Lettres in the University, but did not succeed. Yet no disappointment could damp his literary zeal, and he continued his studies, and his writing for the Edinburgh Magazine, Lewis's Tales of

Leyden was the son of a shepherd in the village of Denholm, in Roxburghshire, and was born there in September 1775. His conspicuous talents at school led to his being sent to Edinburgh University, at the age of fifteen, with the view of qualifying him for the ministry of the Church of Scotland; but his linguistic and literary tastes do not appear to have facilitated his obtaining a charge, although he was licensed as a probationer in 1798. After completing his course, he obtained the situation of tutor to the sons of Mr Campbell of Fairfield, and accompanied them to the University of St Andrew's, where he continued his oriental and other studies with unabated zeal, and in 1799 published a treatise on the Discoveries and Settlement of the Europeans in Western Africa.

Having failed, in 1800, to obtain an appointment in the Church, his literary friends in Edinburgh, who were many and influential, tried to obtain for him the chair of Rhetoric and Belles

Border, until the situation of a surgeon was obtained for him in India. Like Goldsmith, he abandoned all thought of the Church, and in the course of six months qualified to pass as a doctor, in which capacity he proceeded to India in 1803, after writing his Scenes of Infancy-those loved scenes of his youth, which he was never again to visit. He was not long in Madras when his health began to give way, and he in consequence proceeded to Prince of Wales Island. While there he visited Sumatra and the Malay peninsula, where he made, investigations into the history, literature, and ethnology of the inhabitants. These he embodied in a dissertation, which he laid before the Asiastic Society of Calcutta. He left Prince of Wales Island to fill the chair of Hindostani in the College of Bengal, which he soon relinquished for the more lucrative appointments of a judge and commissioner of the Court of Bequests, and assay master of the mint. Notwithstanding these multifarious duties, he devoted all his spare time to his oriental studies.

In 1811, he accompanied the British expedition against Java; and with that

imprudent impetuosity which characterized all his actions, he leaped into the surf, in order to be the first Briton that should set foot on the shore; and when Batavia was taken possession of, in his | eagerness to investigate the contents of a Dutch library that was said to contain Indian MSS., he forgot those precautions which were necessary in the circumstances, and caught a cold, which ended his career in three days, on the 28th August 1811.

There were few men whose talents and indomitable literary application excited greater hopes than John Leyden ; or whose death was more sincerely mourned by his numerous friends. Scott, the greatest of them, paid several graceful tributes to his memory, one of which is a short memoir, written for the Edinburgh Annual Register of 1811.

It is impossible to estimate, from Leyden's poetic remains, what he might have done, had his life been prolonged; yet from the intensity of his linguistic and antiquarian genius, it is not probable that he would have added much

to his poetic fame. Like most university-bred Scots, except Fergusson, he did not attempt the Scottish manner; yet few writings are so much imbued with the love of the land of his birth as his. The Scenes of Infancy is more distinguished for the spirit it breathes than for the loftiness of its poetry, and perhaps his "Mermaid" of Corrivrekin is the best specimen of his poetic genius. His edition of the Complaint of Scotland, with a learned antiquarian dissertation on the subject of our ancient poetry, is evidence of his love for, and deep study of the ancient minstrels of

Even as I muse, my former life returns, And youth's first ardour in my bosom burns.

Like music melting in a lover's dream,
I hear the murmuring song of Teviot's

stream:

The crisping rays, that on the waters lie, Depict a paler moon, a fainter sky; While, through inverted alder boughs below,

Then is the time to stretch the daring hand, And snatch it from the bending poplar pale, The magic harp of ancient Teviotdale.

If thou, Aurelia! bless the high design, And softly smile, that daring hand is mine! Wild on the breeze the thrilling lyre shall fling

Melodious accents from each elfin string. Such strains the harp of haunted Merlin1 threw,

pour;

Where fate invites them to the dread repast,

blast;

strew

The willow's pointed leaves, of pallid blue, And still restrain the gaze, reverted keen, When round him deepen sighs from shapes unseen,

And o'er his lonely head, like summer bees,

roar;

The war-horse wades, with champinghoofs, in gore ;

The scythèd car on grating axle rings; Broad o'er the field the ravens join their

wings;