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sacred and interesting features of the female form. There ought to be but one opinion upon this subject. The female lip, that has been profaned by the touch of any man save one, (unless it be some near and dear relation,) ought to lose all honour and respect. 'Tis sweet, as Moore

says,

"To breathe on those innocent lips,

"A lively contest between the lady and the gentleman lasted for a minute; but the lady yielded, though in the midst of a convulsive laugh. And the Count had the morand delicate love would not allow him to touch, kissed with tification-the agony-to see the lips, which his passionate roughness and repetition by another man, and one whom he despised. Without a word, he rose from his chair, left the room-and the house; and, by that good-natured kiss, the fair boast of Vienna lost her husband and her lover. The Count never saw her more."-Pp. 132-5.

That never were breathed on by any but thine;" but when a lady becomes a prodigal of her kisses, we are Some persons may be disposed to smile at the extreme instantly forced into one of two conclusions—either that ; but his feelings were she holds her virtue upon a very frail tenure, or that, al-scrupulousness of Count M of a nature which we can perfectly appreciate, and which, though far removed from any thought of guilt, she is altogether incapable of that delicate feeling, and of draw on the whole, we are inclined to respect. ing those nicer distinctions, by the due observance of which alone regard becomes in any instance valuable. Kissing is more common in England than in Scotland, and in France still more common than in England. In these countries it is often a piece of idle etiquette; but it is bad etiquette, for it tends to rub the bloom of modesty away, and to deaden the susceptibilities of the female heart. What remains for the husband, if the lips-the very outlet of the soul-have mingled their breath of life

with the breath of others?

"Who cannot love but one alone,
Is worthy to be loved by none."

Our sentiments upon this matter perfectly coincide with
those of our authoress, as will be seen in the following

extract:

KISSING ANECDOTE OF COUNT M

"As to the salute, the pressure of the lips-that is an interchange of affectionate greeting, or tender farewell, sacred to the dearest connexions alone. Our parents our brothers -our near kindred-our husband-our lover, ready to become our husband-our bosom's inmate, the friend of our heart's core,—to them are exclusively consecrated the lips of delicacy, and woe be to her who yields them to the stain of profanation!

"By the last word, I do not mean the embrace of vice, but merely that indiscriminate facility which some young women have in permitting what they call a good-natured kiss. These good-natured kisses have often very bad effects, and can never be permitted without injuring the fine gloss of that exquisite modesty which is the fairest garb of virgin beauty.

Worse, perhaps, than even promiscuous kissing, is the immodest manner in which some ladies, misled either by fashion, or a diseased vanity, scruple not to unveil the charms of their bosom and back. How little do such persons understand in what the real eloquence and power of beauty consists! Modesty is to it what action is to the orator; it is its first, its second, and its third argument. Without modesty, there can be, in truth, no beauty, in the same way that without mind, the body would be a piece of worthless inert clay. We do not agree with the advice given by the poet to the fair sex

"Let that which charms all other eyes,
Seem worthless in your own,"

for this might lead to the too great diminution of that
proper self-respect which is the very foundation of a vir-
tuous character; but we certainly agree so far, that she
who attempts to charm all eyes, by an unblushing dis-
play of beauties which are usually concealed from the
vulgar gaze, instead of exciting admiration, ought only to
obtain contempt. Concerning the exposure of the bosom,
Beyond a certain limit,
we feel particularly sensitive.

we hesitate not to pronounce it unpardonably meretricious. We entirely approve of the passage subjoined:

"To the exposure of the bosom and back, as some ladies display those parts of their person, what shall we say? This mode (like every other which is carried to excess and indiscriminately followed) is not only repugnant to decency, but most exceedingly disadvantageous to the charms of nine women out of ten. The bosom and shoulders of a very young and fair girl may be displayed without exciting much displeasure or disgust; the beholder regards the too prodigal exhibition, not as the act of the youthful innocent, but as the effect of accident, or perhaps the designed exposure of some ignorant dresser. But when a woman, grown to the age of discretion, of her own choice unveils her beauties to the sun and moon,' then, from even an Helen's charms the sated eye turns away loathing.

