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HARYARD

COLLEGE

LIBRANT

3148

18

THE

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE,

AND

LITERARY MISCELLANY,

BEING A NEW SERIES OF

The Scots Magazine.

JANUARY 1820.

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CONTENTS.

Reflections on a New Year............................... 3
Ivanhoe, by the Author of Waverley, &c. 7
Journal of a Visit to Holland. Letter

VIII..........

On the University of Cambridge.

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Society of Arts in Edinburgh.-New Siliceous Grass.-Glass from Straw. -Annual Quantity of Salt raised from Earth in Europe.-Silk of the Pinna Marina-Canary Bird without Feathers.-Method of taking Impressions of Gems end Seals in Shell-lac.-Experiments on the Colour of Minerals.-Economy of Fuel. -Statistics of Austria.-Excavations at Pompeii.-Manuscript of the Iliad. -Greatest Waterfall in Europe discovered in Lapland, &c. Works preparing for Publication Monthly List of New Publications

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MONTHLY REGISTER.

47

Remarks on Williams's Travels in Italy

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and Greece.

49

Proceedings of Parliament

76

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The Correspondents of the EDINBURGH MAGAZINE AND LITERARY MISCELLANY are respectfully requested to transmit their Communications for the Editor to ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE and COMPANY, Edinburgh, or LONGMAN and COMPANY, London; to whom also orders for the Work should be particularly addressed.

Printed by George Ramsay & Co.

THE

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE,

AND

LITERARY MISCELLANY.

JANUARY 1820.

REFLECTIONS ON A NEW YEAR.

Ox entering upon another year of our labours, it is natural, and not unwise, to pause a little in our course, and to collect a few of those reflections, which the observation of passing years cannot but awaken. Every year, as it leaves us, is bringing us so much nearer the final close of all our years upon earth, and when we contemplate that termination, not a distant one, of pursuits and anxieties which now seem so important, it is scarcely possible not to have some feeling of their shadowy nature, and to regard them with a temper somewhat different from that which they commonly excite in us. We cannot but smile, in this review, at the fretting and disturbance, which even the most trivial of those cares may have occasioned to us; they are already swallowed up in the abyss of past time, yet we are, perhaps, thoughtlessly permitting our selves again to be discomposed by circumstances equally insignificant, which will, in their turn, pass away with as little influence upon the solid materials of our happiness, or from which we ourselves shall pass away still more effectually. We cannot look back, too, upon any past year, without seeing the forms of many whom we loved and valued, first vanishing from our sight, and then, by degrees, from our imaginations. In this region of shadows, the human beings, with whom our sentiments of happiness or of admiration have been most intimately blended, partake of the same unsubstantial existence with every thing else which occupies us;

-new actors crowd in upon the stage, with whom our interests and affections are again insensibly mingled,➡ and when we ourselves shall remove from it, we must not imagine that the blank which we occasion, will be at all wider or more deeply felt. There is something in all this humiliating to our self-estimation, but it is an useful lesson, and a sound estimate of life and of ourselves, is much more valuable than a flattering one. We need not be afraid that it will render us either too indifferent in the game of life, or too much overwhelmed with our own insignificance,-human nature is so deeply attached to itself and to every thing about it, that it is seldom in any great hazard of falling into such an extreme; our enterprises," whether " of great pith and moment" or no, commonly occupy us too exclusively to be in much danger of being "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,"-but if we thought a little more, there might be more wisdom in our aims, and less disappointment in their failure. It is useful to acquire a habit of" reasoning thus with life," that we may not have our expectations raised too high, and that we may easily slide along in the stream of time, without any obstructions from cross accidents without, or from our own overweening humours within.

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It is far, however, from our wish to inculcate an insensibility to the events of life. We wish men to be as happy as possible amidst the chances which they may encounter, but by no means to be unconcerned or forgetful. On the contrary, we think that disas

sorely wounded in its course. In such a world, it does not become us to go on unthinkingly; one moment may tear up from the roots the most firmly established systems of human happiness; and while such things are, thought and sentiment seem far more suited to our condition than careless gaiety and forgetfulness.

ter or disappointment, if it affects us too much at the time, commonly passes away too soon from our recollection. We are in a state of despair, perhaps, for a few days, whether it be occasioned by the loss of a dear friend, or of a thousand pounds, -by the alarm of a radical mob, or by a sarcasm in some ludicrous publication, and then we think no more of our friend or of our fears,-forget that we have been able to live, even without our money, and that we have not found the jest a death-blow. The memory of some of the most insignificant of such adventures, indeed, is apt, we fear, to stick longer by us, than that of the more weighty and important; little paltry passions are mingled with these; but our friends leave us, and we too soon get new ones, and our worst alarms and cross accidents pass away without either leaving us grateful for their removal, or rendering us wiser again at their return, by the experience that we had so much overrated them. We do not, however, mean to enter at present into any regular moral discussion. It is enough to exercise that degree of reflection, which, in these moments, almost every one is prompted to. The year which has just gone, like every other before it, will, if we give way to such reflections, tend both to loosen an inordinate love of life, and to ele--and in order to check it, it has been vate our view to nobler prospects.

There are few men in this short period who have not had occasion to lament over the failure of some of their most favourite views of happiness. Both in public and private it has contained losses and disappointments to all. We have, in this journal, had occasion to record the deaths of great and excellent men in the prominent positions of rank or of genius. These have been public losses, and they are of a kind to which the eyes of all are directed. At this moment, in our sister island, a general mourning prevails over the fate of an illustrious and virtuous Lady, the partner of the representative of majesty. Such an event draws all eyes to regard it, yet valuable wives and mothers have been departing around us, likewise, in private life, and many a heart that beat high with hope and joy in the beginning of the last year, has been

The Countess Talbot.

The year which has left us has been one likewise of much suffering, from the distresses of the times. Here, too, there has been a disappointinent. We too readily looked to the close of that tremendous war which for so many years darkened our prospects, as to the close of every human ill. We almost seemed to think that a millenium was in its progress; but we have had both greater suffering and alarm, in these days of peace, than we had to endure during the worst periods of the war. At least so we are apt to think at present, for we always reckon the present evil as the worst. We have had to witness the melancholy spectre of poverty making its gigantic progress through our mercantile population, and not having its arrows blunted by the shield of religion, but rather envenomed, and made infinitely more destructive, by the poison of infidelity. The bad spirit of an unhallowed licentiousness has but too fatally spread around us,

thought necessary to have recourse to such measures as formerly seemed to he justified, only, by the alarm of a foreign enemy, abetting the projects of the disaffected at home. It is amidst such impressions, public and private, that we have entered upon a new year, and we can scarcely feel those joyful sentiments of mutual congratulation of which that season is commonly so profuse. We see not the termination of gloom and apprehension, and we set down our steps insecurely and with trembling.

There is sometimes an advantage, however, in things reaching their acme. It is then commonly observed, that they are on the point of change. Evils, indeed, produce their own cure, and we are much satisfied of the existence of that vis medicatrix naturæ, by which health is restored in the disorders of the world. It is true, that these disorders often break out to such a degree, as to occasion vast inconvenience, and the process of cure goes on through

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