O sing unto the Lord a new song; "No doubt can be entertained with regard to that of the Romans. For, if from their frequent intercourse with the Celts, the wits of that nation admired their bards, it is next to an impossibility these should not know the poetical compositions of the Italians. What puts the matter beyond contradiction is, that a full century before Ossian was born, Agricola, while stationed in Britain, erected temples, theatres, and stately buldings; caused the sons of the nobility to learn the Latin language; be instructed in the liberal arts; and brought them, by degrees, to imi-"In these verses, the second is uniformly an tate the Roman modes of dress and living. amplification of the first; but in others the So that in a short time they assumed the po- alternation of the clause is preserved without lished manners of their conquerors, and even repetition. vied with them in pomp and refinements. "Supposing then Ossian himself had no access to the Latin poets, it is possible, nay probable, he was acquainted with the compositions of the Celtic bards, who had an opportunity of knowing and being improved by their writings. We are certain that the inhabitants of Britain assisted the Gauls against Cæsar; when, for so doing, that general invaded this island, Eder, who then reigned in Scotland, is said to have assisted his neighbours against the common enemy. Now it is impossible that men, who held so close an intercourse, could be ignorant of each other's poetical productions; and if they were not, a genius like Ossian would not fail of profiting by such communication." Nothing is too absurd to be advanced by a zealous controversialist; but they who believe in the authenticity of Ossian may believe this, and in fact they ought to believe not this only, but that the blind poet had obtained a second-sight perusal of the English poets also. Having analysed the materials of Macpherson's composition, Mr. Laing explains the receipt by which they are put together, which he is enabled to do by the fragment of the Six Bards, as originally transmitted to Gray and Shenstone. "As the Six Bards, however, was written in hemistics or versicles nicely balanced, with one clause beneath another like irregular verse, we discover their origin in Louth's ex planation of the nature of Hebrew poetry, which Blair had recently introduced into his lectures. According to Louth's explanation, Hebrew poetry consists neither of numbers, nor of ryhme, nor of any regular or perceptible feet, but of periods divided into two or more corresponding clauses, of the same structure, and nearly of the same length; the second clause containing generally a repetition, a contrast, or an amplification of the sentiment expressed in the first: and the result of these responses, or parallelisms, is a sententious harmony, or measured prose, which even our English translation of the Bible has pre served. He is to be feared above all gods. Psalm xcvi. "For, lo, the winter is past, The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. "It is evident, that the Six Bards has been written in the same form of corresponding clauses, of which Macpherson probably as quired the first information from Blair's lec tures. "No star with green trembling beam; "No beast, no bird is abroad, When Macpherson came to write nar rative, he found measured prose more convenient than these versicles. Hervey's Meditations and the English Death of Abel had made it popular, but still these corresponding clauses are to be found; every image has its shadow following it, every sentence its echoing sound. After the thorough investigation which it has now undergone, the question may be considered as at rest. Every exertion has been made by a society with pecular advantages, to collect evidence for the authenticity of the poems; and, on the other hand, every argument for detection has been exhausted by the indefatigable zeal of Mr. Laing. It is only to be regretted, that the Highlanders have considered Macpherson's cause as their own, and associated national feelings with what ought to have been a mere point of literary enquiry. That much Gaelic poetry has beca preserved is certain; let them give it us with as naked a translation as possible: the controversy respecting Ossian will only have rendered the public more curious for genuine relics, and the meretricious ornaments of Macpherson will not have made them insensible of simple beauty. Henceforward Macpherson must be classed among literary impostors, and in the very first rank. When Mr. Urban had been lately imposed upon by one of his correspondents, and made to engrave a drawing of Fyfield-church in his lively and valuable magazine, he thought im posture of this kind a heinous offence. "Let him," said he, speaking of the culprit, "quit this evil course, lest, flushed with success, he make an essay on banknotes. Many a hero, whose name has swelled the Tyburn calendar, commenced his career with crimes of less turpitude." Without attaching such heavy criminality to the offence, we certainly do consider Macpherson as highly culpable. The Gaelic poems would have been valuable documents for the historian and antiquarian; but his example has been so successfully followed by Kennedy and Dr. Smith, that it will be difficult now to distinguish what is genuine from what has been interpolated, and every thing will be received with suspicion. The popularity of Macpherson's Ossian will not be immediately affected by this detection, but it will in course of time be destroyed. Assuredly most of the pleasure which these poems occasioned will depart with the delusion. They are not the same whether composed by the blind Ossian, the last of his race, on the ruins of Selma; or if written by James Macpherson in Edinburgh, in his lodgings at the head of Blackfriars Wynd: who, instead of calling to the white-handed daughter of Toscar for his harp, sent the bare-footed servant of the flat to fetch him another quire of paper from the book, sellers." CHAPTER XIII. MISCELLANIES. THE present chapter being composed of those articles that cannot properly be ar ranged under any of the other subdivisions of our volume, does not admit of any general character. Mr. Foster's Essays have a claim to be first noticed by us, on account both of the importance of the subjects that they discuss, and the original and striking manner in which they are treated. Mrs. More's "Hints towards forming the Character of a young Princess," display her accustomed good sense and command of style, and will be read with pleasure and profit even by those who are far from agreeing with her on topics of religion or politics. Dr. Sayers's Miscellanies evince his various reading and cultivated taste. Mr. Knight's Treatise on the Principles of Taste is a work of high merit: and Professor Miller's Retrospect of the 18th Century, is entitled to the foreinost rank among the literary productions of the United States. ART. I.