"I remember the Count M, one of the most accomplished and handsomest young men in Vienna. When I was there, he was passionately in love with a girl of almost peerless beauty. She was the daughter of a man of great rank and influence at court, and on these considerations, as well as in regard to her charms, she was followed by a multitude of suitors. She was lively and amiable, and treated them all with an affability which still kept them in her "Were we even in a frantic and impious passion to set train, although it was generally known that she had avowed virtue aside, policy should direct our damsels to be more a predilection for Count M, and that preparations were sparing of their attractions. An unrestrained indulgence making for their nuptials. The Count was of a refined of the eye robs imagination of her power, and prevents her mind and delicate sensibility. He loved her for herself consequent influence on the heart. And if this be the case alone for the virtues which he believed dwelt in a beauti-where real beauty is exposed, how much more subversive ful form; and, like a lover of such perfections, he never ap- of its aim must be the studied display of an ordinary or deproached her without timidity, and when he touched her, a formed figure!"-Pp. 77, 8. fire shot through his veins, that warned him not to invade

While our authoress thus properly expresses herself con

the vermilion sanctuary of her lips. Such were his feelings, when one night, at his intended father-in-law's, a party of cerning the latitude allowed to female modesty, we must young people were met to celebrate a certain festival. Se-point out an instance in which, we think, she has gone a veral of the young lady's rejected suitors were present. For- little too far, and borders upon prudery. We allude to fcits were one of the pastimes, and all went on with the the matter of shaking hands. That any man, except a greatest merriment, till the Count was commanded, by some lover, has a right to seize upon a lady's hand, and retain witty mademoiselle, to redeem his glove by saluting the it in his own, is of course not for a moment to be maincheek of his intended bride. The Count blushed, trembled,

advanced to his mistress, retreated, advanced again-and attained; but that a lady in England or Scotland should last, with a tremor that shook every fibre in his frame, with refuse to shake hands with almost any person whom she a modest grace he put the soft ringlet which played upon meets in good society, we hold equally preposterous. Were her cheek to his lips, and retired to demand his redeemed the following advice, for example, to be adopted, a stiff pledge in evident confusion. His mistress gaily smiled, and and freezing manner would be the consequence: the game went on. One of her rejected suitors, but who was of a merry, unthinking disposition, was adjudged, by >the same indiscreet crier of the forfeits-as his last treat before he hanged himself,' she said-to snatch a kiss from the lips of the object of his recent vows

Lips, whose broken sighs such fragrance fling, As love had fanned them freshly with his wing!'

"When any man, who is not privileged by the right of friendship or of kindred to address her with an air of affection, attempts to take her hand, let her withdraw it immediately, with an air so declarative of displeasure, that he shall not presume to repeat the offence. At no time ought she to volunteer shaking hands with a male acquaintance, who holds not any particular bond of esteem with regard

to herself or family. A touch, a pressure of the hands, are But, thank Heaven! with or without stays, this country the only external signs a woman can give of entertaining a can boast of many a noble maiden,

particular regard for certain individuals; and to lavish this valuable power of expression upon all comers, upon the impudent and contemptible, is an indelicate extravagance, which, I hope, needs only to be exposed to be put for ever out of countenance."-P. 132.

This is de trop. An innocent-hearted girl may shake hands freely with every body; and, for Heaven's sake, when she does shake hands, let it be, as often as possible, cordially, and, to a certain extent, con spirito. There be certain young ladies, whose hands, when they come in contact with yours, have all the cold lifelessness of an unheated bunch of curling-irons, and who simply permit of their receiving a listless shake, leaving behind with you for the next half hour, the disagreeable impression that you might as well have shaken the handle of a pumpwell, the pendulum of a clock, or the long queue of an old navy-officer. Give us, on the contrary, the firm, but gentle and speedily-withdrawn pressure of the warm and rosy fingers, which communicates a thrill of frank and harmless pleasure to the whole frame, and which says, more expressively than words, "I entertain that friendly and benevolent feeling towards you, which it is my nature to entertain for all my fellow-creatures."

In making these remarks, we cannot for a moment be understood as wishing to encourage the slightest degree of undue familiarity, either towards equals, or, much less, towards inferiors. So far from this, we hold a becoming dignity and reserve to be one of the most important attributes of the female character; and there is no part of the whole book before us with which we more heartily agree, than with the sentiments contained in the following paragraphs:

THE IMPORTANCE OF RESERVE.

