The limits of our work will not permit us to follow the author through the entire furvey of the writings of his favourite poet, which, although marked with vifible partiality, is conducted with elegance and claffical tafte. Profeffing, as he does, no fondness for metaphyfical, or theoretic criticifm, he yet does not fcruple, on an interesting fubject, the effects of ridicule, to enter the lifts, with a celebrated metaphyfical critic, the late Lord Kaimes; and every impartial perfon will admit, that he comes off victorious from the conteft. We were particularly pleafed with his accurate diftinction between wit and humour, in oppolite examples taken from a well-known northern and a fouthern poet; which in a few words illuftrate, better than any thing we have feen, their respective genius.

"Butler and Ramfay were each poffeffed of wit and humour in no ordinary degree; but the former quality predominated with (in) the English bard, the latter with (in) the Scotifh (Scottish). Butler thus defcribes the morning, ludicrously, but wittily:

"The fun had long fince, in the lap

Of Thetis, taken out his nap;

And, like a lobster boiled, the morn
From black to red began to turn.

"This pleafes as an ingenious piece of wit. The whimficalnefs of the comparison makes us fmile; but it is no juft picture of nature, and, therefore, it is not humorous. Now, mark the humour with which Ramfay describes the dawn, as rifing upon his jolly company at the bridel a little coarfeness muft be excufed; the picture had not been faithful :

Now frae th'eaft nook of fife, the dance
Speel'd weftlines up the lift;

Carles, wha heard the cock had crawn,
Begoud to rax and rift;

And greedy wives, wi 'givning thrawn,
Cry'd, laffes up to thrift!'

Dogs barked; and the lads frae hand

Bang'd to their breeks like drift,

Be break o'day.

Humour must be confonant to nature: it is nature feen in abfurd and ludicrous afpects. Wit gives an apparent and fanciful resemblance to nature; but it requires, for its very effence, a real contrariety." Pr.- 83, 84.

But we haften to lay before our readers that part of this ingenious effay, which of all others moft eminently difplays the ability of the critic, and the genius and originality of the poet. Perhaps there is no object of poetical compofition, of which the real nature and properties have been fo completely misunderstood, as the paftoral; accordingly, it has become another name for an affemblage of every thing that is dull, unnatural, and infipid in numbers. The paftoral thrown into a dramatic form is an invention of the moderns. Beccari, an Italian poet, who flourished about the middle of the fixteenth firft led the way; and he was foon followed by Taffo and Guarini, of

century,

whom

whom the former, in his Aminta, and the latter, in his Paftor Fido, are, by their countrymen, eftcemed to have reached the ne plus ultra of ingenuity and excellence. In a moft mafterly parallel of thefe far famed works with the Gentle Shepherd of Ramfay, the Remarker clearly fhows the great fuperiority of the Scottish bard, and that he is, without difpute, the fineft paftoral poet that ever exifted. On the moft incontrovertible grounds of good fenfe, and just criticism, he makes it appear, that, as the Italian writers entertained an idea wholly erroneous of this fpecies of poetry, viz. that it was not to imitate nature, but to paint a chimerical state of fociety, termed the golden age, fo an error in the principle, fo completely at variance with nature and probability, could by no art or genius be compenfated in the execution. He, alfo, with great ftrength of reafoning, refutes the opinion of Addison on the fubject; who, in the Guardian, has treated it at confiderable length, and has derived his critical rules from the fame abfurd, and unnatural fancy.

"This notion of paftoral poetry, however founded in (on) the practice of celebrated writers, has no foundation in fact, no bafis in reafon, nor con formity to good fenfe. To a just taste, and (to) unadulterated feelings, the natural beauties of the country, the fimple manners, ruftic occupations, and rural enjoyments of its inhabitants, brought into view by the medium of a well-contrived dramatic fable, must afford a much higher degree of pleasure, than any chimerical fiction, in which Arcadian nymphs and fwains hold intercourfe with Pan, and his attendant fauns and fatyrs. But the principal difficulty, when an actual delineation of nature is attempted, lies in the affociation of delicate and affecting fentiments with the genuine manners of rustic life; an union fo difficult to be accomplished, that the chief paftoral poets, both antient and modern, have either entirely abandoned the attempt, by choofing to paint a fabulous and chimerical state of fociety; or have failed in their endeavour, either by indulging in fuch refinement of fentiment, as is utterly inconfiftent with ruftic nature, or by endowing their characters with fuch rudeness and vulgarity of manners, as is hoftile to every idea of delicacy.” PP. 122-1 -148.

