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Hemton Hamten!

Never more on earth we'll stampen!

Never, never mair we'll swim,

On Douglas' wild and savage stream; Where the chieftain's castle stood, Who warm'd it with invaders blood: Never, hastening down the Clyde, We'll track its passage to the tide; Down Stonebyres, at midnight hour, And passing Bothwell's massy tower, To where Dumbarton's castle steep, Frowns upon the glittering deep : Never up the Leven take

Our course to lovely Lomond's lake.

Hemton Hamten!. Never more on earth we'll stampen! 2. Mab.

Hasten hasten! let us goWither! fairy bowers below!-SCOTIA, Country of my birth, Dearest, dearest land on earth! Scenes from which I must depart, For every scene now tears my heart; Scenes where pleas'd I want to dwell, Native land Farewell! Farewell!

P. 192.

Nor are his humorous songs unpleasant."

We were in general pleased with his songs. This, it appears to us, is, the only way in which he uses the Scottish dialect with advantage. The following stanza has a good deal of the spirit of Burns.

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The poetical part, however, constitutes only about a third of this volume. We have first long dissertations on pastoral poetry, and long notes on these dissertations, which occupy nearly half; and we have also notes of considerable length on the poem itself. The abstruse and ostentatious learning which these display, forms a curious contrast with the rudeness of the poetical part of the work. We have no doubt of the author's learning, but we would willingly have rested satisfied with less elaborate proofs of it. Writers of every time, and on every subject, ancient and modern, philosophers and poets, are all brought in to contribute their mite; and united, form a kind of patch work, in which the original part serves only to fill up the interstices. Of the defects of this stile of composition no one seems more sensible than the author himself, who declares that the use of it is absolutely hostile to simple and elegant compo"sition." We never met with a

complete example of the 12

Video meliora, proboque, Deteriora sequor.

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When, however, we at length succeeded in finding out a few passages, they certainly appeared such as to cause regret that he had not trusted more to the resources of his own mind. They discover great vigour and originality of thinking; and tho' sometimes written in too hurried and careless a manner, are often extremely well expressed; such is the following:

Whenever it becomes fashionable to praise an old writer, it is astonishing what eulogies are lavished upon him; even his having had common sense becomes a subject of wonderand admiration. Thus the old editors of the Greek tragedians generally mark with commias those passages in which it is asserted that life is short, or fortune, is changeable, astonished that Pagans should make such profound discoveries. The Earl of Orford in his Anecdotes, and J. Warton in his Essay on Pope, extol Milton to the skies, and pronounce him the father of modern gardening, because he has not introduced clipt hedges, gravel walks, and marble fountains, into the Garden of Eden! as if there was much merit in avoiding a fault which no writer of common sense could possibly have com. mitted. We see that Leisure is painted by him as taking his pleasure in trim gardens; but he had judgement enough to avoid painting the hand of art as appearing where Nature "wanton'd as in her prime." These critics might as well praise that most divine of bards because he does not describe Adam as wearing a cocked hat, or instead of a bower, living in a palace adorned with paintings similar to those of Titian and Corregio.

P. 100.

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ted a deep sensibility, almost as excessive as that of Rousseau. He described the emotions of his own feeling heart; he painted exactly the scenery of nature and manners of rustic life; and consequently the charm of his writings will be always felt by him who has an observing eye, and a sympathizing mind. But though Burns was a great genius, I do not think that his fancy had much range, that he belonged to the same class, that he was moulded, if I may say so, in the same model with a Homer, a Virgil, a Milton, or an Ariosto. Fitted to delineate the strong but fleeting emotion of the hour, I know not if he could have formed a large plan, and kept it steadily in his imagination, soar. ing, in order to enrich it, from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven.. The high poetical spirit does not perhaps consist in the Sybilline fury, in the agitation of an hour; it has much sensibility indeed, but its sensibility is calm and dignified, and subjected to the understanding.— Newton is said to have declared, that his powers of discovery consisted chiefly in his patience, in his strength and steadiness of thought, which never lost sight of an object once fixed before it. Thus it was not carried away in the current of ideas; thus the object, which at first was scarcely seen by the dawnings of a faint light, shone more and more, till it was illuminated by the glories of the perfect day. Such too seems to have been the genius of Milton; the scene which his imagination painted as lovely, and his undertanding had approved, he could keep before him, undisturbed by the violence of passionate transport; when it was sketched in immortal verse, he could calmly, or at least only with dignified and pleasing emotion, create P. 30.

a new one.

and

The following passage, introduced by the mention of Johnson's aversion to pastoral poetry, deserves also to be quoted.