"This sentiment of order in the mind, this conviction of the beautiful harmony in a well-organized, civil society, gives us dignity with our inferiors, without alloying it with the smallest particle of pride; by keeping them at a due distance, we merely maintain ourselves and them in the rank in which a higher power has placed us; and the condescension of our general manners to them, and our kindnesses in their exigencies, and generous approbation of their worth, are sufficient acknowledgments of sympathy, to show that we avow the same nature with themselves, the same origin, the same probation, the same end.

"Fitted to shine in courts, or walk the shade,
With innocence and contemplation join'd."

History of Scotland. By Patrick Fraser Tytler, Esq.
F. R.S. E. and F.A.S. Volume III. Edinburgh..
William Tait. 1829. 8vo. Pp. 398.

MR TYTLER'S Work increases in interest as it proceeds. It indicates in its author a power of patient and wide research, conjoined with a mind which can elevate itself above mere details, to grasp the complicated relations which run through the individual actions of an age or nation, connecting them into one great whole.

The present volume commences with the accession, in 1371, of the House of Stewart to the Scottish throne, in the person of Robert II., grandson, by the mother's side, of the Bruce; and carries on the history to the murder of James I. in 1437. The period is by no means a cheering portion of our story. We can trace in it that undue power of the aristocracy which was the curse of Scotland for so many years, in footsteps of blood. The barons obtained no small accession of consequence when Bruce, in his contests against England and the Pope, was forced to rest his title to the crown of Scotland almost exclusively on the choice of the nobility. Their consciousness of their own strength increased during the troubled reign of Bruce's son, David II. But it reached its height when Robert II., who had formerly ranked as one of themselves, was Robert was of too advanced an promoted to the throne. age to repress with sufficient energy this domineering spirit; and his son was, from the first, of too feeble a character to oppose to it any more active resistance. The ambition of Albany co-operated with the lawless spirit of the nobles to wrest power for a while from the hands of its legitimate owner-a circumstance which only added fuel to a flame already burning too high. Through the influence of the wayward spirit thus engendered, and the yet more fatal effects of his own irrascible temper, it was rendered impossible, even for the high talents of the first James, to restore lawful and efficient government to the country. His life was the forfeit of the bold attempt.

Yet we cannot help feeling impressed, while perusing "Our demeanour with our equals is more a matter of Mr Tytler's pages, with the savage grandeur of many of policy. To be indiscreetly familiar, to allow of liberties be- the personages whom we find acting their parts in the ing taken with your good-nature; all this is likely to happen troubled drama. Archibald the Grim is well known to with people of the same rank with ourselves, unless we hold all readers of Scottish history. But we frankly confess our mere acquaintance at a proper distance, by a certain re-that this man of iron interests us little, when compared serve. A woman may be gay, ingenuous, perfectly amiable to her associates, and yet reserved. Avoid all sudden intimacies, all needless secret-tellings, all closeting about nonsense, caballing, taking mutual liberties with each other in regard to domestic arrangements; in short, beware of familiarity! The kind of familiarity which is common in families, and amongst women of the same classes in society, is that of an indiscriminate gossiping; an interchange of thoughts, without any effusion of the heart. Then an unceremonious way of reproaching each other for a real or supposed neglect; a coarse manner of declaring your faults; a habit of jangling on trifles; a habit of preferring your own whims or ease before that of the persons about you; an indelicate way of breaking into each other's privacy; in short, doing every thing that declares the total oblivion of all politeness and decent manners."-Pp. 163, 4.