Having laid down the principles on which a comparison between the Italian and the Scottish paftoral is to be inftituted, he proceeds to the task of regularly applying them to the various objects of fable, characters, fentiments, and language; making fuch quotations from each poet, as fully to evince the juftice of the praife he bestows, or the cenfure he inflicts. In the whole he difplays fuch acuteness of difcrimination, fuch knowledge of human nature, fuch admirable impartiality, and fuch delicacy of tafte, as have feldom been equalled, and certainly never furpaffed, in any critical compofition. To indulge ourfelves in partial extracts from this fine parallel, would be to convey no adequate idea of its general merits; but we greatly recommend the perufal of the entire effay to fuch of our readers as delight in elegant difquifition, or are defirous to improve their talents for criticifm, by the ftudy of a model, which is throughout claffical and pleafing. What has particularly ftruck us in these remarks, and what we are perfuaded

NO. XXXIV. VOL. VIII.

C c

perfuaded will ftrike every attentive reader, is that the impreffions af the author (though he is, beyond queftion, both a poet and a scholar himfelf) have in no wife been weakened by claffical common-places, or thofe artificial pictures which poetry reprefents; that although he exhibits, in fo eminent a degree, the profeffed critic's perfpicacity, he yet is wholly exempt from his coldness and indifference; and that his critical decifions, however firm and manly, are pronounced at once with the modefty of the ftudent, and the genius of the mafter. Wherever he cenfures, he cenfures freely from the heart: and his eulogiams are bestowed with fo much fenfe and feeling, fo much native fincerity, and unaffected enthufiafm, as often to leave us in doubt, which moft we should admire, the merit of the poet who produced the paffage, or that of the critic, who can thus delightfully display it to the view. Why fuch a critic fhould choose to conceal his name, it is not eafy to conjecture, any more than it is to conceive why the author of the Life fhould not as anxiously wish for the concealment of his. That the writer of the Remarks must be a Scotchman is evident upon the face of his work and if any ftrefs can be laid on fimilarity in the colour of both fentiment and ftyle, we fhould be inclined to attribute it to the very ingenious author of the "Effay on Tranflation," a performance already long known and admired. But even internal evidence is fometimes deceitful; and we have no other evidence for gueffing at the fact.

Having now commended with a fincerity and good-will, perhaps not inferior to that which we have attributed to the remarker himself, we should be wanting in our duty, if we did not point out, with equal candour, fome defects in his effay, of which the most confpicuous feems to be, that it is greatly too encomiaftic. The apology offered at P. 104, we can by no means confider as relevant to the queftion: for the critic who deals forth nothing but praise, although he may indulge his partiality, or yield to his benevolence, is pretty fure to overfhoot his object. Having once procured, for his favourite author, the palm in paftoral poetry, and, in our judgment, juftly procured it; and having also established his merit in touching the pathetic, and delineating the manners, the remarker is too anxious to raife him to an equal degree of eminence in other departments of compofition, to which few impartial readers will regard him as entitled. That Ramfay drew from nature with a vivid imagination, and a vigorous pencil, we freely allow that he was prone to difcover the weakneffes and abfurdities in human conduct, and had ability to apply to them the lafh of fatire, will as readily be admitted. But, although poffeffed of a fund of humour, he was not very remarkable for invention, or for wit: he had few of the advantages which are derived from polish and cultivation; and he certainly cannot be faid either to be " Horatian genius," or, "in variety of talents, to yield to few poets of antient, or modern, times." See PP. 95-154. It is true, we ar dently admire his "Gentle Shepherd: we give him every praise for his Supplement to Chrift's Kirk," as well as for fome of his tales,

σε

a true

fongs,

fongs, and imitations of Horace; and, above all, for that firft of comic tales," the Monk and the Millar's wife ;" and all this we think we can do, notwithstanding the Cevavra OUVETO101, of which we are fo carefully reminded; the veil of peculiar idiom, which certainly conceals, except from Northern eyes, a part of the beauty of those original product ions. But the fact is, Raniay's merits and his defects proceeded from the fame fource. It was owing to an early want of cultivation, that he became the poet of nature in fo eminent a degree; and it was owing to the fame want, that he utterly failed in other efforts, where cultivation alone could have enabled him to,excel. Hence it happens, that, while he copies from nature, the delineation, no lefs than the colouring, is juft and pleafing: but when he attempts the regions of invention, or the labyrinths of wit, as we have obferved above, he becomes often coarfe and indelicate, and fometimes even languid and contemptible. Of the prefent volumes, therefore nearly the one half might have been fuppreffed, with equal advantage to the poet and his readers; and a judicious felection from his works would, without doubt, have been more acceptable to the public, than this laborious accumulation of all the trash and ribaldry that ever proceeded from his pen. Such a felection we ftrongly recommend to the elegant author of the Remarks: but as we are told there is a proverb in Scotland, which declares, that "more cooks than one ufually fpoil the broth," we truft it will be without the aid of his Johnfonian coadjutor.

