employs a cadence fit for polished ears to receive; and then contraft it with the lines which the writes in compliance with the fuppofed law of the ftyle fhe has adopted. "Dark Spirit of the northern lay, Hear from thy mifty mountain, bleak and cold! With thy unutterable spell Bid this adventurous breast to swell! The murmurs deep of long fepulchred years, Bid the dim forms of mouldering chiefs arife, From the grey cairn's mofs-mantled stone, To those who fleep with kings-the regal duft of Scone ! Bend from thy mifty throne-dark fpirit bend !" P. 2. What can can be finer than this, in modulation, as well as in conception? But in the very next ftanza, we have the modulation of an imperfect poetry, to which the ear with difficulty accommodates itself. "Now faint rofe the diftant vefper fong, Heaven's beaming arch fhone clear and blue, And the fweet broom gliften'd with chryftal dew, And the Lintwhite pour'd his melody, Was big with an injur'd nation's woe!" P. 3. There is, we grant, fomething captivating in the line "Yet ftormy and dark was the breast of man," but we doubt not that a well modulated line, of equal, or fuperior effect, might eafily be fubftituted for it. The two lalt lines contain a falfe and glittering thought, on which we will not dwell, because we do not find many fuch in the poem. But an azure fky big with the woe of a nation, is nothing in the world. Having made this objection to the choice of the verfification, not the execution of it, we are inclined to take one ftanza excellent in itself, and convert it into well modulated lines; being willing to appeal to the author her Ꭰ Ꮞ felf " felf, whether her ideas would be injured by being fo con. veyed. "Who has not heard old Scotland's wrongs Appeal to the vengeful fky, When the cry of a nation's thoufand tongues Inftead of this, we propose to read, Who has not heard old Scotland's wrongs, Appealing to the vengeful fky, When the cry of all a nation's tongues And when the Church's venerable fpires, The third-line we have not been able completely to mo dulate, without changing the idea, and in one or two places we will grant that the effect of a fingle word may be miffed; but on the whole, we cannot but think the ftanza improved by being fo modulated; and that the whole poem would be more valuable if the writer had fubjected her mufe to the approved laws of the English Lyric poetry. The imperfections of the earlier poetry will be pardoned certainly, in productions of genuine antiquity, for the fake of other merits; merits; but to imitate imperfection, and study to write worfe than education has enabled us to write, is an abfurdity, which even fashion, we truft, will not long be able to protect. Having made these obfervations on the mechanifm of this poem, which we hope may have a tendency to prevent other miftaken attempts of the fame kind, we proceed to examine the conduct and management of it, in the flyle which has been adopted. We confefs, that having heard much praise bestowed upon the whole compofition, long before we obtained a copy of it, we opened it with hopes that have by no That the fair writer has means been realized in the perufal, poetical talents, of confiderable vigour, we are not inclined to deny; but we fay with regret, that hitherto they are so far obfcured by a deficiency in tafte and judgment, that they are far from producing their due effect. She is too fond misled perhaps by great authority, of prodigies and preternatural events, and in her narrative often obfcure, through abruptnefs. The appearance of the ftrange foothfayer (or Warlock) to Wallace is a striking inftance of the one, and the wound received by Edward in his tent of the other. How fuch a prophet could exift, is never made out in the first cafe, nor is it very clear in the fecond, that the king was wounded by a kick from his own horfe. The following inftance will alfo evince, among others which might be taken, that the author is not always fenfible that the licences of her measure may lead to the ridiculous, inftead of the folemn. "Now Durham! St. John defend thy pride, Baffet has deaftly hit the pafs, And ftands with his men on the hoftile fide. Now, Bishop! call on thy friends in heaven, For well I ween thy proud array, By fome dark imp of Satan driv'n, Are furely going deftruction's way! "Already they ftand on the treacherous brink, One ftep, and they hide their heads for ever! Ah, fee! what gallant hundreds fink,. To rife to life and daylight never! Oh! fatal, rafh and erring fpeed! Even now, elate in pride they ftood, Now, o'er their heads grows the flimy weed Now o'er their perifh'd forms rolls ruin's inky flood!" P.133. To pafs by other faults, the jingle of ever and never, taken from a trivial ballad in a foolish drama, goes to the very an tipodes tipodes of all dignity. Yet we would gladly fhow, what is ftrictly the truth, that with no kind of hoftile feeling to wards the author, we make thefe remarks. The following paffage is one of very many which prove of what things the will be capable when her judgment shall be matured: "Oh! thou Omnipotent! whofe ways Man's daring optics trace in vain! Who dare, with doubting heart arraign, Tho' ftorms and clouds obfcure, the wisdom of thy reign? "Yes, it is come! That paufe of dread, Men's faultering footsteps, as they tread There is an hour, whofe preffure cold It is not when the battle-ftorm Oh! from the cradle to the tomb, Comes there no hour fo fraught with gloom, As that ere nations meet, to feal each other's doom.” P.121. Of a female who can write thus, we cannot but entertain the highest hopes. But fhe muft difcard modern compounds, the fpawn of affectation, such as "death-dew, death-fire,' &c. and, if poffible, avoid all imitation. Depending on her own genius, and defpifing tricks, fhe will do well. ART. V. Geological Travels. By J. A. De Luc, F.R.S. Vol. I. Travels in the North of Europe, containing Obfervations on fome Parts of the Coafts of the Baltic and the North Sea. Tranflated from the French Manuscript. Illustrated with a Map and Drawings. 8vo. 407 pp. Rivingtons. 12s. 1810. E have never had occasion to notice the works of this WE venerable philofopher, but we have particularly dwelt on the indefatigable and praife-worthy folicitude he has evinced, to decide every thing relating to the fubject of geology by a reference to facts. To thefe he constantly appeals, and to these he wishes conftantly to call the attention of all other theorifts. His travels have not been undertaken merely for the fake of procuring data for his own hypothefes, but for the fake of bringing to that irresistible 'teft the hypothefes of others. The book before us is but a first volume of an unfinished work, and therefore we shall not be expected to be very diffufe in our remarks upon it. It has immediate reference to a former recent publication noticed in our 35th Vol. p. 497, and entitled An Elementary Treatife on Geology. The main drift of M. De Luc's refearches, as is well known, is to prove the fmall antiquity of our Continents, particularly in oppofition to thofe who contend for an immenfe antiquity, not as the refult of their own phyfical refearches, but rather as the refult of their fanciful hypothefes. In many of the latter, particularly the Huttonian, there is the parade of a reference to visible phænomena, but M. De Luc has, we think, in many inftances, clearly proved, that fuch phænomena have either been mifunderflood by the learned theorift himfélf, or that there are abundance of other phænomena to be found, which effectually overfet the conclufions he has formed. In the prefent work, the geological facts that bear a relation to the ftate of our Continents at their birth, and to the caufes which have acted on them fince that time, are arranged under feveral diftinct heads, to the number of twenty-feven in all, fome of which are of more obvious importance than others, |