To a person whose vision was imperfect, who was enamoured of a town life, and who considered a chair in a tavern as the throne of happiness; to a person violent emotions, accustomed to intelwhose mind was agitated by a series of lectual entertainment, to the agitation of contest, and the triumph of victory; to such a person, the scenes of the country

might have been languid and uninteresting. The principal charm of a rural lif is the tra quillity it represents; but to a mind like Johnson's, tranquillity was a curse. Indeed I do not know, if a person of much mental energy, unless a proprietor, or landscape painter, can long feel delight from a tranquil peaceful scenery. The glittering freshness of a summer day, "when God hath showered the earth," when a pearl hangs on every thorn and spike of grass; when the song of rapture is loud in the birchen groves, which shed new fragrance, and display a lovelier green; while the rainbow smiles above, and below every field is smoking incenseSuch a scene, I must own delights, or rather fills with transport. It is delight. ful also, while sheltered by a rock or forest, to behold the storm travelling over the heath, or the furious agitation of the waves; but I think a mere placid landscape cannot long fill the mind, but always leaves it empty and dissatisfied. P. 35.

In short, we are disposed to augur well of this author; and the only blame we attach to him is, that in poetry he has descended below the level of his genius, and that in prose he has given us too little of his own composition. Whether the brilliant passages in his present performance will be sufficient to buoy up the rest, we pretend not to foretell. But

though they should not, we advise him not to be discouraged, Provided he can abjure Scottish pastoral, and can shake off the mania of quotation, we have no doubt of his producing something, which may deserv edly raise his reputation; and we shall be happy, at a future period, to hear a more unqualified testimony to his merits.

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rischal College and University of Aberdeen. Including many of his original letters. By SIR WILLIAM FORBES of Pitsligo, Bart. 2 vols. 4to. 21. 128. 6d. fine paper 51. 56. 2. The Poetical Works of Sir David Lindsay of the mount, Lion King at Arms under James V. A new edition, corrected and enlarged; with a life of the Author; Piefatory Dissertations; and an appropriate Glossary, By GEORGE CHALMERS, F. R. S. S. A. 3 vole. crown 8vo. l. 168.

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3. The Farmers Magazine N°. XXVI. 4. The Edinburgh Medical Journal N°. VII. Price 3s.

SCOTTISH Literary Intelligence.

AMES HOGG, well known by the appellation of the Ettrick Shepherd, has a volume in the press, entitled the Mountain Bard; consisting of Scottish and English Ballads, Songs, &c. founded on facts and legendary tales. To readers of this Miscellany it cannot be necessary to expatiate on the merits of Mr Hogg, nor on those peculiar disadvantages of fortune and situation by which these merits are enhan” ced. His compositions, we have no doubt, will be found fully equal, to several, which in England have in similar circumstances experienced the most lavish patronage. The Highland Society of Scotland have in the press a third volume of their Prize-essays and Transactions. To these will be prefixed an account of the Principal Proceedings of the Society since 1803, drawn up by Mr Mackenzie.

Dr Gerard, Professor of Divinity at Aberdeen, is preparing to publish, in one volume 8vo. a work entitled, Institutes of Biblical Criticism; or, Heads of the Course of Lectures on that subject, read in the University and King's College.

Mr

Mr James Wardrope, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, will soon publish, Essays on the Pathology of the Human Eye, the various morbid appearan. ces of which will be illustrated by coloured engravings.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE, ENGLISH

and FOREIGN.

ders in Families and Individuals. These cases have been kept for several years will be named, as well as by the editor, by various medical gentlemen, who who will accompany them occasionally by practical observations.

The two great sarcophagi, which were taken among the other antiques from the French at Alexandria, have been recently removed from the courtyard of the British Museum to the new building in the garden intended for ther reception of the Townley collection of marbles and the Egyptian and other an

DR Willan has in the press a work tiquities.

on the Cow-pox, and on its varieties and anomalies, to be illustrated by engravings, in the manner of his work on Cutaneous Diseases. It comprizes the following sections:

1. On the Combined Inoculation of the Variolous and Vaccine Fluids.

2. On the Characteristics and Effects of Perfect Vaccination.

3. On Imperfect Vaccination."

4. Smallpox subsequent to Vaccina. tion.

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5. On the Cutaneous and Glandular Diseases imputed to Vaccine Inoculation. 6. On the Chicken-pox and Swinepox,

7• On the Inoculation of the Chicken

pox.

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8. Extermination of the Small-pox. The Appendix consists of Letters from Dr. Jenner, and other physicians and surgeons in the principal towns of Great Britain and Ireland.

Lord Orford's Royal and Noble Authors are about to make their appearance in a splendid form. They are to be accompanied by portraits, and speci. mens of the writings of the different authors, which will extend them to several volumes. The editor is Mr T, Park.

Dr. Walcot has returned to the metroplis from Fowey, and is at this time employed in printing a new collection of Odes and Elegies in his own inimitable style, to be intitled Tristia, or the Sorrows of Peter. The idea is founded on his alledged exclusion from his share of the loaves and fishes during the late changes in Administration.

