death, and which, by the continuance of a short period, would have caused death itself-not torpidity, where various functions and secretions, capable for a time of sustaining the frame, are still going on. The possibility of performing long journeys, as we must believe some species are obliged to do before arriving at their destination, at first appears nearly incredible; but when brought to a matter of plain calculation, the difficulty is much diminished. The flight of birds may be estimated at from 50 to 150 miles an hour; and if we take a medium of this, as a rate for the migrating species, we shall have little difficulty in reconciling the possibility of their flight. This, however, can only be applied to such species as, in their migrations, have to cross some vast extent of ocean without a resting-place. Many that visit this country, particularly those from Africa, merely skirt the coast, crossing at the narrowest parts, and again progressively advancing, until they reach their final quarters, and during this time having their supply of suitable food daily augmented. "The causes influencing the migration of birds, appear more difficult to solve than the possibility of the execution of it. They seem to be influenced by an innate law, which we do not, and cannot, comprehend, though in some measure dependent on the want of food or climate congenial to the systems of each, and which acts almost without the will of the individual. Neither this, however, nor the duties incumbent on incubation, can be the only exciting causes, as we may judge by the partial migrations of some to different parts of the same country, where food and the conveniences for breeding are alike; by the partial migration only, of a species from one country to another. differing decidedly in temperature, and where the visiting species thrives equally with the resident one; and by the males of some species migrating while the females remain "-Pp. 77-9. The following passage is also a fair specimen of our author's general style: THE GREGARIOUS SPIRIT OF ANIMALS.-"There is a wonderful spirit of sociality in the brute creation, independent of sexual attachment: the congregating of gregarious birds in the winter is a remarkable instance. Many horses, though quiet with company, will not stay one minute in a field by themselves: the strongest fences cannot restrain them. My neighbour's horse will not only not stay by himself abroad, but he will not bear to be left alone in a strange stable without discovering the utmost impatience, and endeavouring to break the rack and manger with his forefeet. He has been known to leap out at a stable window, through which dung was thrown, after company; and yet, in other respects, is remarkably quiet. Oxen and cows will not fatten by themselves, but will neglect the finest pasture that is not recommended by society. It would be needless to instance in sheep, which constantly flock together. But this propensity seems not to be confined to animals of the same species; for we know a doe, still alive, that was brought up from a little farm with a dairy of cows; with them it goes a-field, and with them it returns to the yard. The dogs of the house take no notice of this deer, being used to her; but, if strange dogs come by, a chase ensues, while the master smiles to see his favourite securely leading her pursuers over hedge. or gate, or stile, till she returns to the cows, who, with fierce lowings and menacing horns, drive the assailants quite out of the pasture. We shall not, however, close this notice without doing justice to Mr White as well as to Sir William Jardine. The easy and popular style in which the former writes must make this book no less acceptable to the general reader, and especially to those more enlightened country gentlemen and landed proprietors who take a delight in watching the habits of animals and in studying the peculiarities of plants, than to the man of scientific pursuits and attainments. Among other interesting observations on the cuckoo, Mr White furnishes us with the follow-mouth of Adam, seems to be somewhat mistaken: ing: "Even great disparity of kind and size does not always prevent social advances and mutual fellowship. For a very intelligent and observant person has assured me, that, in the former part of his life, keeping but one horse, he happened also on a time to have but one solitary hen. These two incongruous animals spent much of their time toge ther in a lonely orchard, where they saw no creature but each other. By degrees, an apparent regard began to take place between these two sequestered individuals. The fowl would approach the quadruped with notes of complacency, would look down with satisfaction, and move with the rubbing herself gently against his legs, while the horse greatest caution and circumspection, lest he should trample on his diminutive companion-thus, by mutual good offices each seemed to console the vacant hours of the other; so that Milton, when he puts the following sentiment in the THE CUCKOO" Your observation that 'the cuckoo does not deposit its egg indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that comes in its way, but probably looks out a nurse in some degree congenerous, with whom to intrust its young,' is perfectly new to me, and struck me so forcibly, that I naturally fell into a train of thought that led me to consider whether the fact was so, and what reason there was for it. When I came to recollect and enquire, I could not find that any cuckoo had ever been seen in these parts