"While maniac Winter rages o'er The hills, whence classic Farrow flows; Or sweeping wild a waste of snows."' The parish of Yarrow is eight miles west from Selkirk, about 18 miles in length, 16 miles at its greatest breadth, and is calculated to contain 60,000 acres, very little of which is inclosed. Its resident population in 1801 was 2116, but in 1811 was reduced to 1225. These extracts, which are fair samples of the articles contained in the volumes, shew that Mr. C. has been richly supplied with materials, and that the accounts of places are as minute as they could be expected to be in a work of this kind. Since the islands of the British seas are here brought under our notice, we must not altogether pass them over in silence: but, as we have not much room to spare, we shall exhibit only a part of the article on the ⚫ SCILLY ISLANDS. These are a cluster of islands, situate at the western entrance of the English Channel, and at the distance of 30 miles W. S. W. from the Land's End, in Cornwall. Many of them are barren rocks; only six of the largest being inhabited, the resident population of which, in 1810, was 2375. The vallies are fertile, and well inclosed, and the climate is particularly salubrious. The coast abounds with fish, especially mackarel, pilchards, and ling. It is thought that all these islands anciently made but one; the highest headland of which, now called Scilly or Sylleb, i. e. Flat Rocks dedicated to the Sun, having some little islands scattered round it, imparted its name to its inferiors, and which is now applied to the whole group. It is also conjectured, that they were once joined to the County of Cornwall, and that their separation was occasioned by a great inundation of the sea, at a very remote period. They were called by the Greeks Hesperides and Cassiterides, from their western situation, and from their abounding with tin.-The language spoken here is a mixture of the west-country dialect with the common Eng lish.There is only one clergyman in all the islands. The inhabi tants of Scilly, like those of Jersey, cannot be sued in any of the courts of Westminster, for any matter or cause arising within the same. Felonies, and matters criminal committed here, are ordered to be tried at Launceston; but the High Sheriff for the county of Cornwall has no authority in Scilly, except by permission of the Lord Proprietor. The inhabitants pay neither malt-tax, land-tax, nor excise, and as there is no hereditary land, no person has a vote there for chusing members of Parliament, nor are they represented by any. - The Light-house on St. Agnes is in the latitude of 40° 53′ 30′′ north. On the night of the 22d of October 1707, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel was unfor tunately lost upon the Gilston Rock, on his return from Toulon.' On the nine years which Mr. Carlisle has spent in the exesution of the whole of this most valuable work, he may well look look back with much complacency and satisfaction; and we allow him to feel a national and honourable pride in the assertion that no empire can exhibit a publication similar to the Six Topographical Volumes, which comprehend a description of every Parish in the British Dominions in Europe.' ART. IV. The Ruminator: containing a Series of Moral, Critical, and Sentimental Essays. By Sir Egerton Brydges, K. J., M. P. Crown 8vo. 2 Vols. 18s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1813. A MISCELLANEOUS collection of prose essays, interspersed with poetry, as is the case in these volumes, is so generally attractive, that we are predisposed to be entertained by the perusal of such a publication. Among too many readers, however, a disposition is apparent, when any new work of this kind is submitted to their inspection, to institute invidious comparisons between the merits of present and those of past periodical essayists. We are happy in not feeling conscious of any such bias on our judgment; and while we are in the highest degree thankful to an Addison or a Johnson for their moral and pleasing instructions, we hope that we have some gratitude reserved for the various claims of their followers in the same interesting department of literature. Numerous, too, as have been these claimants on the attention and praise of their countrymen, we by no means consider the field of inquiry, even into the permanent subjects of such compositions, as wholly cultivated. On the contrary, while the gleaners, whò succeeded to the harvest that was swept away by the Spectator and the Rambler, collected an ample produce, they have still left much for their successors. Pathos has not been exhausted by Mackenzie, nor have good sense and good humour worn themselves out in the service of the Looker-on. Manners and customs, it is obvious, are never-failing sources of novel observation to the periodical writer: but these, perhaps, are the least important topics which it is incumbent on him to discuss. While the perpetual allusions to the fashion of the times, whether in male or female society, have now become wearisome in the Spectator, the papers on more serious matters increase every day in value; for, certainly, no subsequent writer has altogether equalled Addison in the natural and impressive manner of exhibiting and recommending the sublimest truths On religious subjects, his style is unrivalled, and leaves us nothing to regret,-in those papers especially which contain his beautiful paraphrases of the Psalms,except their brevity and their rare occurrence. The The more laboured polish of the language of Johnson, and his nervous originality of thought, lend all the attractions of variety to his lucubrations, if they are read alternately with those of his great predecessor: but the manner of the Rambler has of late years been much more frequently the object of uniform imitation than that of the Spectator, in spite of the All Rambler's well-known recommendation of an original *. our writers, indeed, of the present day, fall more or less into the latinized style of English composition; and, besides the sameness of this stiff and dignified mode of expression, the thought is too often inadequate in strength to support the pomp and weight of words in which it is enveloped. We could wish, therefore, for some attempts at the revival, or the imitation at least, of the simple and easy writing of our favourite essayist. -We must cease, however, to wish and to distinguish, or we shall incur the charge of that very querulousness and that disposition to unfair comparison, which we commenced with censuring. We are recalled by the Ruminator, 6 The major part of these essays, (says the author,) as far as No. lxxiii., were first printed in the Censura Literaria, having been commenced in the fourth volume of that work, in January 1807, and continued to the tenth and last, in June 1809. The rest are principally by the author's friend, R. P. Gillies, Esq., the author of "Childe Alarique," except two, for which he is indebted