Dr. Beddoes has in the press a Report from an institution at Bristol for investigating the Origin, and cutting short the Progress, of Consumption, Scrophula, and other prevalent disor

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The Arundel, Selden, and Pomfret marbles, statues, &c. at present deposited in the Moral Philosophy School at ? Oxford, are shortly to be removed to: the Radcliff Library.

Dr. John Moodie, of Bath, who, was employed with the forces during the late war in India, proposes to publisis by subscription, A History of the Military Operations of the British Forces in Hindoostan, from the Commencement. of the war with France, in 1744, to the conclusion of the peace with Tippoo Sultan in 1784; comprizing a narrative of the transactions of the English nation in India, during a period of Forty Years. The Work will be elegantly printed, and comprised in two large volumes, royal quarto, and will be embellished with maps, charts, plans, and views, illustrative of the subject.

A new weekly paper, on an improved and liberal plan, is announced at Oxford, under the title of the Oxford U. niversity and City Herald, and Midland County Chronicle; with the Motto, Pro Rege, Lege, Aris, et Focis. This makes the 203rd weekly provincial pub lication in Great Britain and Ireland, of each of which one thousand copies are sold on the average. At sixpence each Paper, the annual return to the propri etors is 263,90ol. and at the duty of threepence-halfpenny per Paper, they yield to the State 154,000l. per annum. Each Paper contains also an average of forty Advertisements yielding to the proprietors, at seven shillings each, the sum of 147,7841. per annum; and the duty, at three shillings per Advertisement, yields to the State 63,3361. per annum.

Mr. Maurice announces a Poem, decorated with engravings, On Richmond Hill; intended to illustrate the princi

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Mr Parkinson's second volume of Organic Remains of a former World, is in considerable forwardness. He has-solicited the favour of such remarks and specimens as may aid him in his inquiries respecting fossil corais, the encrinus, starstones, trochites, entrochites.

A second volume, containing Cambridgehsire, Cheshire, and Cornwall, of Magne Britannia, by the Rev. Daniel Lysons, and Samuel Lysons, Esq. is an nounced for early publication. Also, Part the Second, containing twenty-four Views in Cambridge, Cheshire, and Corn wall, of Britannia Depicta.

Mr. Stockdale, the successful pub. lisher of Chauchard's Map, is preparing three grand Imperial and Topographical Maps of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; un forty eight large sheets of atlas paper, each sheet measuring two feet two inches by two feet ten inches. The cost of the Map of Ireland to subscribers wil not exceed three guineas, Scotland two guineas, and that of England and Wales four guineas.

The Rev. Dr. Clarke has in the press Travels through Russia, the Territories of the Cossacs, Kuban Tartary, the Crimea, &c. in a 4to volume with numerous engravings.

Vailant continues to prosecute his African Ornithology. The 25th and 26th livraisons are already published; they terminate the third volume of this splendid work. He has likewise published the 23d livraison of his History of Perroquets. The 24th livraison, which concludes the work, will soon make its appearance.

Latreille has published the first volume of his General History of Insects; a work on which he has been engaged for a considerable time.

Duvernoy has published the three last volumes of Cuvier's Comparative Anatomy; a work which was anxiously expected.

The National Institute of France haş proposed as a subject of a Prize Essay, to be adjudged in july, 1808," To examine what has been the influence of the crusades upon the civil liberty of the people of Europe, upon their civilization, and upon the progress of their learning, commerce, and industry." The discourse is to be written in French or Latin, and must be delivered" n before the 1st of April, 1808. The prize is a gold medal of 1500 francs in value.

The Emperor Alexander has founded a college at Teflis in Georgia. At the head of this establishment has been placed an ecclesiastic, who possesses extensive literary attainments, and a perfect knowledge of the Russian language. Translations of various useful works are already making into the Georgian, and in return the literature of Russia expects others of an ancient Georgian poet named Russawell, and of a celebrated ro mance-writer of the same country, Sergei Tmogwell.

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Colonel Lewis, who was commissioned in 1804, by the President of the United States, to explore the sources of the Missouri, ascended this space of five hundred leagues," ped in 47 of latitude in order to pass the winter. Here the temperature was so rigorous that the snow, which equalled two feet in thickness, did not disappear until the end of March. He found different colonies of Indians, who insgeueral gave him a good reception, and furnished him with what necessaries he required. They informed him he would have two hundred leagues to travel before reaching the great cataract, and about the same number of leagues farther before arriving at the great mountains whence the Missouri has its source; and that on crossing these mountains, he would immediately reach the South Sea. The lesser torrents which flow into this "river were all distinguished by French names; from which it is presumable that the French from Canada had penetrated into these countries, which have since been visited by Mackenzie..

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