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bodies; and the apparent motions of the sun and stars suggest some natural inquiries, which draw forth an explanation of the cause of these appearances. The regular revolutions of these heavenly bodies serve for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years." It becomes necessary, therefore, to make the pupil acquainted with time and its divisions, the mode of ascertaining time by the appearance of the sun and stars on the meridian, and the principles on which clocks and chronometers are constructed. As the sun appears to rise at various points of the compass at various seasons, this leads to an explanation of the earth's annual revolution in its orbit round the sun. The natural inquiry, how we are not sensible of the motion of the earth while revolving so rapidly round its axis and in its orbit, leads to an explanation of linear measures, and of some curious facts concerning gravitation and projectile force. The planets, which, like the earth, revolve round the sun, and compose the solar system, next demand attention. Of these the most remarkable to us is the moon, whose phases and motions, therefore, require particular explanation. The theory of attraction and gravitation must be partly understood, to enable the pupil to comprehend how the heavenly bodies are kept in regular motion, and how we are enabled to walk upon the earth. He is now ready to understand the use of the artificial globe, the cause of the succession of day and night, and of the varieties of season. Some facts relative to light and heat are then explained to him. Climate, the various phenomena which the globe presents on its surface or in its interior,-the atmosphere and its phenomena,—the properties of the magnet, and its utility in navigation, and the diversities of the human species in colour, form, and language, successively engage the pupil's attention ;-after which he is to be made acquainted with the great divisions of the earth, and the different kingdoms and states which they contain.

From this short and imperfect analysis of the plan of this little work, our readers may easily judge how superior it is to that of the usual school books of geography. It contains a store of physical knowledge, which many who consider themseles as good

3.

Odes and other Poems. By Jон
GIBSON. Edinburgh, 1818.

We have brought these three small volumes together into one article, because they appear to possess some points of similarity, where our observations on one will apply with little variation to the others, and because, from the pressure of other materials, we can afford them but a very limited share of our attention.

We cannot forbear, however, to welcome with much cordiality the pleasing addition that has just been made to the treasures of Scottish Poetry and Song in the collected remains of Richard Gall. This ingenious and amiable young man, who, in the humble station of a journeyman printer, became the friend and correspondent of Burns, of Macneill, and of Dr A. Murray, was cut off at the early age of 24, before his genius had reached its maturity, or his experience had supplied the deficiencies of an imperfect education. Vestiges of immature taste and want of finish are consequently apparent in many of the pieces now published;-and a few of them, where broad humour is attempted, (such, for example, as "The Tint Quey,") appear to us total failures, which might have been with advantage altogether omitted. But the valuable part of the volume makes full amends for any disappointment that may be experienced from these less successful efforts. The poem, entitled "Arthur Seat," displays in many passages the fervid feeling and buoyant fancy of a true poet; and of

several pieces of a more animated description, which, though often imperfectly finished, afford sufficient proof that the author may, if he choose, reach something much finer than he has yet attained or rightly attempted. We can only afford room for a few detached stanzas from a poem, entitled "The Daughter,"-a 'tale of sin and sorrow, such as has often before afforded a theme for poetry, though, perhaps, not often treated with more feeling and effect.

And many a weary weary night
My eyes I could not close,
But trembled till the morning light
Chased off the phantoms of affright
That in my anguish rose;
Or if a moment's rest I knew,
Some frightful vision met my view,

And woke me with a scream;
Till days of want, and nights of dread,
Made me I knew not what I did,
And life, to my bewildered head,
Seemed even itself a dream.

O'twas a lovely summer's night,
The starry skies were clear,

The waning moon shone cold and bright,
And gilded, with her yellow light,

The stream that murmured near;
The blooming hawthorn waved its head,
And glow-worms on a flowery bed
Beneath their vigils kept;
And sweetly sung the nightingale,
And sweetly rung the answering vale-
And then my heart began to fail,
And down I sate and wept.'

Now, strangers, now I needs must wave
The sequel I could tell,

It makes me mad, it makes me rave,
And I must hide it in my grave

When they shall ring my knell.
O God! I hear the infant's wail
That turned a trembling mother pale
Whom never husband blessed;
And now I see the funeral meet,
And bear that child of shame, though sweet,
To where the boys with wanton feet
Dance on its tender breast,'

» &c.

Of Mr Gibson's volume we can only say a few words, and these in no unqualified strain of commendation. It is evidently the ambition of this writer to tread in the arduous path of Collins and of Campbell; and it is an ambition not less noble than bold, had he been properly prepared to follow up the high attempt. But it appears to us that he has utterly mistaken his own talents,—which, if we may judge from the present specimen, lie more in the line of Crabbe than of Collins, and seem much better adapted for depicting the gross realities of

life than for sporting with the vision. ary forms and bold personifications of the Pindarie ode. The following lines are in the author's favourite style: "Four hungry crows arise from a rock, With fap and with croak, with flap and with croak,

For they are allured by a noble scent; Their rapid course through the air is bent Most straight to the site of the pillag' They have ended their course, they have lighted down.

town;

Four beaks haye div'd in four green yel low eyes,

And four empty sockets mine eye espies. Each picks a breast, and it picks, I ween, Till four black wither'd hearts are seen; Each prks a face," &c. &c.

