons of good moral character, when involved in pecuniary distress, he delighted to extend a bountiful hand. He was in all respects a man of large and liberal heart and temper.

During some of the best years of his life, he found time, in the midst of his own pressing business, to take rather a prominent part in the affairs of the City of Edinburgh as a Magistrate; and now that he is no more, it will be admitted, we doubt not, by those who most closely observed, and most constantly opposed him in this capacity, that he exhibited on all occasions perfect fairness of purpose, and often, in the conduct of debate, and the management of less vigorous minds, a very rare degree of tact and sagacity. His complete personal exemption from the slightest suspicion of jobbing or manoeuvring, was acknowledged on all hands; and, as the civic records can show, the most determined enemy of what was called Reform, was, in his sphere, the unwearied, though not always the triumphant assailant of practical mischiefs. Already, we are well assured, the impression is strong and general among the citizens of Edinburgh, of all shades of political sentiment, that in WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, they have lost a great light and ornament of their order—a man of high honour and principle, pure and patriotic motives, and very extraordinary capacity.

In the private relations, as in the public conduct of his life, he may safely be recommended as a model to those who come after him. He has left a widow, exemplary in all the domestic virtues, and a large family, some of them very young; his two eldest sons will carry on the business, in which, from boyhood, they were associated with their honoured parent; and as they are generally esteemed for their amiable dispositions, their talents, and their integrity, it cannot be doubted, that if they continue to tread in his footsteps, they will not want to aid and sustain them under the load of duty which has untimely devolved on them, the assistance of their father's friends, and the favour of that great party, which, through evil report and through good report, he most strenuously and efficiently served.

Printed by Ballantyne and Company, Paul's Work, Edinburgh,

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

No. CCXXVIII. NOVEMBER, 1834. VOL. XXXVI.

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WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, NO. 45, GEORGE STREET,
EDINBURGH;

AND T. CADELL, STRAND, LONDON.

To whom Communications (post paid) may be addressed.

SOLD ALSO BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND CO. EDINBURGH.

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