close of his preface, he announced his intention of proceeding with the entire Old Testament in a similar manner. The British Parliament having munificently engaged to defray the expense of completing this noble work, Mr. Baber has applied himself to his arduous task with equal zeal and ability. Three volumes, comprising the entire text of the Septuagint version, have been finished; and the remaining volume will contain the notes and prolegomena. The whole is executed in a splendid folio size, and in such a manner as faithfully to represent every iota of the original manuscript; which, having been written towards the close of the fourth, or early in the fifth century, is one of the most precious remains of Christian antiquity extant. *10. 1804.--WILLIAM ALLAN DIED.

This young man might aptly be compared to a vernal flower, blighted when its blossom had just begun to expand. He was the son of a respectable mechanic, still alive in Arbroath, in Scotland. After leaving school he went as apprentice to an attorney, or writer, as that profession is there termed; but his constitution having been always delicate, now became so enfeebled, that he was under the necessity of leaving his employment before the expiration of his apprenticeship. From an early age he had exhibited an attachment to literature; and he continued to improve an innate good taste, by reading during his leisure bours. But it was not till after declining health had disqualified him for business, that he attempted to cultivate an acquaintance with the Muse. To a mind of keen sensibility, delicate and susceptible feelings, heightened and improved by refined taste, her visits must have been dearly welcome, particularly under the circumstances of daily declining health: and he accordingly produced several small pieces, which evinced an accurate observation of nature, correct and energetic expression, with a refinement of feeling which gave fair promise of future excellence. But, alas! 'the sweetest flowers oft soonest fade.' When his mind might be considered as only beginning to expand, the fell disease triumphed over a wasted form; and the young poet died, in the twentieth year of his age. Several of his effusions were published in the Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany, from which they were copied into different London publications. A short Memoir of him also appeared in that work; after which some very beautiful stanzas to his memory (written, we believe, by Cunningham) were published. That the reader may judge for himself, whether the foregoing is the effusion of private

friendship, or a tribute justly due to obscure merit, we annex the first piece that Allan ever published.

MELANCHOLY.

When the tempest howls loud through the dark withered grove, And the rude blasts of Winter all Nature deform,

Amid the dire scenes unappalled I could roam,

And rest undisturbed by the rage of the storm.
Yet, why, when the wild winds of winter are flown,
When hushed to repose are the waves of the sea,
When Spring o'er the earth her green mantle has thrown,
And the sweet voice of gladness is heard from the tree;
When all the fair objects that earth can bestow
Combine to inspire me with transports of joy,

Oh! why on my tongue dwell the accents of woe?
Why bursts from my bosom the sorrow-fraught sigh?
When the blushes of morn tinge the clouds of the east
I seek the lone cave on the wave-beaten shore,

Where the sea-bird screams wild, as she starts from her nest,
And the loud-sounding surges in hollow rocks roar:

I sit by the rock, hoary, rugged, and bare,

That rears its broad breast in the midst of the waves,
Where the Mermaid, they say, often combs her dark hair,
And sings o'er the sailors that rest in their graves.
When the Sun sinks behind the high hills of the west,
All lonely and pensive I rest by the stream;

I call to remembrance the days that are past,

And compare all my joys to the Sun's setting beam.

I see with regret, where the hawthorn tree stood,

And the yellow furze blossomed-the marks of the plough; Yet, pleased, I behold the rock shattered and rude,

And view, with delight, the bleak mountain's bare brow.

Beneath the green elm, waving dark in the air,

Oft I rest, when the Moon lights her lamp in the sky;
Ah! why must I tell that my Peggy sleeps there-
And that there all my hopes and my happiness lie!

14.-WHIT-SUNDAY.

Whit-Sunday takes place of the Pentecostal feast among the Jews, and is in commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, &c. on the day of Pentecost (Acts ii). It is held seven weeks after Easter, and has probably been continued regularly from the apostolical age (Acts xvi). The feast is called Whit-sunday, partly because of those vast diffusions of light and knowledge, which were

L

shed upon the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, and partly because of the white garments which, by the persons baptized on Whit-Sunday, were worn until the Sunday after. These white robes were indicative of the pure and innocent and holy course to which they had devoted themselves in the vows of baptism. In the first two centuries, there is no evidence that any but adults were baptized. They were baptized by immersion (except in the case of Clinics); and Dr. Cave informs us that in the middle of the font there was a partition, the one part for men, and the other for women, that, to avoid offence and scandal, they might be baptized asunder.'-See Cave's Primitive Christianity, part ii, ch. 10, p. 312.

Reading, in his Sermons on the First Lessons for the Sundays throughout the Year (vol. ii, p. 291), says 'it was a custom amongst our ancestors, upon this day, to give all the milk of their ewes and kine to their poor neighbours, for the love of God, and in order to qualify themselves to receive the blessings of the Holy Spirit. And from the food which the poor made of that milk, called white-meat, this day, is supposed by some to have taken the name of Whit-Sunday: though others think 'tis so named from the white garments which those who were baptized at this time put on.