We must now bring our remarks upon this work to a close. As we have already said, it is one which may with safety and advantage be put into the hands of a young lady. It treats of many points to which we have not adverted, and even enters upon certain mysteries of female costume, concerning which we should scarcely deem it lawful for any male animal to give an opinion. The chapter on the use of stays should be read with attention; for, though we do not look on corsets with the same horror that some folk do, we certainly conceive them to be less conducive to health than any other part of female apparel.

with the two darker and more subtle spirits, Albany, the usurping uncle of James I., and Robert Graham, his murderer. There is, no doubt, much that is revolting in the unfeeling policy of the former; and we have already observed, that the necessity his ambition imposed of conciliating the nobles, had a great share in fostering their character of Albany. He clung with a desperate grasp lawless spirit; yet there were redeeming traits in the to the devotional feelings of his age, rude as many of these were; and when we find him on the battlements of Edinburgh Castle, on a bright moonlight night, holding high converse with his companions regarding the phenomena of the heavens and their causes, we forget the usurper in the philosopher. So is it with Graham, relentless though his hatred was, and unpardonable the crime that it led him to commit; still there is something in his fearlessness on all occasions, in the scrupulous anxiety with which he always strove to reconcile his actions to his own notions of law and honour, and in his dying declaration to his executioners, that, should the tortures they inflicted tempt him to blaspheme, he laid the loss of his soul to their charge, there is something in all this that bends us to an unwilling respect. It is such a mingling of apparent inconsistencies, that convinces us the likeness of the Godhead, originally stamped upon man, is indelible, even

in his wildest aberrations. Were it not for the recurrence true genius. It by no means follows that he who rashly of this belief, the perusal of history would not only be the ventures to draw aside the awful veil from the hidden most painful, but, at the same time, the most deadening mysteries of nature, was born a Milton. exercise for the heart of man.

What we like to see well delineated in poetry, is all the Nor are the whole details of this period of so tragic a varying shades of human passion, as called into existence strain. The ample materials provided by Mr Tytler by circumstances of probable and not infrequent occurshow, that amid this seeming chaos, the work of civilisa-rence. He who attempts to write a long poem concerntion was going noiselessly but steadily on. Many facts ing a universal flood, or a plague of so horrible a descriptend to prove, that industry and wealth were advancing. It was during this period that the first attempt was made to found a University in Scotland; and it is from the enactments of James I. that we date some of the most important features of the Scottish constitution.

tion that none could escape its influence, takes up so unwonted a position, and must revel in conceptions so foreign to all natural associations, that there are ten chances to one against his producing a poem that will be read with interest. And if it be not read with interest, you may After all, however, the most novel and interesting por- depend upon it there is something wrong about it,—there tion of this volume is the disquisition which Mr Tytler are many chords of the human heart that it has not has appended to it, respecting the fate of Richard II. of touched,—it is cold and artificial. We recollect we obEngland. We frankly confess, that he has not succeeded jected to the " African" by Mr Moore, that the author in convincing us that the view he has taken of the mat- took greater delight in describing the stern conflict, or ter is correct; but we should be the last to refuse to him overboiling desire for revenge, than the gentler and more the high merits of candour and patient investigation. abiding emotions of the bosom, which so beautifully reOur own opinion, however, is, that, taking the evidence lieve the severity of the others. Unless a writer have a on this question, as it is stated by Mr Tytler himself, the quick perception of these softer graces of composition, we anthorities for believing the death of Richard at Ponte- in general despair of his ever rising very high in the refract are too strong to be overturned by the testimony gions of the true sublime. How exquisitely does Shakoffered of his subsequent appearance in Scotland. The speare know how to modify and alternate his style! and frequent reports of his escape in England, we regard how easily does Byron pass from the pinnacle of grandeur merely as signs of the unsettled state of men's minds at into the very bosom of domestic quiet! We do not, of the time. course, expect to see Mr Dugald Moore writing like either Shakspeare or Byron; but we wish him, if possible, to come a little more within the sphere of human sympathies, we wish him to be a little less magnificent, and a little more at home. There is, no doubt, something imposing in many of the subjects he has chosen; but, if we are not mistaken, the best part of their poetry will not unfrequently be found in their title. Thus we have

A press of matter of more immediate interest, prevents us from entering fully into the discussion at present; but we propose taking an early opportunity of reverting

to it.

Scenes from the Flood; The Tenth Plague, or the Firstborn of Egypt smitten; and other Poems. By Dugald Moore, author of "The African," &c. Glasgow. Robertson and Atkinson. 1830. Pp. 213.

