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" 'Twas Man;

I ask'd the Sea; the Sea in fury boil'd,
And answer'd with his voice of storms,
My waves in panic at his crime recoil'd,
Disclos'd the abyss, and from the centre ran."
I ask'd the Earth; the Earth replied aghast,
""Twas Man; and such strange pangs my bosom rent,
That still I groan and shudder at the past."

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-To Man, gay, smiling, thoughtless Man, I went,
And ask'd him next : He turn'd a scornful eye,
Shook his proud head, and deign'd me no reply.'

ART. VII.

The Poetical Remains of the late Dr. John Leyden;" with Memoirs of his Life, by the Reverend James Morton. 8vo. pp. 520. 128. Boards. Longman and Co. 1819.

A

VERY interesting and well-deserved record of the virtues and attainments of the lamented Leyden is here offered to the public. The memoirs of his life afford the amplest proof of his indefatigable search after knowlege, and of the manly and independent character of his mind: while the poetical portion of the volume merits attention from all lovers of the muse, many compositions being here published which display a very striking union of taste and genius. The poem intitled "Scenes of Infancy" is well known to most readers of poetry, and has already received its meed of praise in our pages. If, in parts, it may bear too close a resemblance to the more popular and enchanting effusions of a Goldsmith and a Rogers, it has still a large share of originality, and most pleasingly exemplifies that fond and universal attachment which men of good feeling entertain towards the place of their nativity, and of their early education.

Many other pieces in this volume indicate the same delightful tone of sentiment; and some of them, we think, display it in a very powerful and pathetic manner. For example, in the Ode on leaving Velore; written in 1804.' Farewell, ye cliffs and ruin'd fanes!

Ye mountains tall, and woodlands green!
Where every rock my step detains,

To mark where ancient men have been.
Yet not for this I muse unseen,

Beside that river's bed of sand † ;
Here first, my pensive soul to cheat,
Fancy pourtray'd in visions sweet

The mountains of my native land.

See M. R. vol. xlv. p. 62. See also vol. lxxxv. p. 126. for his Account of Discoveries in Africa.

'The course of a torrent near Velore, dry in the hot season.'

• Still

Still as I gaze, these summits dun
A softer, livelier hue display,
Such as beneath a milder sun

Once charm'd in youth's exulting day,
Where harmless fell the solar ray
In golden radiance on the hill,

And murmuring slow the rocks between,
Or through long stripes of fresher green,
Was heard the tinkling mountain-rill.

Soft as the lov'd illusions glow,

New lustre lights the faded eye;
Again the flowers of fancy blow,
Which shrunk beneath the burning-sky.
To aguey pen and forest fly

The night-hag fever's shuddering brood;
And now, with powers reviv'd anew,
I bid Velura's towers adieu!

Adieu, her rocks and mountains rude!'

The anticipations of his own early doom, which were evidently felt by the author, and which fail not to deepen the tender melancholy of his poems, add a great interest to many of them; - while, on other occasions, the buoyant ardor of his spirits communicate a noble glow to his expressions. In such moments as these last, Leyden must have been inspired with the glorious lines on the battle of Assaye, and with those on the death of the gallant Moore. We shall not lessen the attractions of the publication by extracting these higher efforts of the harp of Caledonia, which few even of its modern sons have strung to loftier numbers than the accomplished and high-souled poet before us. His freedom, too, (in a great measure,) from the colloquialities and provincialisms in which some of his countrymen have indulged, places him nearly at their head as a writer of poetry; while, if we examine his varied attainments as a man of science and a linguist, we shall be disposed impartially to rate the name of Leyden very highly in the annals of Scotish intellect.

We return to that species of extracts with which we commenced.

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From the indignant Ode to an Indian Gold Coin, written in Chéricál, Malabar,' we transcribe the following appropriate passage:

By Chéricál's dark wandering streams,

Where cane-tufts shadow all the wild,
Sweet visions haunt my waking dreams
Of Teviot lov'd while still a child,
Of castle rocks stupendous pil'd

By Esk or Eden's classic wave,

Where loves of youth and friendship smil'd,
Uncurs'd by thee, vile yellow slave!

• Fade,

Fade, day-dreams sweet, from memory fade! -
The perish'd bliss of youth's first prime,
That once so bright on fancy play'd,

Revives no more in after-time.

Far from my sacred natal clime,

I haste to an untimely grave;

The daring thoughts that soar'd sublime
Are sunk in ocean's southern wave.'

Spring, an Ode, written while recovering from Sickness,' is in course filled with those usual common-places of cheerful or tender reflection, which such a subject excites in the breast of every poet; yet still there is something in this writer's manner that lends a new charm to exhausted images. The verses, however, bear a striking resemblance, in tone and cadence, to some beautiful lines which are published in one of the works of the Rev. Robert Bland: we mean those intitled "To my Friends, during Illness."-The subjoined are truly patriotic feelings.