For

anciently baptism was generally administered to grown persons (as many as came in from Paganism to the Christian church) only at Easter and Whitsuntide: at Easter, in honour of Christ's death and resurrection, whereunto the action of baptism corresponded; and at Whitsuntide, in memory of his promise accomplished in his apostles, who were then baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, and who at the same time baptized three thousand persons. At this season, the newly baptized did anciently come to church in white garments, with lighted tapers carried before them, to denote that they had now cast away the works of darkness, and were become children of light, resolving for the future to

lead a new, innocent, and unspotted life. But afterwards, in the progress of christianity, when few besides infants were baptized, this custom was altered, and baptism administered at all times of the year, as it had been at the beginning of christianity. However, the name was still continued to the day.'

Almost every where in Germany, on Whit-Sunday, they set in their houses, parlors, and chambers, young birch-trees, which they keep a fortnight or longer green, in keeping the same in tubs, with fresh water; and in some places the churches are also full.-Aubrey MS., A.D. 1686.

15.-WHIT-MONDAY.

This day and Whit-Tuesday are observed as festivals, for the same reason as Monday and Tuesday in Easter. Their religious character, however, is almost obsolete, and they are now kept as holidays, in which the lower classes still pursue their favourite diversions. For an account of the Eton Montem, see T. T. for 1815, p. 168.

*15. 1784.-WILLIAM TENNANT BORN,

6

Author of Anster Fair,' the Thane of Fife,' &c. East Anstruther, in Fife, was the birth-place of our poet; here he received the usual preparatory education at the parish school; and then went to the neighbouring University of St. Andrew's, to study Latin and Greek under Doctors Hunter and Hill. Here Mr. T. attended two sessions, and finished that part of his education for which he is not indebted to his own unaided exertions. On leaving college he remained for some time in Anstruther, and afterwards in Glasgow, as clerk to his brother, an extensive corn-factor. But, previously even to this period, he had begun a course of severe study, which he continued for many years, becoming a complete master, not only of the clas sical, the most useful of the oriental, but of all the languages of modern Europe. We have heard Mr. T. say, that to his early rising he owes much of the learning he possesses, having been long, as he still is, in the constant practice of getting up at five every morning. This fact might be almost ascertained from the perusal of his works,-the rising Sun being ever a favourite theme; see the first five stanzas of Canto III of the 'Anster Fair,' a poem, which has deservedly passed through four large impressions. In 1813, Mr. T. was elected schoolmaster of Denina,

a small parish six miles from Anstruther. In 1816, he removed to the school of Lasswade, near Edinburgh, where he taught with great success; and where he remained about three years, amid scenery peculiarly fitted to attract the attention, and please the fancy of a poet. În 1819, Mr. T.'s fame procured him the appointment of teacher of classical and oriental languages in the Dollar Institution, near Alloa,—a splendid, extensive, and still increasing establishment, delightfully situated at the fort of the Ochils, and near the banks of the clear-winding Devon,' a spot which has been justly denominated the Arcadia of Scotland.' Part of this scenery is beautifully alluded to in the "Thane of Fife :'

From the west,

Where broad and high Clackmannan's tower ascends,
And where, on rocky ridge tremendous placed,
Huge Castle-Campbell o'er his dell impends,
Thence all along the valley, o'er whose breast
Wide-sweeping Devon slowly westward wends,
Five hundred archers, some with bows well strung,
Their rattling quivers stored with arrows sharp and long.

·

The Thane of Fife was published about the close of 1821; and in 1823 appeared Cardinal Beaton, a drama,' which was very favourably received'. And another dramatic work, entitled John Baliol,' of which report speaks highly, is now at press. The Thane of Fife,' our author's second great work, is not his Odyssey after his Iliad. A few years ago, it was confidently predicted that Mr. Tennant would, if it were not his own fauli, soon assume the distinguished station in the public estimation, to which his eminent talents and various acquirements so well entitled him, and this we think he has now done. Much has been said and written on the peculiar beauties of his Anster Fair,' which, as a burlesque or heroi-comic poem, is universally allowed to be unrivalled by any other in our language; and it is quite unique in its kind, there being no other so much resembling it, either in plan or execution, as at all to admit of a comparison. The Rape of the Lock,' the Paradise of Coquettes,' and the Triumphs of Temper,' are perhaps the only other comic productions of merit, of this distinctive sort, which we can boast of; but their fable, their machinery, and their humour, are all of a quite different cast, resembling the Lutrin' of Boileau, and the Secchia Rapita' of Tassoni, rather than the more romantic and original Italian and German poets with which Mr. Tennant is

·

'In T. T. for 1824, p. 140, will be found a beautiful night-scene from this interesting performance, which is worthy of its learned author.