times he would travel, diguifed and unknown, through a great part of his kingdom, and lodge in the hovels of the poor; where he would provoke the voice of truth, fo odious to royal ears, by questions concerning his own character and conduct, without any dread, or anxiety, at thus learning his reputation from the univerfal voice. In these rambles he difdained not to fhew his knowledge of medicine, and furgery; in which arts, the rudeness of his kingdom afforded no fuperior. He had all that love of mufic, poetry, and the arts and sciences, in general, which was hereditary in the houfe of Stuart. From a curiofity inherent to fuch a laudable difpofition, he caufed a human monfter, born in his dominions, with a duplicate body above the waift, to be taught human languages, with mufic and finging; fo that it could perform both treble and tenor at once. To make fome difcovery on the origin of language, two infants, under the charge of a dumb woman, were fent into the ifle of Inch Keith; but the felf-taught fpeech has not been explained, and it is needlefs to add, that it must have been original; and, perhaps, though there was fome fociety, little fuperior to the brutish babble of those unfortunate beings, loft during their infancy in extenfive forefts." The chivalry fpirit and romantic generofity of James, by affording protection and affiftance to the impoftor Warbec, long retarded the establishment of that amity with England which was fo much the intereft of both nations. On Perkin he bestowed the fair hand of Lady Catharine Gordon, daughter of a house, then, as at prefent, not more illuftrious for high rank than for the eminent beauty and merit of its ladies. He made an inroad into England, and committed great depredations on the northern counties. His romantic chivalry giving way to found policy, a treaty of marriage was concluded with England, and that alliance was formed, the remote confequence of which was, the confolidation of two kingdoms into one, by an union which has proved aufpicious to both, but most peculiarly advantageous to the poorer and weaker, thus admitted to a reciprocity of benefit with the richer. In 1504 a Parliament affembled at Edinburgh, which deserved immortal reputation for the wifdom and patriotism of its decrees, and their important tendency towards civilization. One of the principal objects of this body was, the civilization of the Highlands, for which many wife regulations were made, which foftened the barbarifm, or rather favageness, of those unenlightened mountaineers. The completion, however, of civilization was referved for the prefent century, when an UNITED Legiflature, free from local interefts and prejudices, crushed the arbitrary domination of Lords and Chieftains, by the abolition of the heritable jurifdictions. At peace with England, and governed by a vigorous and popular Monarch, I 4 Scotland Scotland now attained, among the other powers of Europe, a much greater degree of confideration than fhe had ever poffeffed before that time. During the remainder of Henry VIIth's life, a clofe alliance continued between the two kingdoms; but the violent and impetuous character of Henry VIII. operating on the lefs violent and impetuous character of James, gave rife to a war, the most difaftrous that Scotland. ever experienced. (To be continued.) ART. II. Joan of Arc. By Robert Southey. 2 Vols. 12mo, Pp. 528. Price 12s, Longman and Rees, London. 1799. ART. III. Poems. By Robert Southey. The Second Vo lume. 12mo. Rees, London. Pp. 232. Price 5s. 1799. Longman and HE Poems of Mr. Southey are already too well known to the public to admit of elaborate criticifm. They have been accepted as the productions of genius, and, as fuch, have met with just applaufe; but they have been alfo cenfured, as defective in a variety of particulars. The "Joan of Arc," has been examined, as an epic poem, and, though confidered as replete with bold originalities, has been deemed far from perfect in its plan, or faultlefs in its execution. Obferving that, in feveral respects, it is greatly improved fince its first appearance, we shall take a curfory view of its fubject, its fable and machinery, its characters, its descriptions, its fentiment and moral, its style and language, and its verfification. With regard to its fubject, Mr. Southey has, in our opinion, been extremely unfortunate. Though he has never himself been "guilty of reading the Pucelle of Voltaire," there are fome (ourselves in the number) who, having read it, cannot difmifs from their minds that ludicrous affocion of ideas which muft, for ever, operate against the dignity of the heroine. But this is, by no means, our chief objection to the Maid of Orleans, The established rule for the epic, that the fubject be national, is, furely, founded on true patriotifm. To this rule Mr. S. has acted in direct oppofition, and chofen, for the