But you, dear scenes! that far away

Expand beyond these mountains blue,
Where fancy sheds a purer day,

And robes the fields in richer hue,

• A softer voice in every gale

I mid your woodlands wild should hear;
And death's unbreathing shades would fail
To sigh their murmurs in mine ear.

Ah! when shall I by Teviot's stream
The haunts of youth again explore?
And muse in melancholy dream

On days that shall return no more?
• Dun heathy slopes, and valleys green,
Which I so long have lov'd to view,
As o'er my soul each lovely scene
Unfolds, I bid a fond adieu !'

Again, in the Ode to the Scenes of Infancy,' with which we shall close our selections of this description.

• When first around mine infant head
Delusive dreams their visions shed,

To soften or to soothe the soul;
In every scene, with glad surprise,
I saw my native groves arise,

And Teviot's crystal waters roll.
And when religion rais'd my view
Beyond this concave's azure blue,

Where flowers of fairer lustre blow,
Where Eden's groves again shall bloom,
Beyond the desart of the tomb,

And living streams for ever flow,

• The

• The groves of soft celestial dye
Were such as oft had met mine eye,
Expanding green on Teviot's side;
The living stream, whose pearly wave
In fancy's eye appear'd to lave,

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Resembled Teviot's limpid tide.
When first each joy that childhood yields
I left, and saw my native fields

At distance fading dark and blue,

As if my feet had gone astray
In some lone desart's pathless way,

I turn'd, my distant home to view.
'Now tir'd of folly's fluttering breed,
And scenes where oft the heart must bleed,
Where every joy is mix'd with pain;
Back to this lonely green retreat,
Which infancy has render'd sweet,

I guide my wandering steps again.
And now, when rosy sun-beams lie
In thin streaks o'er the eastern sky,

Beside my native stream I rove;
When the gray sea of fading light
Ebbs gradual down the western height,
I softly trace my native grove.'

Pleased as we are with much of the foregoing, we cannot be blind to its general redundancy, nor to its particular blemishes. For instance ;

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Folly's fluttering breed,'

used instead of brood,' to rhyme with bleed; as, in another poem, hearse,' rhyming to fierce,' (which, by the way, it does not,) is put for a tombstone !

As a proof of unmusical versification, we may refer to the line,

In thin streaks o'er the eastern sky.'

On the subject of resemblance between Leyden and other contemporary poets, we are most struck, as we might have expected, with the similarity of his style (in the shorter and balladish effusions here published) to that of his friend and compatriot, Walter Scott.

For example, the song of the heroine in Rokeby : — we quote from memory:

"The sound of Rokeby's woods I hear;

They mingle with my song

Dark Greta's voice is in mine ear

I must not hear it long.

From every lov'd and native haunt," &c. &c.

In the same tone sings Leyden :
'Malaya's woods and mountains ring

With voices strange but sad to hear;
And dark unbodied spirits sing

The dirge of the departed year!' &c. &c.

What reader, who is well acquainted with the compositions of both writers, will fail to trace a friendly likeness (plagiarism is out of the question) in the following passages? -where, although Walter Scott certainly soars above his countryman, much of his peculiar energy is displayed in Leyden :

"Woe to Moneira's sullen rills!

Woe to Glenfinla's dreary glen!
There never son of Allyn's hills," &c.

On sea-girt Sagur's desert isle,

Mantled with thickets dark and dun,
May never moon or star-light smile,
Nor ever beam the summer sun!'

"How matchless was thy broad claymore!
How deadly thine unerring bow !"

'How proud his conquering banners flew !

Walter Scott.

Leyden.

Walter Scott.

Leyden.

How stately march'd his dread array!' There are readers, we know well, whose apprehensions of such similarities will be different from our own: but we have often made reflections on the curious, and perhaps unconscious, influence which one contemporary writer has over another. We have traced it, especially, in the writings of Lord Byron; and we think that the foregoing examples prove the possibility of "one" (Caledonian) plumb catching colour from another," even across the

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ocean.

The details of Leyden's early life, of his academical progress, and of his preparations for the pastoral office, we shall leave to his biographer, with the exception of one extract from the latter part of the account of these his youthful studies:

Upon his return to College*, at the end of the vacation, he began to attend the course of Lectures on Divinity and Church History, given by Professors Hunter and Hardie. Every student must attend these lectures four years before he can be a candidate for the ministerial office in the Scottish church. In that period he must also write a certain number of discourses upon subjects proposed by the professors, to be read publicly in the class. At that

* At Edinburgh, in the year 1793.
F

REV. JAN. 1820.

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