But it is certain, that to be a favourite with those whose business it is to please the public, a tragedy must possess, in a peculiar degree, the means of displaying their powers to advantage; and it is equally clear, that the subject of Douglas, however felicitous in itself, was well-suited to the talents of the writer, who treated it so as to enable them to accomplish a powerful effect on the feelings of successive generations of men."

Mr Home was the son of Mr Alexander Home, town-clerk of Leith. His grandfather was a lineal descendant of Sir James Home of Coldingknowes. He was born in the vicinity of Ancrum, in Roxburghshire, in 1724, and received the first rudiments of education at the parochial school of that place. It was Mr Home's inclination, and the desire of his parents, that he should enter the church. He therefore attended the philosophical and theological classes of the university of Edinburgh for several years. But his studies were for a while suspended by the public commotions of the year 1745. On the approach of the insurgents, the citizens of Edinburgh formed themselves into an association for the support of their sovereign, and the defence of their city. Mr Home was one of about twenty students of the university who offered their services as volunteers to act against the common enemy. But intimidated by the number of their opponents, or adverse to the hardships of a military life, the college company soon disbanded. Mr Home, however, retained his arms, and marched with a detachment of the royal army to Falkirk; where, in the battle fought in its neighbourhood, in which the rebels vanquished the king's troops, he was taken prisoner, and confined for some time in the castle of Doune. From this place of captivity he effected his escape, and the battle of Culloden having blasted all the hopes of the Pretender's adherents, tranquillity and order were soon restored. Mr Home resumed his studies, and was licensed to preach the gospel. His character, at this period, is thus described by his biographer Mr Henry Mackenzie: "His temper was of that warm susceptible kind which is caught with the heroic and the tender, and which is more fitted to delight in the world of sentiment than to succeed in the bustle of ordinary life. This is a disposition of mind well-suited to the poetical character, and, accordingly, all his earliest companions agree that Mr Home was from his childhood delighted with the lofty and heroic ideas which embody themselves in the description or narrative of poetry. One of them, nearly a coeval of Mr Home's, Dr A. Ferguson, says, in a letter to me, that Mr Home's favourite model of a character, on which, indeed, his own was formed, was that of young Norval, in his tragedy of Douglas, one endowed with chivalrous valour and romantic generosity, eager for glory beyond every other object, and, in the contemplation of future fame, entirely regardless of the present objects of interest or ambition."

Not long after, Home visited England, and was introduced to Collins, the poet, at Winchester, by a Mr Barrow, who had been his fellowstudent at the university. Collins addressed to him his Ode on the Superstition of the Highlanders,' considered as the subject of poetry composed in 1749, but not published till many years after his death It is evident that Home at this period had exhibited some poctical powers. In the first stanza, Collins delivers a prediction, which was soon after fulfilled:

"Home, thou return'st from Thames, whose Naiads long
Have seen thee lingering with a fond delay

Midst those soft friends, whose hearts some future day
Shall melt perhaps to hear thy tragic song."

In the year 1746 he was settled minister of the parish of Athelstaneford, in East Lothian, and was the immediate successor of Robert Blair, author of The Grave.' Accustomed to the bustle of a city, and the society of men of letters, Mr Home found himself rather disagreeably situated in an obscure village where he had no opportunity of distinguishing himself. From the vicinity of his residence to Edinburgh, he was in the practice of frequently resorting to the capital, to enjoy the company of men of talents. Several of these had instituted a society for literary and philosophical disquisition, of which Mr Home was an original and distinguished member. This institution comprehended several of the most eininent characters of the day among others, were enrolled the names of Mr Alexander Wedderburn, afterwards Earl of Rosslyn; Ferguson, the philosopher; Hume and Robertson, the historians; and Blair, the rhetorician and divine; men, whom it would be superfluous here to panegyrise. It was about this period that Mr Home, in his retirement, began seriously to court the dramatic muse. The first tragedy he wrote was Agis,' founded on a portion of the Lacedæmonian history. He went to London with the manuscript, in hopes of getting it introduced on the stage; but in this he was disappointed, insurmountable objections having been made, by Garrick, to the plot. Our poet, however, not at all discouraged by this failure, conceived the plan of another play, laid the plot in Scotland, and made his hero one of his own countrymen. In presenting this to the London manager, he had the mortification of a second refusal. Notwithstanding the abilities of Garrick as a dramatist, his opinion of the merit of plays was not infallible: he rejected the tragedy of Douglas' as being too simple in its fable, and destitute of stage-effect. Whether Garrick ever examined at all into its merits, or delegated this office to another, on whose report he formed his decision, cannot now be ascertained. however, candidly confessed, through the remainder of his life, whenever the subject was agitated, that no circumstance, in the course of his management, gave him so much concern as the rejection of this play. By such repeated discouragement, the ardour of Home was by no means suppressed. Being acquainted with the leading characters in Scotland, a ready reception of his play at Edinburgh was secured. Its success was instantaneous and complete, having been performed to crowded houses during the greater part of the season, and fully gratifying the most sanguine hopes of the author, it was, through the interest of David Hume, brought forward on the London stage. Garrick having now discovered his mistake, made unusual exertions to introduce it to public notice and approbation. Hume, the historian, had shortly before its representation published four dissertations, and inscribed them to our author. In his dedication he pronounced so flattering a panegyric upon Mr Home, and bestowed such unqualified approbation on his play, that the public expectation was raised too high. The consequence was, that the success of Douglas' was at first doubtful in the metropolis. It soon, however, became a standard-tragedy, and maintains its ground on the British stage to the