"The Last Peak,”"—" The Vulture of Caucasus,”— The Fossil Skeleton of the Mammoth,"- "The Dying Patriarch,"--" The Tenth Plague, or the first-born of Egypt smitten,"-" The Sailor's last Huzza,"_" Death on the Pale Horse," "The first Star,"-" The Flight of the last Spirit,”- "The Vessel of the Dead," and many others, each of which, we suspect, necessarily consists of the amplification of one good idea. Where other extraneous ideas are introduced, they are vague and unsatisfactory, and though their apparent magnitude may at first surprise, it will be found that they want substance. In the "Tenth Plague," for example, we have the following passage descriptive of Death, which, to say nothing of its ungrammatical construction, appears to us, whatever it may do to Mr Moore, not a little bombastic: « Meantime, far journeying from his realms of night, Death swept the dread immensity of space, By dim and dead annihilated worlds, Old systems, which his arm of old had smote, Whose sunless fragments, and disjointed forms, Which he durst not o'ershadow with his wing, In thunder roll'd around him and by stars Nor shake his dart above them, for they beam'd Pure and unspotted in the sight of God, At last alighted on earth's heavy clouds: Aloft the giant like a mountain stood— A mountain of tall flame, whose sulphury crest Illumes a continent."

WHEN we reviewed Mr Moore's former volume, we said as much of its merits, and as little of its faults, as possible. We saw that he possessed talents far above his opportunities, and we were anxious to foster them into maturity. We must not pursue exactly the same course in speaking of his second production; we must be more chary of our praise, and less scrupulous in our blame. We consider this new volume as much upon a par with its predecessor;—we should have been glad to have perceived a marked and evident improvement. We believe we have already stated, in the first volume of the Literary Journal, that what we principally like in Mr Moore's style is, that it always aims at being strong and vigorous, and seldom or never degenerates into that maudling sentimentality which weak and commonplace minds suppose to be synonymous with poetical feeling. To this remark, however, we have now to add, that there is considerable monotony in Mr Moore's mode of thinking, and that there is a want of flexibility in his versification, which gives it rather a hard and harsh tone. He is continually seeking for ideas more lofty and farther fetched than usual, and so far the ambition is an honourable one; but when the exertion of straining after such ideas becomes apparent, they cease to afford the reader the same pleasure. Besides, Mr Moore seems to us rather to catch high ideas from the subjects he selects, than to be able to impart them to his subject out of his own stores. This is a very common expedient with minds somewhat deficient in innate sensibility, and it is well calculated to deceive for a time the unskilful. Martin paints the Deluge, and his black and fiery masses, heaped inch-thick Robert upon the canvass, are applauded to the echo. Of the Eternal echoed thus through space," &c. › Montgomery, the young man whose pretty face forms the frontispiece to his volume, writes about the "Omni- We cannot say that we altogether approve of a journeypresence of the Deity," and some critics immediately de- man-printer in Glasgow talking thus familiarly of the clare that he is among the most sublime of Britain's Most High. We seriously advise him, at least for some bards. But such expedients as these are not the test of time to come, to be less ambitious. We doubt that he

Mr Moore delights in these generalities and vaguenesses. He is not only very great upon Death, but upon the conqueror of Death, of whom he frequently speaks in some such terms as these:

"Meantime, the Eternal, sitting on his throne," &c.

Or,

"the voice

will ever be a poet of acute feeling or very delicate sentiment; but were his style less inflated, it would be more vigorous, and were it less strained, it would be more natural.

Though we have spoken thus sharply regarding Mr Moore's poetry, we do not, by any means, wish to convey an impression that we have changed our opinion as to his being a man of talent. This he unquestionably is; and although the unfavourable circumstances under which it was produced, will scarcely now-a-days serve as an excuse for a mediocre book, yet these, taken in connexion with the acknowledged ability which his volume displays, convince us that Mr Moore is entitled to a place far above the unknown herd. We have selected for quotation two of the minor poems, which we do not dislike the more that they are written in a less lofty strain than many of the others:

THE STRANDED WHALE.

"King of the frozen deep!