to the eloquent pen of a very learned writer well known to the world, the Rev. Francis Wrangham; and two others, for which he here acknowledges his obligations to his kind friend, the Rev. Montagu Pennington, whose valuable contributions he had already received in the former part: in which also he here begs leave to repeat his warm thanks for the papers furnished to him by Capel Lofft, Esq., whose reputation is too far extended to require any eulogy from the author.' We shall present to our readers the remarks which we have made in the perusal of these volumes, as they occurred to us; conceiving it to be unnecessary, if it were possible, to adopt any more regular plan in criticizing a publication of this nature. In an examination of "The Lay of the last Minstrel," the essayist observes: The beauties of this poem are to be seen in almost every page, while its faults (for it is not wholly exempt from defects) are thinly scattered over the surface, rari nantes in gurgite vasto, neither glaring nor offensive.' It. is beyond the self-controul of our risible muscles for us to read. this paragraph with becoming gravity. Not only the assertion, that the faults of Mr. Scott's first considerable poem are few and slight, must (we think) amuse even that gentleman himself, * Thus it is that the practice of men will ever have more force than their precepts. but but still more the quotation which illustrates such a panegyric. It is precisely the same as that which was put by Fielding into the mouth of the supposed Grub-street critic on one of his burlesque tragedies: "You have indeed a few similes, but they are very thin-sown,-Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto." We are not inclined (we regret to be obliged to confess it) to agree much better with the essayist in his eulogy on the picturesque powers of the author of the Farmer's Boy; an eulogy which occurs in the paper following that which we have just quoted:-but the passage immediately subjoined contains some observations, the spirit of which we highly approve, and which are expressed with elegance: "The mind is surely the scene of action, which we are most interested in studying. When we compare its capacities with those of material power; when we know that in one minute it can perform journies and gain victories, which it would consume the whole lives of the most active travellers and the most able generals to execute, what more copious, what more important theme for delineation can we require? It is this consideration which elevates the study of ethics among the first in the scale of human knowledge; and as long as intellect is superior to matter, it must be classed in the highest rank of philosophy. Its nice and evanescent colours, which, seeming to leave much to conjecture, give to dull faculties an opportunity to call it shadowy and unsubstantial, are the very characteristics, which stamp its value. • Never then let it be said, that the life of a person of genius affords no materials for biography, because it was passed in retirement and inaction. If there remain records of his mental occupations, if his opinions, his feelings, and the rainbow-like colours of his fancy can be remembered and properly told, they will contribute essentially to the best and most interesting department of human intelligence.' We would only ask the author whether, on second thoughts, he would not have written the study of Metaphysics, for the study of Ethics, in the first paragraph? In the discussion on the authenticity of Ossian's Poems, in which the opinion of the essayist leans to the affirmative, (that is, as far as the existence of some originals,) we find the following narrations: I have been told, by a lady now deceased, of high literary re putation, that the late Sir James Macdonald, elder brother of the Chief Baron, assured her, that he could repeat, when a lad, many of the poems translated by Macpherson in their original Erse. A similar assurance I received also myself from a surgeon in the navy, a native. of the isle of Mull, who told me not only that he could repeat many of those poems, but that Macpherson had not selected, or perhaps met with, some of the finest of them; in particular one which is a dialogue between Ossian and a missionary, who was preaching the Christian Christian religion in the Highlands, which he said was the noblest poem he had ever known.' Now it will be manifest that these stories (and a similar one is subjoined) depend on many circumstances, which we have not the means of ascertaining, for their importance in the controversy. Who the lady that vouched for the first fact may have been, we have no right to inquire, provided that we can rely on the present author's opinion of her judgment and accuracy: but, at all events, her evidence is only the copy of a record, and as such not of the highest value. Then, we must observe, the Chief Baron's brother was 'a lad when he could repeat these poems; and the knowlege of a lad is made to identify them with those which Macpherson translated! The surgeon, too, only assured the essayist that he could repeat these poems; and as to what follows about their merit, that is a surgical opinion, and nothing to the purpose. The same remarks are applicable to the Highland fisherman's praise in the story that succeeds; and to his wonder that Ossian had been translated. On the whole, wide of the fact as we think the Ruminator's remark is that the work betrays little if any imitation of those great exemplaria Graca with which the mind of every scholar must be filled,' we are inclined, although with considerable reservation as to the number and extent of the supposed originals, to admit the justice of his concluding observations: Probably in this, as in most things, the truth may lie in the middle. He' (Macpherson) found these songs volitantes per ora virum, defective and imperfect. He supplied those parts which were wanting, added, omitted, and filled up as he thought necessary; and has thus given a work to the world, of the merit of which no greater proof can be required, than that it has been translated into every modern language, and is admired and beautiful in them all.' On this appeal to popular opinion we shall only remark; «Interdum vulgus rectum videt, est ubi peccat." We are sorry to find at page 85. of Vol. i., a glaring instance of the puff direct, though it was only intended for the puff oblique; and we feel the more compelled to notice this, because it is far from the only example of the offence of puffing in the Ruminator. He allows his correspondents to say much too civil things to him: for example: Your Bath correspondent alludes to your juvenile production of Mary de Clifford." I have read that elegant and affecting tale more than once with renewed pleasure,' &c. &c. That the author, however, If so, he may be said to have "shot them flying;" and that he possessed a famous "long bow" is the opinion of many of the dispusants in this question. should |