He,

present day. Soon after this Mr Home resigned his charge in consequence of finding that the highest censures of the church were about to fall upon him for having written a tragedy. He preached his farewellsermon to his congregation, on the 5th of June 1757; to prevent further proceedings in the church-courts against him, he gave in the resignation of his charge to the presbytery of Haddington two days after.

Before the conclusion of 1757 Mr Sheridan, then manager of the Dublin theatre, sent over to Mr Home a gold medal, with a suitable inscription, acknowledging his singular merit in having enriched the English stage with the tragedy of Douglas.' With his living, Mr Home appears for a while to have abandoned his native land, for he now repaired to London, where he produced several other tragedies, under the patronage of Garrick, who wrote prologues to some, epilogues to others, and warmly interested himself in the fate of them all. They are all indeed greatly inferior to 'Douglas.' 'Agis,' the first of his dramatic pieces, was now finely acted, and assisted by spectacle, otherwise, it is probable that it would not have been performed a second night. His third tragedy was founded on the cruel treatment which the two Setons, sons of the governor of Berwick, had experienced from the English. At Mr Garrick's suggestion, the title was altered (and consequently the characters, and several local passages) from the Siege of Berwick,' to the 'Siege of Aquileia,' for he very naturally conceived, that any national allusions might tend to foment the jealousy which then unfortunately subsisted between the Scots and English. It was acted in 1759. Some of the passages are very fine, but upon the whole, it is a tame performance. The Fatal Discovery' was produced in 1769, and reluctantly permitted during nine nights. Though 'Alonzo' had the advantage of Mrs Barry's admirable acting, it shared the same fate; the author mentions in his preface that she received applause greater than ever shook a theatre. Mr Home's last production, Alfred,' lived only three nights. In the year 1760 Mr Home published a volume of plays, containing Agis,' 'Douglas,' and the Siege of Aquileia.' His other three tragedies appeared some time. after. The whole were collected and edited in two volumes at Edinburgh, in 1798, under the inspection of Mr Woods. Lord Bute having represented Mr Home to his majesty as a man of talents, his name was placed on the pension list, nearly at the same time with that of Dr Johnson. He lived in a state of retirement from this period to the time of his death.

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Nearly half-a-century after Douglas had been written, when the author had returned to, and was settled in his native country, Master Betty, better known by the nanie of the young Roscius, commenced his theatrical labours at Edinburgh, in the character of young Norval. The author attended the representation, and declared that that was the first time he had ever seen the part of Douglas played according to his ideas of the character when he conceived and wrote it. Mr Home, at the advanced age of seventy-eight, published his long meditated work, entitled, 'The History of the Rebellion in Scotland, in 1745-6,' in which he recorded the exploits and remarks of his youth. Of this work it is sufficient to observe, that the principles are just, and the opinions liberal. He died at Merchiston house, on the 5th of September, 1808, in the 86th year of his age.

