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lends to the generalization of Virgil's pictures, by the addition of a few striking particulars.

We shall now proceed somewhat farther into the detail of this great performance, and we only fear lest we shall be tempted to detain our readers too long with it, or at least to bring it before them too frequently. It is easy, however, to stop at any point in our progress; but, to deal fairly with our author, and to show that we are not selecting a few fine passages scattered accidentally over a long barren desert, it is necessary to give a variety of examples. At present, we shall be pretty full in our quotations from "the first booke of Eneados," as the venerable Bishop chooseth to designate his poem. We pass the preface, which has not much poetry, but many shrewd remarks, and, in particular, contains the two famous quaint but sensible lines, Consider it warily, rede ofter than anys, Weil at ane blink sle poetry not tane is. Our readers will probably recollect, though they may not have looked into this obsolete epic since they left school, that the Æneid begins with a storm raised at the instigation of Juno, for dispersing the Trojan fleet in its voyage from Sicily. She first expresses her indignation at their appearance. The eterne wound hid in her breist ay

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readers can be puzzled by it in this passage; but in some future quotations, though we shall never venture to change a word, we may, for greater clearness, take now and then a little liberty with the orthography. The only word in the above passage which is at all perplexing, is the word wall in Italics, which we may here mention is indiscriminately used in two very different senses by our author, and sometimes within three or four lines of each other, as a wave, the meaning here, in which sense it is a German word,- -or as a wall, its common meaning. Juno, after this soliloquy, goes

qulare Eolus the king In gousty caves, the windis loud quhistling,

And breathlie tempestis by his power refranys.

When she had persuaded him to raise a storm,

Furth at the ilk porte, the wyndis brade in ane route,

And with ane quhirle blew all the erde a

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But I the quhilk am clepit of Goddis lect,

quene, &c.

We have here retained all the old spelling, because we do not think our

• Suitable.

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Three more fierce Eurus, in his angry mood.

Dash'd on the shallows of the moving sand, And in mid ocean left them moor'd a-land.

Dryden's great charm is his rich command of the English language, and

the bold yet natural diction which never fails him. He seldom, however, displays any true poetical enthusiasm. "For gain, not glory," is but too apparently his motto. He executes his task of the Eneid with the freedom and wide scope which he ever allows himself,--sometimes uncommonly happy, frequently adding his own animation to the tamer passages of the original, but not less frequently degrading the purity of Virgil by his intolerable coarseness, and, always, seemingly very indifferent whether he is writing well or ill. There is nothing of that enthusiastic love of his author and his subject, which shines through all the rust of our Scottish translator's anti

quity. Much rudeness, frequent failures, perhaps, disfigure his bold attempt; but there is nothing coarse or low in his most homely language. Expressions which would now only be found in the mouths of the vulgar, the Bishop of Dunkeld evidently uses with all the native grace of a scholar and a courtier; and this is not one of the least interesting things in his poem, that there is a dignity conferred in it upon a phraseology which has long been so differently ranked in our conception. This beauty can scarcely be found in modern Scotch poetry. Burns can be eminently pathetic as well as humorous,-but whenever he attempts any thing elevated he writes in English. The author of Waverley, indeed, by throwing back his characters into a former age, and giving something of an antiquated cast to their language, invests it often with no mean air of politeness. In him we have the Scotch of high no less than of low life.

After Neptune has scolded the winds about their business,

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The swelland seyis has swageit, and fra the sky

Gadderit the cluddis, and chassit sone away,

Brocht hame the sun agane and the bricht day,

the poet (we here speak of Virgil) gives us in his best manner a very soft and pleasing picture of the bay on the coast of Africa, in which the shattered navy found a shelter. Dryden catches but imperfectly here the character of the original, although he has added a fine image in the two last lines of his description.

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La Naiade se plait sous cette grotte obscure Qui presente à la fois une antre aux matelots,

Une eau pur à la soif, un asile au repos, Et sans qu'un fer mordant par son poids les arrete,

Les vaisseaux protegés y bravent la tempête.

"Mr De Lille," says his critic in the Edinburgh Review, "is very successful, as those who have read his original poems well know, in what may be called landscape poetry. Almost the whole of the lines now quoted seem to us good, but the couplet, Et des arbres touffus, &c. is exquisite, and even superior to the original. Nympharum domus is more picturesque and animated than M. De Lille's solitary Naiad. Besides, it is not thought by naturalists that Naiads are ever found so near to salt water. The two lines which follow the Naiad are superfluous, and not an improvement. We are not afraid to produce Gawin Douglas's version of this passage, even after the elegant and finished picture of De Lille, with which, by the way, it has a singular coincidence in some of the expressions marked in Italics. There is

a sweet and natural flow of composition in it, which, amidst all the imperfection of the language, rather gives, in our view, a still nearer approximation to the tone of the original. The beauty is not a little enhanced, perhaps, to our feeling, by the happy use of some very common Scotch words, which almost bring back to our imagination the familiar scenes of our infancy.

The havyn place with an lang lials or entre, Thair is within ane ile environit on athir part,

To brek the storme, and wallis on every art,

Within, the wattir in ane bosum gais. Baith here and thair standis large craggis

and brais,

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We must pass over the scene of killing and cooking the venison; the result is, that when it was prepared, Æneas and his companions,

On the grene gers + sat doun and filli them syne

Of fat venison and nobill ald wyne. Nor shall we give any part of Venus's dialogue with Jupiter respecting the future determinations of the Fates. Eneas's travels into the interior of the country are much more adapted to the wild, excursive, and descriptive genius of our old bard. How keenly he enters upon it!