-Essays in a Scries of Letters to a Friend, on the following Subjects: I. On a Man's Writing Memoirs of Himself. II. On Decision of Character. III. On the Application of the Epithet Romantic. IV. On some of the Causes by which Evangelical Religion has been rendered less acceptable to Persons of cultivated Taste. By JOHN FOSTER. 2 vols. pp. 500. HUME, in the introductory essay of his Inquiryconcerning the HumanUnderstanding, has with his usual precision and elegance discriminated the different species of moral philosophy, and appreciated their respective merits and defects. The one, he remarks, considers man chiefly as born for action, and as influenced in his measures by taste and sentiment; the other regards him in the light of a reasonable, rather than an active being, endeavouring to analyze his various powers, and reduce them to general principles; and dwelling little on the particularities which distinguish individuals or classes of men, it seeks to develope those primary laws of the human constitution, from which, under different circumstances and modifications, result all the varieties of action and passion, sentiment and character. The former species of philosophy, in recommending virtue and censuring vice, thinks it necessary only by strong delineations of each to impress their features distinctly on the mental view, and to appeal at once to those feelings of approbation or disappro bation which, whether factitious or natural, are to be found in the hearts of men, where unfortunate influences have not prevented their growth, or overcome their efficacy. The latter analyzes with all the coolness of metaphysical and mathematical precision, the constituent qualities and distinctive characters of vice and virtue,and of those sentiments of the mind by which they are accompanied, and with which they are perceived. Each of these modes of philosophizing has its merits; the one appeals, with greater force, to greater numbers; the language of sentiment is the language of persuasion and eloquence, and it meets responsive feelings in the hearts of those whom it addresses. The other, if capable of being carried into execution, adds the dignity and firmness of science to the beauty of virtue, it establishes moral sentiment on the basis of reason, and boasts not merely of making individual converts, but possibly of meliorating the state of the species itself. Each also has its defects. If sentiment be often a safe, and always a powerful and animating principle of direction, there are however doubtful regions, confines between vice and virtue, in which it is possible that its dictates may mislead. The different and inconsistent principles which by different sects, nations, and ages, have been distinguished by the honourable appellation of conscience, are well known to the historical and moral enquirer. The more severe and scientific method of philosophy, on the other hand, though it professes, and though its professions are not destitute of foundation, to discover, and render palpable to the judgment, the eternal and unalienable distinction between vice and virtue, and to separate them almost with the clearness of a geographical outline, yet gives, instructions comparatively cold and unanimating; and it is possible that the man who is best acquainted with the theories of moral science, and can develope them with the greatest subtlety, and illustrate them with the greatest perspicuity, may be as much a stranger to the living principles of virtue, as the blind man, who reasons with minute and philosophic accuracy on the doctrines of light and colours, is insensible of their brilliancy, and destitute of a faculty by which he can become the subject of their influence. In one respect, however, the practical knowledge of human nature is essential to the establishment of just theories of morals. The human mind is not an intelligence so pure and so powerful as to be capable of being wholly and adequately governed by these lofty intellectual abstractions which the solitary speculatist is capable of conceiving; and in the the rial regions to which he directs his view, there is danger lest the grosser principles of our active nature should miss those elements which are requisite to lend them support, or furnish them with nourishment. Whatever be the defects of the ancient theories of ethics, they have at least usually the merit of being constructed with a reference to the realities of human life. Many instances of this nature will recur to the recollection of the reader of Tully's Offices. Mr. Foster is of that class of philosophers, (and the rank which he holds is no mean one) who chose rather to examine human nature in the detail, than in the abstract; to read it with the eye of experience, rather than assume it as a subject of speculation and theory. The subjects of his essays are the following: On a man's 701 writing memoirs of himself; on decision of character; on the application of the epithet romantic; on some of the causes by which evangelical religion has been rendered less acceptable to persons of cultivated taste. The essays are subdivided into letters, for which no other reason appears than that this was the original mode of their private communication to a friend. A great part of the first essay does not closely correspond to its title. So far as its reference to it extends, the following are the positions on which it rests: that marked characters result from the operation of peculiar circumstances, of which the individual who is the subject of them may be conscious, and which he can best describe; and that the communication of them may, in many instances, be highly interesting and instructive to others. The first letter of this essay is employed in ascertaining the objects to which the review of past life may be profitably extended, the difficulties which naturally accompany the retrospect, and the accidental circumstances which may obstruct or facilitate. The uninteresting actions, the common accidents, the minute employments of a series of years, are indeed altogether unworthy of