The reader will find a most interesting and amusing article on the 'Works of John Home,' from the pen of Sir Walter Scott, in the 71st No. of the Quarterly Review, with the following extract from which we shall conclude this brief sketch: "We have said already that Douglas owes a great part of its attractions to the interest of the plot, which, however, is by no means a probable one. There is something overstrained in the twenty years spent by Lady Randolph in deep and suppressed sorrow; nor is it natural, though useful, certainly, to the poet, that her regrets should turn less on the husband of her youth, than upon the new-born child whom she had scarcely seen. There is something awkward in her sudden confidence to Anna, as is pointed out by David Hume. The spectator,' says the critic, 'is apt to suspect it was done in order to instruct him-a very good end, but which might have been obtained by a careful and artificial conduct of the dialogue.' This is all unquestionably true; but the spectator should, and, indeed, must, make considerable allowances, if he expects to receive pleasure from the drama. He must get his mind, according to Tony Lumpkin's phrase, into 'a concatenation accordingly,' since he cannot reasonably expect that scenes of deep and complicated interest shall be placed before him, in close succession, without some force being put upon ordinary probability; and the question is not, how far you have sacrificed your judgment in order to accommodate the fiction, but rather what is the degree of delight you have received in return. Perhaps, in this point of view, it is scarcely possible for a spectator to make such sacrifices for greater pleasure than we have enjoyed, in seeing Lady Randolph personified by the inimitable Siddons. Great as that pleasure was on all occasions, it was increased, in a manner which can hardly be conceived, when her son (the late Mr H. Siddons) supported his mother in the character of Douglas, and when the full overflowing of maternal tenderness was authorized, nay, authenticated and realized, by the actual existence of the relationship. There will, and must be, on other occasions, some check of the feeling, however virtuous and tender, when a woman of feeling and delicacy pours her maternal caresses on a performer who, although to be accounted her son for the night, is, in reality, a stranger. But in the scenes we allude to, that chilling obstacle was removed; and while Lady Randolph exhausted her tenderness on the supposed Douglas, the mother was, in truth, indulging the same feelings towards her actual son. It may be erroneous to judge in this way of a drama which can hardly be again illustrated by such powers, exercised under circumstances so exciting to the principal performer, and so nearly approaching to reality. Yet, even in an abstract view, we agree with Mr Mackenzie that the chief scene between Lady Randolph and Old Norval, in which the preservation and existence of Douglas is discovered, has no equal in modern, and scarcely a superior in the ancient drama. It is certainly one of the most effective which the English stage has to boast; and we learn with pleasure, but without surprise, that, though many other parts of the play were altered before its representation, we have this masterpiece exactly as it was thrown off in the original sketch. Thus it is,' says the accomplished editor, that the fervid creation of genius and fancy strikes out what is so excellent as well as vivid, as not to admit of amendment, and which, indeed, correction would spoil instead of improving. This is the true inspiration

of the poet, which gives to criticism, instead of borrowing from it, its model and its rule, and which it is possible, in some diffident authors, the terrors of criticism may have weakened or extinguished.''

James Anderson.

BORN A. D. 1739.-DIED A. D. 1808.

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THIS intelligent and industrious author was born about the year 1739, at Hermiston, a village about six miles from Edinburgh, of parents who succeeded their forefathers for several generations in cultivating the same land. Nothing remarkable is known of them they were a family of respectable farmers, and our author may be said to have inhaled with his first breath that spirit of agricultural knowledge for which he became so distinguished. Having been deprived of both his parents while yet very young, it was the wish of his guardian that he should occupy the paternal farm when old enough to undertake such a charge; and as much learning was not thought necessary for a farmer, young Anderson was discouraged by his friends from prosecuting his studies beyond a common school education; but that decision and firmness which were throughout his life the most conspicuous features of his character, now began to appear, and he displayed a resolution to judge and act for himself. He informs us, that having read Home's Essay on Agriculture,' and finding that he could not understand the reasoning for want of chemical knowledge, he immediately resolved to attend Cullen's lectures on that science. Being very young, and unaided by the countenance of any friend who could give him advice or introduce him to the world, he waited on Dr Cullen, and explained his views and intentions. The doctor, considering it as a boyish whim which might lead him away from his necessary pursuits, at first endeavoured to dissuade him from the undertaking; but finding that our youth had fully reflected on the subject, and adopted his resolution with a fixed determination to persevere in it, he assented to the design; and as the penetration of that celebrated man soon discovered the capacity and steadiness of his young pupil's mind, he not only encouraged his present object, but became his sincere friend, and carefully directed his future studies. Among the first things he did upon his farm, was to introduce for the first time the small two-horse plough, now in universal use over the greater part of Scotland. After having occupied Hermiston for a few years, he quitted it as a place that did not possess a sufficient field for his enterprising mind, and took a long lease of a large farm in the wilds of Aberdeenshire, consisting of about 1300 acres of land almost in a state of nature. This vast undertaking was entered upon before he was of age, the execution of the lease having been deferred till that period arrived. In the midst of the difficulties he had to contend with in bringing this tract into cultivation-which were very great, arising chiefly from the badness or total want of roads, the remote distance from markets, and the precariousness of the climate-he began his career as an author with his essays on planting, &c. first printed in the year 1771, in the Edinburgh Weekly Magazine,' under the signature of Agricola, and again published separately in 1777. The first