except in the nest of the wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the tit-lark, the white throat, and the red breast, all soft-billed insectivorous birds. The excellent Mr Willughby mentions the nest of the palumbus (ring-dove), and of the pingilla (chaffinch), birds that subsist on acorns and grains, and such hard food; but then he does not mention them as of his own knowledge; but says afterwards, that he saw himself a wagtail feeding a cuckoo. It appears hardly possible that a soft-billed bird should subsist on the same food with the hard-billed; for the former have thin membranaceous stomachs suited to their soft food; while the latter, the granivorous tribe, have strong muscular gizzards, which, like mills, grind by the help of small gravels and pebbles what is swallowed. This proceeding of the cuckoo is such a monstrous outrage on maternal affection, one of the first great dictates of nature, and such a violence on instinct, that, had it only been related of a bird in the Brazils or Peru, it would never have merited our belief. But yet, should it further appear that this simple bird, when divested of that natural rogy that seems to raise the kind in general above themselves, and inspire them with extraordinary degrees of cunning and address, may be still endued with a more enlarged faculty of discerning what species are suitable and congenerous nurse-mothers for its disregarded eggs and young, and may deposit them only under their care, this would be adding wonder to wonder, and instancing, in a fresh manner, that the methods of Providence are not subjected to any mode or rule, but astonish us in new lights and in various and changeable appearances." Pp. 147-8. Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl, So well converse, nor with the ox the ape."" -Pp. 221-2. We have room for only one other quotation; it is one which agriculturists will peruse with interest: THE UTILITY OF EARTH-WORMS.-" Lands that are subject to frequent inundations are always poor; and probably the reason may be because the worms are drowned. The most insignificant insects and reptiles are of much more consequence, and have much more influence in the economy of Nature, than the incurious are aware of; and are mighty in their effect from their minuteness, which render them less an object of attention; and from their numbers and fecundity. Earth-worms, though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of Nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm. For, to say nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be great promoters of vege tation-which would proceed but lamely without them-by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and fibres of plants, by drawing stalks of leaves and twigs into it; and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm-casts, which being their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms probably provide new soil for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth away; and they af fect slopes, probably to avoid being flooded. Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms: the former, because they render their walks unsightly and make them much work; and the latter, because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. But these men would find that the earth, without worms, would soon become cold, hard-bored, and void of fermentation, and consequently sterile; and besides, in favour of worms, it should be hinted, that green corn, plants, and flowers, are not so much injured by them as by many species of coleoptera (scarabs), and tipule (longlegs), in their larva or grub state; and by unnoticed my riads of small shell-less snails, called slugs, which silently and imperceptibly make amazing havoc in the field and garden."-Pp. 243-4. This volume of the Miscellany may not, perhaps, secure so wide a circulation as some of those which have preceded it; but we doubt not that, speaking as it does to the interests, the studies, and the amusements, of so large a class, its success will be such as to convince the publishers they are right in studying variety. We should have been glad had an Index been added to the volume, by which the different subjects of which Mr White treats, scattered as they are throughout his work, could be at once seen and referred to. in which they were probably living in it. Beneath all this load of pompous matter, the poor clan Mackay peeps out like a mouse under a firlot, a fly in amber, or a writer in Thurso under a pyramid of big-wigged lawyers. We suspect that Mr Mackay's talents must either be of a kindred order to those of Pope, who felt a pleasure in adorning nothings, or of Wordsworth, who is well known to treat his subject at all times as a mere accessory to his own imagination. We speak, however, with hesitation, because it cannot but be difficult to discover, under the disguise of an English translation, the peculiar tone of History of the House and Clan of Machay. By Robert Mr Mackay's mind. When we have heard him in Gaelic, Mackay, writer, Thurso. Edinburgh. Printed for the Author, by Andrew Jack & Co. 1829. LEST any of our Saxon readers, whether north or south of the Tweed, should be misled by the title of this book, it may be as well to premise, that the modern historians (as they are called, for want of a better English word) of the Highland clans, are the representatives and descendants of the ancient Sennachies. Their business is not, as the title would imply to the uninitiated, to give a correct and unbiassed narrative of