Dr. Syntax. It would grieve us to be too severe on an established favourite with a certain class of readers: more especially one who has passed (if we are rightly informed) a long life in the service of literature; and some of whose earlier productions manifest a different degree of poetical power from that of the works before us. The truth is, however, that a poet who professes to be attended by a painter, and to be furnishing subjects for the pencil in the whole of his efforts, must be too often destitute of the ideal charm of composition, and of all that delicate excellence which answers to such a feeling. Comparatively, he can have to expatiate in but a narrow intellectual world of his own creating, peopling, and endowing; for detached forms and petty peculiarities must be the chief food of his imagination. If these observations to the limited task of the poet who ex professo leads the painter, what must be their justice of application to him who follows the painter? This, we are willing to imagine, has not often been the case, where any due talent has existed to rescue the nobler workman of the two from this subserviency. Yet we fear, that Dr. Syntax must plead guilty to the charge of playing second fiddle in the most considerable portion of his labours; though Mr. Rowlandson has so admirably (on many occasions at least) played the first, that the poetical pride of his coadjutor, of whatever quality it may be, must have been the less painfully wounded. The information that the author is an octogenarian, must also greatly check the severity of criticism. While, however, we pay due respect to the former merits of an experienced writer, we must not forget the contending duty which we owe to our readers in the existing case; and we must acknowledge that a large part of both these volumes of the Tour of Syntax does remind us, in its diffuseness, and in its dilating and diluting properties, of that great master of feeble amplification, our noble Secretary for Foreign Affairs; [Lord Londonderry.]-Monthly Review, Dec. 1821. ART. 41.-Some Passages in the Life of Mr. Adam Blair, Minister of the Gospel at Cross-Meikle. Edinburgh, 1822. THE publication whose title we have just copied, is, in a high degree, lascivious and indecent in many of its details-unfit for the perusal of the youth of either sex, whose imaginations it is calculated to inflame-and deeply injurious to our national priesthood, than whom the world does not contain a more moral, useful, zealous, and apostolic order of men. The worst of it is, that Sin is here tricked out in the habiliments of Holiness. 500 Some Passages in the Life of Mr. Adam Blair. and the disgusting slang of the tabernacle and the meeting-house applied to descriptions and facts adapted only for the meridian of the brothel. 'Tis too much proved, that, with devotion's visage, The devil himself." Old Edinburgh Magazine, March, 1822. ART. 42.-The Ayrshire Legatees; or, the Pringle Family. 12mo. Edinburgh, 1821. ART. 43.—Annals of the Parish; or, the Chronicle of Dalmarling; during the Ministry of the Rev. Micah Balwhidder. Written by Himself. Arranged and edited by the Author of "The Ayrshire Legatees," &c. 12mo. Edinburgh, 1821. [Carey, Philad.] 6 By some perverse destiny, it was our fate to fall into contact with a work entitled "The Earthquake," which was announced to be written by the author of The Ayrshire Legatees;' and never was our patience so ill requited as by those three volumes of dullness and extravagance. The publications before us, however, are of so much higher an order, that we cannot believe them to be derived from the same pen. In neither of the productions which are the subject of this article, is any novelty of incident or intricacy of plot to be discerned but they are marked by pleasing pictures of the class of life to which they relate; and they frequently remind us by their phraseology, and other circumstances characteristic of the lowlands, of those exquisite pencillings of nature which abound in the novels of the Waverley school. Indeed, report states the author of them to be nearly allied by marriage to Sir Walter Scott, whose name has always stood so much connected with those strangely fatherless children :-we say strangely, because we should imagine that any man would be proud to own such eminent bantlings of his brain. Monthly Review, Dec. 1821. ART. 44.-Sir Andrew Wylie, of that Ilk. By the Author of " Annals of the Parish," &c. 3 Vols. Edinburgh. 1822. [New-York.] "SIR Andrew Wylie, of that Ilk," professes to be a "true and authentic history" of a Scottish peasant boy of the very lowest class, who, by dint of impudence, low cunning, and mother wit, aided by an uninterrupted series of lucky chances, raises himself, or, to speak more correctly, is raised to affluence and rank, and whom the author traces through a long catalogue of incredible adventures, till at last, after his strange eventful career, he subsides into an M. P., a baronet, and a benedict; when he is somewhat scurvily turned adrift by his creator, the author of "Annals of the Parish,," to end his days as he best may, in a landward parish of Ayrshire. He is an ill-shaped, unliked, lubberly Scotch lout, with a large share of the low, grovelling, and sordid cunning, peculiar to his countrymen of a particular class; of the most absurd and pedantic vanity; always coarse, and dust-licking, a buffoon without drollery; a wit without humour, a sage without wisdom; and incessantly meddling with other people's matters, and neglecting his own. The chapters and episodes, too, have much the same connection with one another as a dozen haddocks suspended from the same stick passing through each "eyeless hole"-a cruel species of juxtaposition! The author's language, also, is in perfect keeping and congruity with the story; and being neither English, Irish, nor Scotch, may, without any impropriety, be said to be his own. The book contains many profound reflections, every way worthy of the far-famed author of "The Earthquake," and the deviser of "The Seven Principles of Political Science," for our friend Sir Richard. (It has, however, one signal and prominent merit: it is highly moral in its tendency. It may do good, and can do no harm.) The truth seems to be, however, that he is a squeezed orange, or, to vary the figure, that his vein is wrought out, and his fancy, naturally neither active nor vigorous, is at the end of its tether. His mind is an intellectual barrel-organ, that can be set to the droll tunes called "The Ayrshire Legatees," and "Micah Balwhidder," and no other; or he is like a horse in a gin, once round his puny circlet, and, ever afterwards, he must patiently trudge over the same course. We have, however, yet one advice to give him. Before he sends forth any more of his manufactures, he would do well to provide himself with an English Dictionary, in which useful book he will acquire much needful knowledge.