What follows is too absurd to be quoted. The author, in short, mistaking coarseness for energy, and abruptness for freedom, has disfigured a volume of some merit with numerous speci mens of bad taste, vulgarity, and bathos. But, while we are constrained to state this in salutary warning, we feel sincere pleasure in saying, that there are also in the volume things of better omen, and that it occasionally exhibits scattered gems of such brilliancy, as to indicate a richer vein of poetry than the author has yet displayed in any sustained or continuous effort.

seem

In concluding this hasty notice, we would earnestly recommend to these two youthful candidates for poetic honours to cultivate their taste, by following safer models than Collins or Wordsworth,-and, above all, assiduously to study distinctness of thought, and simplicity and condensation of expression, before they again venture before the public. In the meanwhile, we cordially recommend these unpre tending volumes to our readers,-not, indeed, as fruit of mellow maturi ty, but as possessing, on the whole, a degree of raciness that affords a pleasing promise of better things hereafter.

the middling classes at least, of the people of Scotland, in the 17th century, regarding the agency of spirits, good and bad, in the common affairs of life; and we are therefore grateful to the editor for having transferred it from the shelves of the Advocates' Library, to a handsome quarto, possessing all the necessary recommendations of fine paper, broad margins, and elegant typography. It has come out a little too late, indeed, to be of much utility, and would have been more generally acceptable, perhaps, if it had appeared among Wodrow's intended "History or Collection of Authentic Narratives respecting the apparitions and witchcraft of his native country," before the middle of last century. It is even possible that some fastidious persons may declare, with a sneer, that it should never have appeared at all, and that, to rake up the foolish notions and misguided actions of our ancestors, is only to expose our country to the reproach of superstition and barbarism from our more refined neighbours. But there were just as credulous people south of the Tweed 150 years ago; and the disciples of Joanna Southcote, and a crowd of other impostors and fanatics, prove that the race is not extinct there even in our days. As to those cui bono people again who would keep us for ever chained to the oar of actual existence, or those profound dealers in cant and mysticism who prescribe rules for the same purpose, namely, to regard nothing but how to be rich, we can only say that there is no disputing about tastes; and that, for our own part, we look upon a good story of ghosts and witches, and other diablerie, as no bad resource from the ennui with which their speculations have often oppressed us.

Of Mr Robert Law, the author of this work, very little seems to be known. He was minister of the parish of East Kilpatrick during the Usurpation, and notwithstanding the vicissitudes of the times, from which he did not altogether escape, he appears to have held the same charge in 1674, and perhaps till his death, which is supposed to have happened soon after the Revolution. He was a much less rigid person than many of his brethren, of whom he does not hesitate to speak in terms of the strongest disapprobation; and though

persecuted himself in 1662 for refus ing to submit to the ecclesiastical innovations of Charles II., he seems to have readily availed himself of the Indulgence that was afterwards granted, The MS. from which the Memorialls have been printed is not in the handwriting of the author, as the editor informs us, but "transcribed with extreme inaccuracy by some blundering amanuensis, it has been corrected by Wodrow himself, and forms a part of the voluminous collections of MSS. made by that reverend minister as materials for his account of the sufferings of the Scottish Church," and for another work which we have already mentioned.

These Memorialls, which extend over 46 years of civil and religious struggles, the most important in our history, embrace a great variety of topics, no otherwise connected than by their dates, and are interesting, not only as a register of facts and events, but as exhibiting a picture of the author's mind, and probably also the sentiments of the venerable body to which he belonged. The artlessness and simplicity of his reflections,-even his credulity, we should think,-and certainly his constant reference of every thing that was new or strange to supernatural agency, while they may attract the lovers of light reading, must reward those more serious per sons who wish to look into the human breast, as it is here offered to their view, unveiled and unadorned. We cannot pretend to give them even a general idea of the contents of the book, but we shall transcribe one or two passages as a specimen of the style and manner of the author; and of his sentiments respecting the active malevolence of Satan. It is a fortunate circumstance, by the by, that this last personage, in all our narratives of witchery, as well as in Mr Law's, has been content to deal in small matters, and with people of the least influence in society; if he had got possession of the rulers of church and state in these sad times, there is no saying what mischief he might have done.

It is, we believe, at least within these 40 years, it was a common opinion among the lower classes of the rural inhabitants of Scotland, that the devil personally assisted in cases of suicide. A poor old woman, while we were at school in a small town,