their sept, but to compose an epic, more or less poetical, in its praise. This simple fact may serve to explain, in some degree, the seeming anomaly, that not only are the Highlanders, as a body, superior, in all moral and physical respects, to every tongue and kindred under the sun, but that every individual clan is, and ever has been, immeasurably superior to all the rest. we shall be better able to ascertain the peculiarities of his idiosyncrasy. Keeping this fundamental truth in view, and it is only by so doing that we can justly appreciate the merits of Mr Robert Mackay, writer in Thurso, and ex-dominie of Edderachillis,—we have no hesitation in declaring this work to be one of the most splendid specimens of its kind that has yet been submitted to the public. The clan Mackay has inhabited, from the earliest period of its records, one of the most remote, uncultivated, and uninteresting districts of Scotland ;-it has never been a leading sept even in that unheard-of corner ;-it has produced few, if any, men rising above a respectable mediocrity, either in wealth, adventurousness, or talents;—and yet of such unpromising materials has our author, by the united efforts of a fertile imagination, and a logic of which we have seen few prototypes south of the Forth, built up a goodly quarto of six hundred mortal pages, which, we have no doubt, will keep their place, for time immemorial, on the shelves of the learned, seeing that they contain nothing to induce any man to remove them from that distinguished situation. But the manner in which these six hundred pages have been filled, is at once curious and instructive, and deserves a remark or two. Apropos of the first Lord Reay having raised a regiment for the service of the Elector of Bohemia, out of whose ranks all the Mackays were speedily weeded by the chance of war, and their places supplied by other Scotsmen, we have a detailed history of the wars of Gustavus Adolphus, and the exploits of a Colonel Munro, which occupies nearly a third part of the book. It is true, that, during the greater part of the time, the noble Lord Reay was living in England, and that, when he was on the Continent, he was guiltless of taking any prominent part in active service, and that the whole of the episode has therefore as much connexion with the clan Mackay, as with the fate of Troy ;-but what of that?-it serves to make a large book, and a large book must be made by any daring author who presumes to write a history of the clan Mackay. Again, another very considerable portion of the work is devoted to the history of the civil troubles of Scotland, from the Rebellion of 1640 to the Restoration; and during that period no Mackay makes more than a nominal appearance ;-but still, what of that?-if we cannot learn any thing of that distinguished race, it is, at all events, interesting to know what the condition of the world was at any given time The clan Mackay is so called, as consisting of the sons or descendants of a certain lye. It is true, that they had assumed the name of Mackay some centuries previous to the birth of this worthy; but this was the consequence of the second-sight having revealed to one of their seers the name of the progenitor who was afterwards to be born to them. This circumstance being known, we need scarcely add, that our author clearly proves the clan to have been of Irish origin. There has been much controversy about the derivation of the name Iye; but we agree with Mr Robert Mackay, (p. 44,) that "the most probable supposition is, that it is an Irish name, derived from O'Donnel," to which the reader will perceive it bears a strong resemblance. The clan Mackay seem originally to have been a most amiable people. "They were behind none in the Highlands of Scotland in comfort, health, and harmony," (a delicate allusion to the bagpipes,) "having plenty to take and give, and hearts still larger than their cellars;" which is the beautiful turn of expression employed by the Gaelic language to imply that they had no cellars at all. Buchanan and other scandalous persons have called the Highlanders thieves. This calumnious aspersion, our author imagines that he triumphantly refutes, at least in so far as his own clan are concerned, by the following characteristic statement:-" Mackay had four or five foresters, the principal of whom resided at Auldanrinie, beside Lochmore, and latterly at Strathmore, at the side of Ben-Hope. These foresters would (could?) distinguish Mackay's deer from all other, and chase them back when they happened to stray to the Sutherland forest. They had the art of driving them in any direction they chose." Now, this was a very dangerous art which these foresters possessed, and puts us in mind of the honest servant,-who, we are credibly informed, was a Mackay,-between whom and his master the following dialogue is said to have occurred on the morning of their departure from a friend's house: Master. "Are you sure, John, that you have packed up all my clothes?”