Hast thou sought out a calmer sphere to die,
And left thy old and icy birth-place, where
The sun ne'er woo'd the glacier on the cliffs

Of thy dark dwelling? Couldst thou not breathe out
Thy long existence of a thousand years

Where kindred kings might cheer thee, and the winds,
The howling blasts that nursed thee, have lull'd
Thy mighty heart to slumber with their songs
Of desolation? Thou hast wander'd long
Through thy cold empire of eternal ice;
And thou, perchance, hast seen the frozen wreck
Chain'd on the billows, and her hardy crew
Glued to the lifeless deck-and thou hast dash'd,
As if in mockery at thy weak foe,

The freezing spray into his bloodless face!
And thou hast roll'd, the monarch of the deep,
Proud in thy giant strength, flinging in scorn
The trembling waters from thy glassy sides,
Dashing and diving, in thy fearful play;—
Down, down, amid thy chambers, mighty one,
Thy wrath has lash'd the ocean to a storm,
Hurling the floating palaces of man,

Like bubbles, to destruction! Ay, dread thing,
Though thou hast ruled the sea, ah! now thou find'st
A waveless tomb for thy huge skeleton,
In regions where thy sway was never known!
The deep, with his blue floods, that cradled thee-
The storms that bore thee on thy rolling course-
Should, at the last, have made thy sepulchre !
Thy vast remains are not akin to earth,
Trod only by the feet of pigmy man;
The little things that breed and moulder there
Are not companions for a king like thee!
But the great dwellers of the mighty deep-
The squally tempests-and the thunder's roar,
That charm'd thee in thy childhood, and the caves,
Brush'd only by the wild fins like thine own,
Should be at last thy tomb-and all its mates,
Storms, waves, and darkness-the dread visitants-
To howl the music of the hurricane
Above thee in thy sleep."-Pp. 152, 3.
Our other extract is entitled

RICHARD I., SURNAMED COEUR DE LION.

"[The discovery of the captivity of Richard I. is said to have been made by a poor French minstrel, who, playing upon his harp near the fortress in which the captive monarch was confined, a tune which the King was fond of, was answered by Richard from within, who, with his harp, played the same tune, and thus discovered the place of his confinement.]

"His conquering sword had lost its shine-
His proud and eagle plume,
Which waved so oft o'er Palestine,
Droop'd in the dungeon's gloom-
Barr'd from the millions of his fame,
He pined-when, lo! one eve there came
A bard, with tuneful hand,

And play'd beneath his grated tower,
In twilight's lone departing hour,
A song of his far land!

"The captive monarch heard the strain In melting echoes roll,

And thoughts of early hours again,
Like sunshine cross'd his soul;
His fetter'd limbs, the dungeon's cell,
Sank in his brain before the spell-

The dream of life's young day!
He seized the harp with sounding thrill,
Through woe his sole companion still,
And sung that island lay.

"That song, his spirit's burning prayer, Roll'd on its cloudy track;

The vulture heard it in the air,

And scream'd its echoes back : Alone the captive warrior stood, Harping in his dark solitude,

While to his memory's eye His own green valleys rose anewHis heathy hills, their streams of blue, Flash'd in their beauty by.

"The sky was calm, the clouds had met,
Day's last rays had gone down;
'Twas deep midnight, but she had set
Each bright star in her crown!—
The minstrel heard the notes that rang,
He knew 'twas England's King that sang-
To England's shore he hied.

His people heard his fate; that strain,
From Europe's mightiest, broke the chain,

And saved an empire's pride !"-Pp. 211-12. Against one thing we have to warn Mr Moore,—the over-charged praise of ignorant or injudicious friends. It Nothing is more fatal to a person of rising genius. engenders the most mistaken notions of one's own powers, and is sure to establish the belief that impartial criticism is neither more nor less than most unjustifiable severity. Mr Moore may depend upon it that he has much yet to do before achieving a lasting or valuable reputation. When he next comes before the public, we are of opinion that he ought to eschew all sacred or highflown subjects, and rather rest the groundwork of his poem upon some of the dignified and interesting incidents of history. He will thus be more likely to awaken the sympathies of his reader, and at the same time have abun dance of scope for the indulgence of his own peculiar vein of thought and expression.

The History of the University of Edinburgh; chiefly compiled from original Papers and Records, never before published. With an Appendix, containing an Account of different Institutions connected with the University. By Alexander Bower, Author of the Life of Luther. Vol. III. Edinburgh. Waugh and Innes. 1830. 8vo. Pp. 384.