Belive as that the halesum day wox licht, Dressit him furth to spy and have ane &c.

sicht

Of new placis,

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sche:

Howe, say me zoungkeris, saw ze walkand here, &c.

Her departure, and Æneas's discovery of her, are beautifully given, and almost rival the inimitable original.

Thus sayd sche; and, turnand incontinent,

Hir nek schane like unto the rose in May; Hir hevinly haris glitterand bricht and gay,

Kest from hir forhede ane smell glorious and sueit;

Hir habit fell doune covering to hir feit, And in hir passage ane verray god did hir kyith.

And fra that he knew his moder allswith; With sie wourdis he followis as sche did

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Her self uplyft to Paphum past swyith
To vesy her resting place, joly and blyith;
Thare is her tempill in Cipirland,
Quharin thare dois ane hundreth altaris
stand,

Hait burning full of Saba sense all houris, And smelland swete wyth fresche garland and flouris.

Perhaps this book of the Æneid contains a greater variety of beautiful incidents than any other in the whole poem. The first appearance of Carthage,-Eneas's natural exclamation, O fortunati quorum nunc maenia surgunt!

and, above all, the paintings of the battles of Troy, which on a sudden struck his eye and his heart, are all admirably imagined and described. Gawin Douglas gives the picture-scene with great force, and quite in the romance spirit.

About the wallis of Troy he saw quhat

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The entrance of Dido,-her courteous behaviour to the Trojan suppliants who came into the temple while Eneas was covered with a cloud,-his sudden appearance, are all likewise circumstances which show a much finer monly apt to ascribe to him. Noinvention in Virgil than we are comthing can be more lively than the breaking of the cloud, as Old Gawin gives it us.

With their wourdis the sprete of Æneas,
And of the strang Achates rejosit was,
Greatly desiring the cloude to breke in
tway:

Bot first chates to Ence can say:
Son of the Goddes, quhat purpois now
Risis in thy breist? All is sure thou may
(quod he)

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was broken,

Up stude Enee in clere licht-schyning faire,
And vanist tyte away amonge the aire,
Like till ane God in body and in face,
His crisp haris war plesand unto se,
For his modir grantit her son sic grace,
His favour gudlye, full of fresche bewte,
Like to an zoungker, and with tua lauch-
and ene

Als gratius for to behold, I wene
As evourbane by craft of hand wele dicht,
Or as we se the birnyst silver bricht,
Or zit the quhite polist marbil stane
schyne,

Quhen they bene circulit about with gold sa fyne.

We must now, however, draw to a close, and can neither tarry to describe the "Sle wile" which Venus contrived for the ruin of poor Dido, by sending Cupid to her in the form of Ascanius-

But Venus to this ilk Ascanius, The swete vapour of plesand slepe and rest,

On all the members of his body kest,

* Ivorybone.

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From the gilt sparris hang down mony ane lycht,

The flame of torchis vincust the dirk nicht.

But we flatter ourselves, that although we were never again to resume the subject, we have already brought sufficient evidence of the uncommon interest and beauty of this old romantic epic. Whether or no we shall ever ask our readers to accompany us farther, will depend greatly upon the satisfaction which they may have had in accompanying us thus far. At present, however, it is more than full time for us to say,

taken in this, as herrings were cured on the Continent, and in Britain, many centuries before. It is, however, probable, that Benkelen made great improvements in this art, which has enabled his countrymen to carry on the herring trade with so great advantage. By their skill and industry, together with proper assistance and instruction from their government, they have brought the herring fishery. to the greatest perfection.

It would be wise for the government of Great Britain to follow their example, and encourage individuals or companies who may be inclined to establish fisheries on the coast of Scotland.

To conduct them with the. same skill and industry as, the Dutch have done theirs, would prove an inexhaustible source of wealth to the nation; they would also give employ-. ment to thousands of the inhabitants, and enrich many individuals.

In 1636, when Charles the First prohibited the Dutch from fishing on the coast of Scotland, the States General were so sensible of its value, that they

Claudite jam rivos pueri, sat prata bibe- paid to the king L. 30,000 for the li

runt.

D.

ON THE DUTCH HERRING FISHERY.

IT has been observed by historians, that their High Mightinesses the Dutch were originally a colony of poor fishermen, and the large and flourishing cities which we now see, were nothing more than a few huts for the accommodation of those industrious men, who, by their skill and united efforts, have excelled all other nations in the art of taking and curing fish. By this trade alone they have been raised from poverty to wealth, from a state of insignificancy to the dignified character of a free and independent

nation.

It is supposed, that since the year 1500 they have taken fish on the coasts of Scotland to the value of near three hundred millions Sterling, while the natives have done little or nothing, although the fish were almost at their doors.

The Dutch claim the merit of being the first who established a regular herring fishery, and they have ascribed the invention of pickling and drying herrings to William Benkelen of Biervlet, near Sluys. They are mis

berty to fish for that season, and offered to pay annually the same sum for the liberty to fish for ever, but it was rejected.

The Dutch have taken great care to conceal the manner in which their fish were cured; they were aware that if this secret was known, they would no longer be able to carry on so extensive and so profitable a trade. From this circumstance we have but a very imperfect history of their herring fishery; however, the following account gives us some information concerning it.

The Dutch busses, of all other na tions, are the best constructed for the herring fishery in the open sea, as they are long round vessels with a waist about two feet and a half high, which not only makes them warm and comfortable, but safe for the fishermen while employed in gutting and curing the herrings.

A new buss for the herring fishery on the coast of Shetland in summer will cost from L. 1000 to L. 1500, including every thing necessary for the fishing. The size of the busses is from 50 to 70 tons; and each buss has a fleet of 50 nets, which are fixed to a strong rope, called the buss rope. These nets generally extend 50 fa

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