—John. “At the least, your honour." The head of the clan Mackay were of illustrious descent. Donald, the first, married the daughter of lye of Gigha. Now, as Mr Mackay very pertinently observes, "Gigha is an island in the district of Kintyre, which Pennant describes to be about six miles long, and one broad; and as, in ancient times, there were thanes of Gigha, this Iye might have been one of them." No wonder that with such a lineage, and such a following, the merits of the House of Mackay were recognised so early as the latter part of the reign of James VI. of Scotland, and rewarded with a peerage. Donald, the first Lord Reay, is the same illustrious individual of whom we have already had occasion to remark, that he led a regiment abroad, in whose exploits he took little share. in general more usefully employed recruiting at home for foreign service. He is supposed to have been the great original genius who first conceived the bold idea of dealing in soldiers. As is the case with by far the greater proportion of those enterprising merchants who attempt to open a new line of trade, his speculations were unsuccessful, and he died in considerable embarrassments. An ulogium worthy of him is dedicated to his memory by He was the historian of his clan. For some generations after the first Lord's death, the genius of Mackay seems to have remained dormant. At last it awoke again in General Hugh Mackay. But it awoke only to struggle with reverses; for the gallant general was drubbed most unceremoniously by Dundee at Killicrankie. It is true, that Mr Robert Mackay (forgetting, in his love for his clansman, his Highland partialities) demonstrates most satisfactorily that his ancestor was the better general of the two, and swears stoutly that Dundee's army was superior in numbers; but this is poor and late consolation to the disconsolate spirit of the tough old Celt, whom we can figure to ourselves grimly sitting on his cold cloud, rubbing his bruised and battered bones with true Ossianic dignity, and “grinning horribly a ghastly smile" over Mr Mackay's quarto. After another long and comfortable nap, the genius of the clan once more upreared its sleepy head; but it was only to sing, in the person of Rob Dow, in true guttural harmony to the mellifluous notes of the bagpipe, his own swanlike end. The historian wisely declines the risk of compromising his clansman's reputation, by translating his poems. We can therefore only tell our readers, in the bard's own words, that "The cuckoo gay envied his lay." We believe it was Rob who composed the affecting address "To a Scotch Fiddle, found at Dover." The description of his feelings on meeting, in a foreign land, with this primitive instrument of national melody, is beautiful and powerful. He says it made him “ fidging fain ;" and this expression Burns is supposed to have borrowed from him in his Tam O'Shanter. We could have wished to devote a few more columns to the individual character of our author-to have shown, by examples, his terse and irresistible logic-his liberal and kindly spirit towards all religious sects his free and gentlemanly morality, as exhibited at page 32; but we must confine ourselves to one passage, which is to us peculiarly pleasing, as it shows how little he has suffered from the contagious scepticism of the age. He tells (at page 521) a story of a brewer near Thurso, who was much harassed by cats coming and drinking his ale. One night, being on the watch, he fetched a stroke at the hindmost cat, and cut off her leg, which, on examination, he found to be the leg of a woman. The witch was thus discovered, and our author proceeds to remark:-" Pennant, vol. I. p. 189, after giving a very imperfect account of this matter, adds, "The horrors of this story were con ance with the interminable study of criticism, and modestly apologises for the deficiences his book may contain. He tells us-" These Lectures are not intended for the biblical student or the advanced scholar-for such persons the author has never had the presumption to write; but for the unlearned Christian, whose wish it is to study the Bible to advantage, and to derive immediately from the fount of inspiration those rich and copious streams of the Divine beneficence which gladden the creation of God." So modest and benevolent a design is calculated to disarm criticism; but we may safely say, that both learned and unlearned will reap instruction from this volume; and we would hope that the design of its publication will be extensively promoted. The author's fitness for his present task, is proved by the valuable works he has already given to the public, and the very favourable reception they have met with. His "Scientia Biblica" supplied a desideratum that had long been felt; his "Introduction to the Study of the Scriptures" is a work of very considerable ability; and his other publications of the same class, though by no means faultless, or entitled to unqualified praise, are a testimony of his industry and application in that field of literature in which he has engaged. This volume consists of eighteen lectures. The first is introductory, and contains an account of the progress of Biblical learning from the era of the Reformation to our own times its present state-its importance and its difficulties. Upon this head alone a volume might have been written, and we have to regret that the author's observations upon it are so brief, as to exclude any view of the progress of this study on the Continent. The five succeeding lectures are devoted to Biblical Criticism, and contain much valuable matter, which, though perhaps familiar to the scholar, will be found of great importance by the general reader, and will save the laborious examination of many siderably abated in the place I heard it, by an unlucky enquiry made by one in company, viz. In what part would the old woman have suffered, had the man cut off the cat's tail? But both enquiry itself, and the question, whether or not it was witty, might have been suspended, until it was first ascertained that such cats had tails." We know not