THE two first volumes of Mr Bower's History of our University, are known as containing a great deal of curious and useful information regarding its constitution, its foundations, its progress, and its laws. They bring the narrative, however, down only to the year 1756, so that the third volume, now published, which extends from that date to the present day, embraces the most inIts contents consist chiefly of teresting period of all. biographical notices of the eminent Professors, now deceased, who not only sustained the reputation of the seminary, but ranked among the principal literary and scientific characters of the last age. These Memoirs contain an account of twenty-nine different Professors, among whom are Robertson, Black, Blair, Hope, both Gregorys, Ferguson, Dugald Stewart, Robison, Playfair, Finlayson, In preparing Brown, Dalzel, Tytler, and Christison. his biographical notices of these celebrated individuals, Mr Bower procured access to many original materials; and "in order that no mistakes might be committed, and that the information which the work contained might be as authentic as possible, the different narratives were sub

1

mitted to the near relations of those of whom an account is given, when they could be discovered."

Having perused this volume with care, we consider it well entitled to public attention, and as completing, in a satisfactory manner, the task undertaken by Mr Bower. The Memoirs of the various Professors are written in a candid and liberal spirit; and the style, without being particularly ambitious or redolent of graces, is easy and flowing. As it is impossible for us to attempt any abstract of the diversified materials of which the book consists, we prefer selecting, as a favourable specimen of the author's talents, the following biographical sketch of the celebrated Dr Blair:

MEMOIR OF DR HUGH BLAIR.

"Having delivered two courses without any other emolument than what he derived from the honoraries of his

students, his lectures excited so great interest, that upon ap-
dow the professorship of Rhetoric, and Dr Blair received
plication being made to his Majesty, he was induced to en-
his commission upon the 21st of July 1762, and was for-
mally admitted upon the subsequent 4th August.
"Macpherson had published the celebrated Poems of,
Ossian, which have occasioned so much controversy. Dr
A host of eminent
Blair vindicated their authenticity.
critics, however, either doubted on the subject, or declared
the Poems of Ossian,' and this was his first publication.
their disbelief. He published a Critical Dissertation on
Whatever opinion may be formed of the matter in dispute,
it cannot be denied that the Doctor has discovered great
critical acumen, whilst, at the same time, it affords an ex-
cellent specimen of very elegant composition.

"The Rev. Dr Hugh Blair was for many years a dis- "In 1777, he transmitted to London the MS. of a volume tinguished ornament of the University, and certainly con- of Sermons, with the design of committing them to the tributed as much as any of his contemporaries to the literary reputation which it has attained. He was a native of press. The bookseller, after keeping it for some time, wrote Edinburgh, and born in April, 1718. His father held an Sermons had been submitted to Dr Johnson for his opinion, a letter to him, discouraging the publication. One of these office in the excise, and, if we are not in a mistake, he was and after the unfavourable letter had been sent off, the bookan only child. After going through a regular course at the seller received a note from Johnson, in which were the folHigh School of the city, he entered the University. Little lowing words:- I have read over Dr Blair's first Sermon is known of his early history. Having attended the lite-with more than approbation; to say it is good, is to say too rary classes, what was customary in those days at the con- little. The volume was then published, for which the clusion of the curriculum, he took the degree of A. M. Be-author received L.50. Its sale was uncommonly rapid and ing designed for the church, he enrolled his name in the extensive. His publishers generously presented him, in a Divinity Hall, and having delivered the requisite discourses with approbation, he was proposed to the presbytery as a candidate for license to preach. We are not informed how long he continued a preacher, but it seems probable that it was in 1742 he received a presentation from Mr Johnstone of Lathrisk to the church of Colessie, in the presbytery of Cupar, and synod of Fife. Here he remained only for a short time, being translated to be one of the ministers of the Canongate of Edinburgh.