fubject of his poem, the ignominious defeat of the English, English. In juftification of his conduct, he faftidiously ob ferves "If, among my readers, there be any one who can wish success to an unjust caufe, because his country fupported it, I defire not that man's approbation." We have neither leifure nor inclination to enter into a difquifition on the justice of the cause to which he alludes. But we afk-if the fubject that first struck his fancy appeared fuch, to cooler reafon, as muft neceffarily place his countrymen in a difadvantageous light, why treat it at all? Why violate a law of criticism, approved both by the ancients and moderns, and, at the fame time, offend against the most amiable paffion that actuates man, either in uncivilized or polifhed life, we mean, the love of our country? Why, at this crifis more especially, represent the English as continually routed and disgraced, in their conflicts with the French? Is there not a fquint of malignity-a treacherous allufion in fuch a picture? And was it not rather a feditious than a poetic fpirit that first contemplated the Maid of Orleans, as the heroine of an English epic? Alas! the Jacobin principles that directed the writer's choice are but too notorious. Mr. S. may boast, if he please, his enlarged notions-may look down upon the patriot as a poor contemptible being, and arrogate to himself the nobler appellation of Citizen of the World—but we hefitate in giving him credit for a philofophical greatness which is unnatural; and, instead of applauding the elevation of a mind divested of prejudice, are concerned in viewing his genius as inflamed by the fanaticifm of liberty, and his work as the creature of the times-the poem of a party. In our difapprobation, indeed, Mr. S. will triumph. Admired by British Jacobins, he afpires, we fuppofe, to a participation of the honours which in France await his favourite Lucan. "The French Court (fays he) honoured the poet of liberty, by excluding him from the edition in ufum Delphini; perhaps, for the fame reafon, he may hereafter be published, in ufum Reipublicæ." The fable of Joan of Arc," is fcarcely lefs exceptionable than the fubject! It is a mere hiftorical narrative. It proceeds in the regular tenor of hiftory, commencing with the period when the Maid of Orieans announced her miflion to the Lord of Vaucouleur, and terminating with the battle of Patay, and the coronation of Charles. "The alterations which I have made in the hiftory (fays the author) are few and trifling. The death of Salisbury is placed later, and the Talbots earlier than they occurred. Whatever appears mi raculous, raculous, is hiftorically true, and my authorities will be found in the notes." Hath an hiftorical detail, fo inartificial, any pretenfions to the name of fable? We fhall certainly proteft against the fable of Joan of Arc, until we concur with Mr. S. "in preferring Statius to Virgil." As to machinery, we difcover nothing in Joan of Arc that bears the flightest refemblance to it. The palpable agency of fuperior powers, according to Mr. Southey's conceptions, would deftroy the obfcurity of the heroine's character. Be this as it may, we muft obferve, that the prefence of fupernatural beings is, in an epic poem, indifpenfible. The characters, (except the heroine of the piece and Conrade and Charles,) poffefs no very difcriminating features; yet we have no fcruple in preferring them to the fecondary characters of Virgil. They are not introduced, like Gyas and Cloanthus, merely to fill a proceffion. The characters, in truth, conftitute the chief merit of this hiftorical poem, particularly that of the "Miffion'd Maid," whose form, and attitude, and actions, are uncommonly ftriking and beautiful. Of the defcriptive part of the piece, we cannot but speak in terms of approbation. Perhaps, in fome of the picturefque defcriptions, there may be too frequent a recurrence of the fame imagery :— "And now, along the mountain's winding path, Now form'd a mafs of fhade. The diftant plain "Lonely "Lonely the foreft-fpring. A rocky hill Bursts from the rifted crag that overbrows Nor ever found profanes it, fave fuch founds Or the low murmuring of the fcarce-heard ftream." B. I. The paffage marked in Italics, is, certainly, a conceit well fuited to the meridian of Della Crufca, "And now, beneath the horizon weftering flow, Sung brill and ceafelefs, as the dews of night defcended.” "Fair dawn'd the morning, and the early fun B. I. Thefe extracts will be read with pleasure. Not fo, perhaps, the following, in which are difcoverable the fentimental complexion and moral of the poem. The horrors of war, as attributable to the English, "e'en to madnefs agonize." hear the maiden scream In the blood-thirsty foldier's luftful arms !— even now, fome city flames, Some famifh'd babe on his dead mother's breaft Yet hangs for food." B. 1. "-again, |