record. "What I recommend," says the author, “is a clear simple statement from the earliest period of your recollection, to the present time, of your feelings, opinions, and habits, and of the principal circumstances through each stage, that have influenced them, till they have become at last what they now are. portance too from the prospect of its con"The elapsed periods of life acquire imtinuance. A commencement, small in itself, may become important as the introduction to a sequel that is grand. The first rude settlement of Romulus would have been an iusignificant circumstance, and might justly have sunk into oblivion, if Rome had not at length commanded the world. The little rill near the source of one of the great Amc. traveller who knows, while he steps across rican rivers, is an interesting object to the it, or walks a few miles by its side, the amazing length of its progress, and the immense flood into which it ultimately swells. So, while I anticipate the interminable duration of life, though in a changed form, perhaps through endless forms of change, and wonder through what unknown regions it is to the moments that are now passing, assume a take its course, the years that are past, and new and serious aspect. I cannot be content without an accurate sketch of the windings thus far of a stream which is to bear me on for ever. There is a mystic importance in this early part of a series of actions which is to have no end. It has a solemnity some thing like that which we may suppose to have accompanied the operations on board the ship of the first circumnavigator, on the day before his leaving the harbour." One of the chief obstacles to self-enquiry, arises, it is remarked, from the impression of self-observation, in consequence of which the circumstances which have contributed most efficaciously to the formation of our characters, have probably passed by unnoticed. The faithlessness of memory conspires with the inertness of observation. We are become different beings, and we are almost incapable of conceiving what we once were, yet our power of recollection is very different in different states of the mind. Sometimes moments of illumination occur of which we cannot assign the cause, but associated circumstances and places will prove the most powerful aids of memory. "How much is there in a thousand spots of the earth, that is invisible and silent to all but the conscious individual ! "I hear a voice you cannot hear, I see a hand you cannot see.” The second letter enumerates the principal elements by the operation of which, character is formed, and the education of circumstances impressed; instruction, comparison, reading, and attention to the state and manners of mankind; the influence of each of which is acutely investigated. The action of the last of these causes is pursued in the third letter, and the question is discussed, why amidst the agency of so many causes, evincing in some instances, so much power to impress a signal peculiarity, so few characters, strongly marked from the common order, are found to arise. In the fourth letter, the author delineates with a bold hand several sketches of character, lamenting that, with the exception of religion, there is little cause to felicitate our species on the influences to which they are exposed. We regret that on this subject his views are so misanthropic. He beholds the path of life, haunted as if with evil spirits, which in a moment may fatally cross the wanderer. "What a vacant world," he exclaims, "would this be, if all the things that may do irretrievable mischief were gone!" The first sketch is that of the misanthropist, to the formation of which character we think that the views entertained by the author possess a manifest tendency, though pro bably unexperienced by himself. The next is that of the timid acquiescent in the example and dictates of others, which character however Mr. Foster is almost inclined to felicitate as secure from the dangers of scepticism and indifference. Then succeeds the fancied wit or poet, who admires nothing but genius, and whose self-love easily persuades him that he is himself entitled to this supreme distinction. The character is forcibly delineated, and well ridiculed. The projector and antiquary next receive their share of satire; and the domestic tyraut, his, of pity and condemnation. The character of the atheist, and its formation according to a process which the author describes, are the subject of the fifth letter, from which we make the following extract: "Nothing tempts the mind so powerfully on as to have successfully begun to demolish what has been deemed to be most sacred. The soldiers of Cæsar, probably, had never felt themselves so brave as after they had cut down the Massilian grove; nor the Philis tines, as when the Ark of the God of Israel was among their spoils. The mind is proud of its triumphs in proportion to the reputed the view of facts, it would'seem that the first greatness of what it has overcome; and, from proud triumph over religious faith involves some fatality of advancing to further victories. But, perhaps, the progress is neither difficult normysterious. When the rejection of revelation has thrown the whole doctrine of the attributes and the will of the Deity on the dark field of hopeless conjectural speculation, it is, perhaps, no vast transition of thought to make his being also a question of conjec ture; since the reality of a being is with difficulty apprehended, when all things concerning that being are undefinable. But the state of conjecture is the state of doubt; and we know that the mind easily passes from doubt to disbelief, if it has some powerial reason for wishing such a conclusion. In the present case there may be a very powerful reason; the progress in sin which generally follows a rejection of revelation makes it stil more and more desirable that no object should remain to be feared. It was not strange, therefore, if this man read with avidity, nor strange if he read even with conviction, a few of the writers who have attempted the last achievement of presumptuous man. "After inspecting these pages awhile, he raised his eyes, and the great spirit was gone! Mighty transformation of all things! The luminaries of heaven no longer shone with his splendour, nor the adorned earth looked fair with his beauty, nor the darkness of night was rendered solemn by his majesty, nor life and thought were the inspiration of his all-pervad ing energy, nor his providence supported an 1 |