The other defects of this valuable effay lie entirely in the ftyle; for although it is in general distinguished by purity and ease, it bears the moft unaccountable marks of hafte or negligence. Sape ftylum vertas is a maxim, which cannot too frequently be inculcated on all writers ; but an observance of it is more especially incumbent on those, who labour in the cultivated fields of taste and criticism. A few examples, which we shall adduce, will fufficiently juftify the above affertion; and they may also prove of benefit to a future edition of the performance. "Such of thefe poems, as bear their dates, are in their proper order with respect to each other ;". -to one another; as more than two poems are here in question. P. 70. "The celebrated John Law, the future projector of the Mififippi fcheme, then reigned fovereign of the fashions," P. 71. It fhould have been the fovereign of the fashions; or fovereign over the fashions. "He relates the progrefs of the South fea bubble, till its burft into air." It burst. "For the happy ease of the compofition is judged to be a proof, that it may be eafily compofed." Eafily attained; or eafily produced. P. 94. "But even an Englishman may difcern a part of the merits of the original, although this is all that perhaps he can do." It fhould certainly have flood, "a part of its merits as an original;" because, otherwife, we must believe the author to have meant, that a Scotchman is capable, but not an Englishman, of fully difcerning the merits of Horace. See p. 101. "Yet fuch is the pride of our nature, we cannot bear to fee this fentiment seriously entertained." That we cannot bear, &c. P. 102. "The evergreen was printed with a mif

Cc a

P. 92.

leading

eading fignature." A fignature calculated to mislead. P. 109.

"The moral chorus feems to have notions of love much more confonant to human nature, who difcourfes for a quarter of an hour on the different kind of kiffes." P. 147. It fhould have been, the moral chorus, which feems, &c. difcourfes for a quarter of an hour. "The other characters, who are truly peafants, are painted with fidelity and nature." The other characters, which are truly thofe of peasants. P. 149. "This must be the only fure criterion to judge of its excellence or defects." By which, or whereby to judge. P. 157.

It is remarkable how much more apt a Scottish, than an English writer is, to fail in that nice and difficult part of grammar, the use of the prepofitions; of which take the following inftances, in addition to fome others, which we have already curforily marked, in tranfcribing the extracts." He cautions his countrymen from giving way to this defpondency." Againft giving way. P. 93. Sir William Scott died at Edinburgh, on the 8th. Oct. 1725. In Edinburgh. P. 104. "It is a fevere political fatire against his countrymen." On his countrymen. P. 109. "It is neceffary to caft back our eyes on the firft ages of the world." To the firft ages. -P. 122. Of Scotticisms, properly fo called, we have been able to difcover but very few; or, as it is curioufly expreffed in that idiom, "almoft none. Take, however, the following examples. "Scots and Scotsman," for Scotch and Scotchman; vile barbarifms, firft brought into fashion by Hume and Robertfon. P. 65, &c. &c. "In place of lofty imagery," for inftead of, or in the place of. P. 197. " Printed along with," for together with. PP. 104-109. To which may be added "Scotifh," used paffim for Scottish; a mode of orthography, we believe, peculiar to this author himself.

In a treatise of science, or in an inferior compofition of any fort, we certainly should not have taken the trouble fo minutely to note inaccuracies, which to many, we are aware, will appear trivial and infignificant: but fuch blemishes, in fuch a writer, are like fpecks in the fun, which every one would with away from fo beautiful a furface.

Notwithstanding the length, to which this article has neceflarily been extended, we cannot refufe ourselves the pleasure of communi cating, to fuch of our claffical readers as are lovers of fun, a fpecimen of a tranflation into Latin of "the Monk and the Millar's wife," which has never been publifhed; and which, we are affured, is from the pen of a gentleman well known in the literary world, for his erudition and ability. This fpecimen we give alfo for another reafon, both because, as a tranflation, it is entitled to uncommon praife; and because it points out an ingenious method of obviating the difficulty, which we had deemed infurmountable, of transfufing any thing like humour into modern Latin verfe, viz. by the union of Monkith rhyme with claffical Latinity. We with the learned author would favour us with the whole of this curious, production; as we should think it well worth preferving in a corner of our Mifcellany, in order to relieve from the drier details of politics or fcience.

THE