by what oversight Mr Robert Mackay has failed to make mention of the two living ornaments profound, scarce, and expensive works. The author treats, among other things, of the languages in which the Scriptures were first published; and concludes that the Gospel of Matthew, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, were originally written in Greek, in opposition to the opinion which many eminent scholars have advanced, that they were written in Hebrew. We think the evidence he has produced scarcely sufficient to overturn the arguments of such critics as Grotius, Mill, Campbell, Michaelis, &c. in addition to the testimony of the fathers on this subject. Were we inclined to venture our opinion, it would be, that we have the Epistle to the Hebrews in the original language, and that there were two editions of his Gospel published by the Evangelist Matthew, the one in Hebrew or Syro-Chaldaic, for the benefit of the Jews in Judea; and the other in Greek, for the benefit of the Hellenistic Jews and the Gentile converts throughout the Roman Empire. Our author next treats of the various schools of Hebrew philology-the labours of the Jewish literati to preserve the text the comparative excellence of the Samaritan and Hebrew texts, (giving, with great justice, we think, of his clan-Charles Mackay, the immortal representative the preference to the latter,) the Septuagint version of bailiehood, and Benjamin Mackay, formerly of the of the Scriptures, and its origin and value. We agree in Register Street Academy, and now an enlightened wielder of the ferula in the New High School. Will not these thinking the story of Aristeas regarding their translation untrue. The version appears, as the learned Hugh Broughtwin stars of honour be one day sublimated to the sky, ton observes, to have been the work of different translaand installed presiding genii-the one of our smiles, the Some of the other of our tears? Why then should our Thurso his-tors, and probably done at different times. torian have overlooked them? translators have executed their task with great ability, The second division of the work is devoted to Biblical Interpretation, and consists of twelve lectures, which possess various degrees of excellence. The observations on the use of commentaries, and the evils arising from an injudicious use of them, are, on the whole, just. But we believe they will not meet with universal concurrence. Many have derived much comfort and instruction from the use of commentaries, who would have reckoned the critical examination of the original, labour lost. Still the names of Chalmers, Cook, and Campbell, are certainly no mean testimony to the correctness of the opinion our author maintains. His rules for the interpreting the Scriptures, and his observations on the moral qualifications of an interpreter, are valuable and instructive. Under this head he discusses the style, the sense, the grammatical arrangement, historical circumstances, the figurative and literal meaning of the text, the parallelism of Scripture, symbolical language, origin of writing, doctrine of types, allegories, and adds the method and order of, and suggestions for, the practical reading of the sacred volume. The work concludes with an excellent vocabulary of Scripture symbols, calculated to facilitate the study, and promote the general understanding of the sacred page. We subjoin the following passage as a specimen of the author's manner, and as containing some curious information not generally known : JEWISH TRANSCRIBERS OF THE SCRIPTURES." In transcribing the Sacred Writings, it has been a constant rule with the Jews, that whatever is considered as corrupt shall never be used, but shall be burnt, or otherwise destroyed. A book of the law, wanting but one letter, with one letter too much, or with an error in one single letter, written with any thing but ink, or written on parchment made of the hide of an unclean animal, or on parchment not purposely prepared for that use, or prepared by any but Israelites, or on skins of parchment tied together by unclean strings, shall be holden to be corrupt; that no word shall be written without a line first drawn on the parchment, no word written by heart, or without having been pronounced orally by the writer; that before he writes the name of God, he shall wash his pen; that no letter shall be joined to another; and that if the blank parchment cannot be seen all around each letter, the roll shall be corrupt. There are certain rules for the length and breadth of each sheet, and for the space to be left between each letter, each word, and each section. These Maimonides mentions as some of the principal rules to be observed in copying the sacred rolls. Even to this day it is an obligation on the persons who copy the sacred writings for the use of the synagogue, to observe them. Those who have not seen the rolls used in the synagogues, can have no conception of the exquisite beauty, correctness, and equality of the writing."-P. 51. We take leave of Mr Carpenter, with best wishes for the success of his work. Gabrielle, a Tale of the Swiss Mountains. By C. Redding. London. John Ebers. 1829. The Brunswick, a Poem, in three Cantos. Godesberg Castle, a Poem. London. By Miles T. Stapleton, Author of La Pia, or the Fair Penitent. London. James Ridgway. 1829. Retirement, a Poem. By Thomas Stewart, Esq. London. Ridgway. 1829. An Epistle from Abelard to Eloise. By Thomas Stewart, Esq. Second Edition. London. Ridgway. 1829. Walter and Emma; or, a Tale of Bothwell Bridge; with other Poems. By John Strachan. Forres. 