short time, with fifty pounds more. These Sermons were of essential advantage to him in another respect. The tragical riots in London in 1780 are well known, in conse quence of a bill being introduced into Parliament for the relief of Papists. At that hazardous period, it was thought sor, to advise his Majesty, as the critical situation of public proper that Lord Chief Justice Mansfield should be at Windaffairs might require. During that time, he read to the Queen one of Dr Blair's Sermons, with which she was so much delighted. as to settle on the author an annual pension of L.200 sterling. He afterwards published a second volume, for which he received L.200, and again a third, when the booksellers at once offered L.600 for the copyright. Hardly any volumes of Sermons have been so successful, not only in Great Britain, but throughout Europe and Ame

rica.

concurrence of the patrons, and at his own desire, was per"Being now considerably advanced in years, he, with the mitted to retire from the exercise of his duty as Professor. He immediately set about revising and preparing for the press those Lectures he had delivered in the College, for the applause. This he accomplished, and received for them long period of twenty-eight years, with such unbounded L.1500 sterling. These Lectures have been long before the public, and are universally admitted to contain the most judicious and best digested system, respecting the different subjects connected with polite literature, which have ever been given to the world.

Dr Blair's health had been on the decline for a considerable time before his death. Though unable to appear in the pulpit, and confined for months to his bedroom, he retained his faculties to the last; and was preparing another volume of Sermons, when he died, 27th December, 1800, in the eighty-third year of his age. This volume has been since published.

"Previous to the building of the North Bridge, which was begun in 1763, and was the immediate cause of the city of Edinburgh being extended northwards, the Canongate might have been called (as it was before the Union) the court end of the town. The most genteel and respectable families in the city inhabited it, and, of course, attended the parish church. It was here that Mr Blair might be said to make his debut. He very soon attracted notice as a preacher, and his fame quickly spread. The correctness and elegance of his discourses from the pulpit were much admired. The magistrates of Edinburgh speedily gave him a presentation to Lady Yester's Church, and in 1758 he was removed to the collegiate charge of the High Church. A circumstance took place on this occasion, which deserves to be mentioned, as it showed the opinion of the public respecting the superiority of his talents as a preacher. It is well known, that until of late years, there were only two churches in the city which were single charges. These were the New Grey Friars, and Lady Yester's. The common practice was, upon a vacancy taking place in any of the collegiate charges, that the clergyman who had been first inducted to one of the single charges, was immediately preferred. Now it so happened, that the late Rev. Mr Lundie ought to have been promoted, if seniority as an Edinburgh minister were to be regarded. The popularity and high reputation of Mr Blair, however, induced the town-council to make a new precedent, and passing over Mr Lundie, they presented him. "About the same time the University of St Andrews features were remarkably regular, and he was particularly "The Doctor's appearance was much in his favour; his conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He attentive to dress. He had never cultivated oratory as a praeprobably solicited this, with the view of its being a favour-tical art, and never could be prevailed upon to be Moderator able introduction to what he seems to have early projected, of the General Assembly, and took no share in the debates -delivering a course of Lectures on Rhetoric and the of that venerable court. Independently of a very strong Beiles Lettres. He was appointed Professor of Rhetoric provincial accent, his elocution was but indifferent, from a by the patrons, upon the 27th of June, 1760. At the commencement of the session, he accordingly began his labours. The reading a course of Lectures on the Belles Lettres, was not altogether a new idea in Edinburgh. The celebrated author of the Wealth of Nations had done so in 1748 and the following years, under the patronage of Lord Kames. What was Dr Smith's success, seems to have been forgotten; but Dr Blair was patronised by all persons of taste and literature in Edinburgh. He entered upon the task with very favourable auspices. He was a professor in the University, and his fame as a preacher was no slender recommendation. He was generally known also as an elegant scholar, and as one who had paid great attention to the elements of criticism, and the principles of literary composition.

defect in the organs of pronunciation. He was of the most amiable and friendly dispositions, and was ever ready to encourage men of genius. His literary friends always took the opportunity of submitting their works to him, in order to have the benefit of his criticisms. They relied upon his In short, he held the very first rank among the literary characters of the present day." candour, judgment, and taste.

-P. 12-17.

An Appendix is added, which contains a good deal of important information, embracing, among other subjects, the University Library and Museum, the Botanic Garden, the Infirmary, the Lying-in Hospital, the Public Dispensary, the Royal Medical Society, the Speculative

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