those who take it up with fuch an intention, will very speedily lay it down again. It is neceffary to obferve, however, that we have read it faithfully through from beginning to end, and not without a certain fpecies of entertainment. The work appears to us to be a fort of curiofity; and fome account of it may probably be interefting to thofe who love to fpeculate on the inequalities of human genius. So large a quantity of pure profe was never divided before, we believe, into cuttings of ten fyllables, as Dr Cririe has here prefented to his readers; and no inftance has yet occurred to us, where fo much labour has been bestowed on a poetical fubject, with fo complete a failure of poetical effect. We make thefe obfervations, however, upon the fuppofition that Dr Cririe intended to regulate himfelf by the ordinary ftandards of poetical excellence, and endeavoured to conform to the old and approved models that are commonly referred to in this department of literature. The uniformity and extent of his actual deviations, however, have compelled us to fufpect that this is not the cafe; and that the reverend author, carried away by the innovating spirit of the age, has had the ambition of eftablishing a new fchool of poetry, and expected to fet the example of an original manner of poetical defcription. It cannot indeed be denied, that he appears to have borrowed a good number of hints from the ineftimable treatife of the Bathos; but it must be admitted, that he has, in general, very much improved upon them, and that many of his devices for applying them are altogether and peculiarly his own. If we were to fpecify any one quality as peculiarly characteristic of this performance, we fhould pitch upon the admirable fidelity, and manly fimplicity of the defcriptions, which occupy fo confiderable a part of it. In defcribing a city, for inftance, a vulgar poetical writer is apt either to prefent fuch general and picturefque images to the fancy of the reader, as fuggeft a lively picture of its external appearance, or elfe to make fome allufion to the great and interefting events that may happen to be connected with it. Dr Cririe, however, proceeds upon a much fafer and more fatisfactory plan, and contents himself with a fair enumeration of the parts which compofe it. Of Glasgow, for example, he notices the beauty and extent, The Royal college, far and juftly fam'd; , &c. Edin Edinburgh is reprefented, with equal accuracy and effect, with High-tow'ring Arthur's Seat Upon the right, and fair Edina's hills, Her caftle, palace, and her deep funk vale; Her bridges, buildings high, and fpacious streets." This plan of defcription, we must confefs, is apt to give occafion to fome apparent repetition; as the analysis of one city frequently affords pretty much the fame refults with that of another; but its advantages, in point of facility and precifion, probably outweighed this inconvenience in the opinion of Dr Cririe. Words In defcribing a landfcape, the learned Doctor is fcarcely lefs original. Painting to the eye, he knew, was extremely troublefome and uncertain; and no colouring of words, he was fenfible, could ever convey an exact idea of the appearance and properties of every individual object. What, then, does he do? are the only inftruments he can employ; and, guided by the maxims of the foundeft philofophy, he confiders that the words moft closely connected with external objects, and moft fitted to fuggeft them with precifion, are their proper names. And, accordingly, he inferts the proper name and appellation of all the objects around him, inftead of embarraffing his readers with a vague or imperfect defcription. In reprefenting the prospect from Rofneath, for inftance, he favours his readers with this ample catalogue. Loch-Long, Cumbray, and Clyde, Are near at hand; Gourock and Greenock feen Nearer, Dumbarton's wondrous rock and hills, Nor let me here at hand the lake forget, Gair-Loch, with all its beauteous fhores and woods, Which vies with great Rofueath, already high, And rifing ftill in beauty and renown. p. 102. 103. Here, befides the great accuracy and beauty of the description, the reader is charmed with a number of fine founding names, that could never have been introduced by a dealer in poetical landscape. This is a beauty, indeed, that is fcattered with great profufion through the whole poem, which contains many fonorous and fignificant appellations, that probably never stood in verse before. We have Killicrankie, and Dunniquech, and Tummel, and Tynedrum, and Freuchlin, Coryvreckan, Au, Oich, and - Doch Doch-Ard, and Lochy deep, Upon whose wooded banks ftands Finlurig. ' Upon the fame principle, he does not fcruple to infert in his poem, all the vulgar or ridiculous appellations that may happen to be appropriated to the object in queftion. Thus, he calls the canal that unites the Frith and the Clyde, the Great Canal; ' and celebrates the rugged mountains to the weft of Inverary, by the name of Argyle's bowling green.' Whisky is called the water of life,' &c. &c. Where the objects have no individual or proper names, he is contented with that of the fpecies to which they belong, carefully avoiding every approach toward picturefque expreffion. In giving an account of a grove, for example, he difdains to fpeak of the mixture of colours, or the alternation of light and fhade; but he gives a very exact and clear enumeration of the forts of trees which compose it. The fobriety of the whole paffage, indeed, affords an admirable contraft to thofe gaudy and confufing defcriptions with which the vulgar herd of readers are fo much intoxicated. • Here fpreads the level lawn, well stock'd with deer: And wave their spreading branches high in air: р. бо. Although we have faid that Dr Cririe fcorned to borrow an intereft for his defcriptions from any allufion to great and interefting events, yet it cannot be fuppofed that a man of his learning fhould pass fuch events over without any notice. The art, however, with which he guards against their communicating any degree