1829. Poems on various subjects, never before published. By M. A. Cookson. Leith. 1829. UNDER cover of the text or texts copied above, we would gladly set down a few interesting and philosophical observations upon poetry in general, interspersed with some most instructive reflections on its present state, and some wise saws, clearly illustrative of our own highly cultivated judgment, and strongly calculated to impress our readers with the conviction, that the principal reason why no poetry of the very highest order has been pub lished for some time back, is, that we have peremptorily withstood the pressing solicitations of the booksellers to send our invaluable manuscripts to press. But though nothing would be more easy than to pen an introduction of this sort, we shall, for the present, waive the pleasant task, and prefer presenting our readers with a sober, and, we hope, correct account and appreciation of the different metrical essays before us. Mr C. Redding, the author of " Gabrielle," is a gentleman well-known in the literary circles of the metropolis, and is generally understood to take, along with Mr Thomas Campbell, an active share in the management of the New Monthly Magazine. His "Tale of the Swiss Mountains," the incidents of which are of a simple and domestic kind, is more indicative of a well-cultivated judgment than of a very ardent poetical temperament. The versification is smooth and flowing; and if his muse never soars a very lofty flight, neither does she ever forget herself so far as to tumble over the crystal battlements of heaven, down into the abyss profound of earth. The story is that of a Swiss peasant girl,-lovely, and beloved, happy in her mountain freedom, and full of all deep and gentle affections,-who is suddenly driven distracted by witnessing the fall of an avalanche, which overwhelms in ruin a whole village, and robs her of her parents and her friends " at one fell swoop." The main interest of the poem depends upon the descriptions which follow of the mild but hopeless insanity in which she is condemned to linger, and which assimilates her character, in some degree, to that of Shakspeare's Ophelia. We shall give one or two short specimens of Mr Redding's style. The following lines describe the catastrophe, the witnessing of which robbed Gabrielle of her senses: "It is the Avalanche, passing in his might Or whirling, as in sport, high up heaven's dome, "Now the morn sees her ope her cottage door; I all things have forgotten but my tears."-P. 13. in which there is both correctness of thought, and an "O! fantasies of madness! who can tell And with that thought, feels he has every thing!" Pp. 23-5. Mr Redding has extended the size and value of his volume by the addition of several miscellaneous pieces, some of which we recognise as having met with before in the New Monthly Magazine and elsewhere. Of these oung: "There happen'd some most wonderful escapes To call it providential. I, perhaps, "One henpeck'd gentleman had set his mind To hurry; so detain'd her dearest life, Grumbled, and then gave way, after short strife, "Another would have shared the general crunch, A monstrous quantity of whisky-punch, He stay'd at home to set his stomach right, Castle," has evidently read Byron's "Siege of Corinth," Mr Miles T. Stapleton, the author of "Godesberg and probably thinks his Der Stein equal to Alp, and his Giesela fully superior to Francesca. We think differently, and so will all the world; but, nevertheless, we daresay Mr Miles T. Stapleton is a very gentlemanly, pleasant person. Virgil said long ago-" non omnia possumus omnes;" and we only fear Mr Miles T. Stapleton mistook his profession, when he commenced imitator of Byron. We do not exactly know the hidden impulses which influence the mind of Mr Thomas Stewart; but why, in his " Epistle from Abelard to Eloise," he should interfere with a subject which Pope has consecrated, or why, in his poem entitled "Retirement," he should bring himself into immediate comparison with Goldsmith, we are rather at a loss to comprehend. Mr Thomas Stewart is neither a Pope nor a Goldsmith; and, though he has a certain facility in the art of versification, we advise him, in his own words, "No more again to tempt the wintry gales" of literary criticism. "Walter and Emma, or a Tale of Bothwell Bridge, with other Poems," by John Strachan, claims some leniency at our hands, in consideration of the author's humble rank of life, and the few opportunities he can have enjoyed of cultivating his taste. Mr Strachan is a weaver in Forres, and has certainly abilities above his station; and of these abilities, through the friendly patronage of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, the world has now an oppor tunity of judging for itself. There is a good deal of smooth and sweet versification in this unpretending little volume; but what we chiefly desiderate, is a little more originality. We are afraid that Mr Strachan's excellence consists more in a certain facility in expressing his thoughts in poetical language, than in calling thoughts into existence, which are themselves poetry. the great distinction between the true and the pseudopoet. Every man, with a ready command of words, and a tolerably lively fancy, may rhyme on for ages; but it is only the genuine poet who can extract from all common sights and sounds the odour and the music imperceptible to senses of a less delicate organization. However, there are many gradations of merit beneath that of This is |