-Old Edinburgh Magazine, Feb. 1822. ART. 45.-Letters to Richard Heber, Esq. containing Critical Remarks on the Series of Novels beginning with Waverley, and an attempt to ascertain their Author. London, 1821. [and Parker, Boston.] THIS is a striking proof of the value and importance, as well as the unexampled celebrity of these novels, that before the first born of the family is seven years old, and when many a thriving addition is yet expected, the question of their parentage should have called forth a work of so much ingenuity and research, as that before us. The mysteries of Rowley, of Ossian, and of Ju nius, were, comparatively, objects of antiquarian speculation, when they began to be mooted in controversy. But even when books came to be written to unmask Chatterton, convict M'Pherson, and unveil Sir Philip Francis, none of them-not all of them elicited so great a variety of curious, instructive, and exciting matter, as is done by this satisfactory [doubtful] integration of the poet of Marmion and the author of Waverley. As a lesson of judicious and elegant criticism, illustrated in a manner equally pleasing and powerful, we have already recommended the volume to all who have read the poems and novels; and we would add, that none who have enriched their shelves with the works, should omit to place the commentary in the proud row. Nay, even the Great Unknown might not rise unbenefited from such a study of himself—of his own, it may be, unheeded excellencies, as well as unrecognised faults, and of a view so beautifully systematic of those very rules of high rhetoric and exalted belles lettres, which, if he has sometimes transgressed, he has so much oftener confirmed and dignified.—New Edinburgh Review, Oct., 1821. ART. 46.--Specimens of the Russian Poets, with Preliminary Remarks, and Biographical Notices. Translated by JOHN BOWRING, F. L. S. 12mo. London, 1821. [and Boston.] UNTIL the appearance of this little volume, we confess we were not aware that Russia had made such progress in the cultivation of poetical talent as is here displayed; and to find a wreath of such blooming and fragrant flowers amid the perpetual snows of the north is peculiarly gratifying. Indeed, when we advance in our reflections from the mere pleasure of the discovery to its remoter consequences, we cannot but attach very considerable interest to the present publication. Poetry is, confessedly, more than the ornament of society: it is one important element of the education of the human mind; and for ever will it have a great and visible influence on the formation of national character. In a very well written introduction, the translator of the compositions before us has given us much information concerning the progress of poetry in Russia. We can assure him that we see no chance whatever of his work being undervalued, in its general importance and success, by any person of sufficient intellect and taste to judge of its merits. We encourage him most warmly, therefore, to proceed in his 'extensive plan,' and to favour the English reader with a 'general history of Russian lite rature.' Of the Russian language he seems the critic as well as the translator. Among the living writers, (perhaps among all the writers of Russia,) Karamsin holds the highest place. His 'History of Russia,' according to Mr. B., is the first and best literary work' ever produced in the country which it celebrates.' We rejoice to hear that such a man has been loaded with honours and distinctions;' and we augur well for the future melioration of a government, which has the sense and spirit thus to patronize literature.-Monthly Review, Oct. 1821. LIST OF LATE PUBLICATIONS. AGRICULTURE. An Address delivered before the Worcester Agricultural Society. By Hon. Jonathan Russell. Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal. An Address on the means of opening new sources of wealth for the northern states, delivered before the Agricultural Society of Rennselaer county, (N. Y.) By E. C. Genet. Address delivered before the Philadelphia Society for promoting Agriculture, at its annual meeting, 15th Jan. 1822. By Nicholas Biddle, Esq. Philadelphia. EDUCATION-(including Philology and Grammars.) Lessons in English Grammar. By Alonzo Lewes. Boston. Lessons for Schools, taken from the holy scriptures, in the words of the text; without note or comment. In three parts. Compiled by Stephen Grelet. A Just Standard for Pronouncing the English Language, containing the Rudiments of the same, &c. By Lyman Cobb, Philom. Ithaca. A Present for an Apprentice; or a Sure Guide to gain both esteem and estate by a late Lord Mayor of London. 18mo. By the Apprentices' Library, Philadelphia. 1822. GEOGRAPHY-(including Topography.) A Topographical and Statistical Manual of the State of New-York, &c. 2d edition, enlarged and improved. Containing also an account of the grand canals. 8vo. pp. 72. Bliss & White. New-York. [The first statistical experiment of the author of this original work, was made in 1811, when the editors of the "Am. Med. and Phil. Reg." of this city bestowed upon it a deserved eulogy, but attributed it to Mr. H. G. Spafford-instead of the real author, Mr. Sterling Goodenow. This is a publication which closely aims at utility for the author has the unfashionable hardihood to think that those who make the largest books are not the greatest contributors to our literature. He says, in the preface to this edition-"I have rejected all suggestions of adding maps, hundreds of pages, or binding. Maps of the state are now seen every where-book-making is foreign from my design-and a bound book could not so |