of improper animation or fplendour to his work, is really furprising. He states the fact, in general, in the fewest and fimpleft words, and places it in fuch a detached pofition, that fo far from raifing up any unbecoming degree of emotion in the mind of the reader, it ufually paffes over it, like an extract from a chronological table. For instance: 'Twas here the Roman legions crofs'd the Tay. '- The fame love of truth, and contempt for the vain exaggerations of ordinary poets, has led Dr Cririe, in many paffages, to adopt a diction that is new in the poetical department. Thus, he fpeaks of a river, that wafts manufactures' abroad; and, inftead of the trite imagery of a torrent rolling down fwains, and trees, and cattle, he tells us that ther, and the fatigue or fatisfaction of the traveller, are inferted, along with a faithful enumeration of all the objects and reflections that prefented themfelves as he went along. To this are annexed, nearly 200 pages of Notes and Illuftrations, confifting principally of extracts from the Statistical Account of Scotland, and references to school-books, in evidence of the author's erudition. If the price of the volume were a little more moderate, or its fize better adapted for the pocket of a poftchaife, it might not be without its utility as a travelling companion. It certainly contains more names of places, than any book of the roads we have ever met with; and the engravings, which are about as correct as travellers are in the practice of publishing, might assist ladies and gentlemen in their defcriptions of fuch places as they paled in their fleep, or were too much hurried to go to. ART. VII. Voyage en Iftande, fait par ordre de fa Majeflé Danoife. Traduit du Danois. 1802. THE HE King of Denmark having heard, by accident, that there was a large ifland in his dominions, called Iceland, directed the Academy of Sciences to felect fome millionaries of fcience for the purpose of exploring it. The Academy, in obedience to his commands, appointed Meffrs Olafsen and Povelien to that frigid and curious office: the first, an Icelander by birth; the latter (ftrange to tell) living there, though born in another country. The refult of their labours is this very tedious and authentic book. The Danish Academy (becaufe perhaps they confidered that nothing amufing could be dignified), have divided this work into four parts, correfponding with the four divifions of the island, into North, Eaft, South and Weft. A prodigious number of topics are treated of in the firft divifion, and the fame order of fubjects is purfued, with a fort of ponderous decorum, through the three others; fo that we have four differtations upon the Icelandic method of feeding cows: And having afcertained, with the utmost precifion, the quantity of falt infufed into the butter in the Northern hemifphere of this ancient kingdom, an agreeable, though gentle, furprife is excited by the difcovery, that the salt butter of the South confifts exactly of the fame proportions; a fenfation which fwells out into full and entire fatisfaction, whenwe come to know that the fame wonderful ratio pervades the dairies under the remaining points of the cor pafs; that burter is muriated upon one great leading principle through the whole of Iceland; and the queftion of flavour and coníervation deter mined, not by local caprice, but by pure and steady reafon. Upon the mode, however, in which this work is executed, we fhall have more to fay towards the clofe of the review. Iceland is best known from its natural curiofities, and from the afylum which it afforded to learning in the early ages. There is fomething very fingular in the fact, that letters fhould have flourished moft vigoroufly in the most remote, and moft inacceffible part of the world; and that men should have found any means of cultivating the luxuries of knowledge, where the fterility of nature feems almost to have denied them the neceffaries of lifeIngenium male habitat. Upon this cold and frozen rock, poets fung, hiftorians recorded, and legiflators decreed, for future times. Man never gained fuch a victory over circumstances, nor rose fo fuperior to phyfical evils. The Icelanders, after having extracted fupport from their unwilling country, adorned it with works of genius which were luminous in the darkness of Europe, and which retain fome fhare of luftre at the expiration of eight centuries, when Europe is dark no more. There must be much bodily idlenefs in any country, before there can be much literature; a remiflion of manual labour, before there can be much intenfenefs of mental exertion. If a few good books are handed down to us from any period, it amounts to a proof, that the fame period muft have given birth to many bad ones which we have never feen; because there is no fuch capricious prominence of genius, as, that one or two men fhould reflect, and compare, and compofe, while every thing about them is brutal and ignorant: The fact is, that many try, and perifh; and a few, who do better than the reft, are handed down to pofterity. Upon these principles, it is difficult to conceive, how fuch a country as Iceland could have found leisure for literature. We should have imagined that her poets and hiftorians must have been driven by hunger, where the Roman heroes often went by choice, to the plough; or that every spark of genius and talent which the poffèffed, muft have been employed in catching fish. Yet Sir Jofeph Banks, upon his return from that country, prefented the British Mufeum with more than three hundred fcelandic manufcripts; and if a mere ftranger could carry away fo many reams of genius, in what numbers muft they be found in the libraries of Copenhagen, and among the collectors of the country? These travellers open their account of Iceland, by obferving that the ordinary winter cold of Iceland is not very confiderable, from 20 to 24 of Fahrenheit. When the heavens are very fe rene, the thermometer falls to 12, and has been fometimes as low as 40 below the freezing point. The period of the greatest |