standing the march of intellect, there are yet but few persons who are capable of appreciating them. But he may rely upon this, that while he, and such authors as he, are condemned, though useful in their day, to stick to the little creeks and bays of time, as it were, in the vicinity of their own age, the great writers above mentioned, and their like, are Leviathans, endowed with power to swim for ever in the great ocean of eternity. These remarks are not made wantonly, and for the mere purpose of putting a man of ordinary dimensions in juxta-position with a race of giants, to show him to disadvantage; they are naturally suggested by such arrogant absurdity as the following:

The works of Bacon and Locke are already becoming instances in point. They are more talked of than read; and if you will pardon a homely expression, oftener dipped into than waded through.

A. We have works, nevertheless, and those not works of art, but what in contra-distinction may be called works of knowledge, which will not be readily superseded.

N. It would be difficult to name them. I will not deny, however the possibility of a doctrine being so concisely and clearly established, that the demonstration may never be displaced by a better. Even in such cases, the doctrine in process of time appears so intuitive as not to require proof.

A. It seems to be an unavoidable inference from your remarks, that the study of old authors is a waste of labour.

• N. Much of it is an exhaustion of the strength to no purpose. This obsolete learning is well enough for minds of a secondary cast, but it only serves to hamper the man of original genius. It is unwise in such a one to enter very minutely into the history of the science to which he devotes himself, more especially at the outset. Let him perfectly master the present state of the science, and he will be prepared to push it farther while the vigour of his intellect remains unbroken; but if he previously attempt to embrace all that has been written on the subject, to make himself acquainted with all its exploded theories and obsolete doctrines, his mind will probably be too much entangled in their intricacies to make any original efforts; too wearied with tracing past achievements to carry the science to a farther degree of excellence. When a man has to take a leap he is materially assisted by stepping backward a few paces, and giving his body an impulse by a short run to the starting place; but if his precursory range is too extensive, he exhausts his forces before he comes to the principal effort.'-pp. 135-137.

This is modified in some measure by what follows and precedes; but it discovers the conceited and arrogant turn of the author's mind. Farther on, speaking still of the progress of knowledge, his ideas take another hue, and he begins to feel a little despondent respecting our own chances of immortality.

A. It is often said that we are presumptuous in thinking ourselves more knowing than our ancestors, but we forget the presumption of arrogating a superiority over our successors.

N. It is curious to speculate on the consequences of this inevitable pro

gression. The multiplication of books, for instance, will give rise to some singular phenomena. What a vast accumulation of literature, should the world continue a thousand or twenty thousand years longer without a geological submersion! What a weight of materials every year is adding to the stock of the historian! In process of time it will require the whole life of a man to become acquainted with the transactions of former ages, and the longest life will be insufficient to master the literature of a single country.

A. It will be the reign of Retrospective Reviews. A thousand years hence the literature of our own age may possibly furnish half a dozen nibbles to these fishers in the waters of oblivion. The splendour of intellect which envelopes us will have dwindled into a mere luminous point, scarcely making his way athwart the intervening space,-a star faintly visible in the night of ages. How mortifying to the personal vanity which makes itself the very sun of a system! But if we indulge in speculations of this nature we shall inevitably draw on ourselves the imputation of being visionary advocates of the perfectibility of man.'—pp. 146, 147.

Do

This appears to be attributing somewhat too much power to a thousand years. Let us look back through twice that space. we find that the age, for example, of Pericles, has dwindled to a 'luminous point,' to a star faintly visible in the night of ages ?' We are pretty nearly as well acquainted with the ideas, feelings, hopes, fears of the authors of that and the succeeding age, as we are with those of our contemporaries, and "the splendour of intellect" which surrounded them has not yet grown dim. On the contrary, the circle of their fame, which in their own day embraced at most the small extent of Greece and her colonies, now knows no limits but those of the world: their names are familiarly pronounced on the banks of the Ganges, in the infant empires of Australia, and in the broad swamps and interminable forests of America. The copies of their works have been multiplied beyond calculation, and they now speak to millions of men at once. May not our own great authors hope for a fate equally glorious? Shall not Bacon, and Locke, and Newton, and Shakspeare, and Milton, go down side by side with Plato and Aristotle, and Homer, and Demosthenes, and other great names of antiquity, to the farthest times? Nature will always produce great men, but there appears to be no likelihood that they will ever be sufficiently numerous to render it prudent to forget a single example. They are the senate of human nature, and the memory will always be large enough to house them.

We have been carried by this portion of the work somewhat further than we intended. It remains to remark, that the third essay is written in the style of the first,-with modesty, clearness, and ability; as if the author, having vented his spleen and illnature in the second piece, had become sober again. The doctrine of philosophical necessity is ably and properly explained, and other abstruse subjects are treated in a calm and philosophical manner.

NOTICES.

ART. XIII.-Biographical Sketches and Authentic Anecdotes of Dogs, exhibiting instances of their instinct, &c. with Portraits of Remarkable Dogs, and an Introduction. By Captain T. Brown. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. 1829.

THIS is as pleasant a volume of anecdotes as we remember to have seen, and though its contents are confined to the illustration of canine nature, they are very seldom trifling, and, in some instances, are even affecting. We should pity the man who could not succeed in making a faithful and trusty dog strongly attached to him, and not a man, perhaps, in the world could be found, who has felt himself long guarded and attended by such a companion, and could think lightly of his fidelity. We imagine we have observed that men of great and noble nature always love dogs; if we had not done so before, the present volume would convince us that it is the case. We have many instances of the kind in our own time.-Witness, Lord Byron. Witness, Sir Walter Scott, who talks about dogs with real delight, and the Ettric Shepherd who has a hundred anecdotes at hand, about his dog Sirrah or Hector, whenever he speaks of his lonely mountain wanderings, or his late return from market. The stories which Captain Brown has received from this gentleman and from Sir Walter Scott, are delightful passages in his work, which is enriched with a great number of anecdotes thus authenticated by respectable names. We have seen an excellent little volume, published some years ago, by Mr. Joseph Taylor, which, like the one before us, was intended as a panegyric on this noble animal, but it is, we suppose, by this time forgotten by the public, and we are glad to find another and larger volume published to supply its place. A great part of Captain Brown's book is devoted to the natural history of the Dog, and contains some curious and useful pieces of intelligence on its different species and characteristics. From the anecdotal portion we select the following story, which is thus related in Sir Walter Scott's own words.

"The wisest dog I ever had was what is called the Bull-dog Terrier. I taught him to understand a great many words, insomuch that I am positive that the communication betwixt the canine species and ourselves might be greatly enlarged. Camp once bit the baker, who was bringing bread to the family. I beat him, and explained the enormity of his offence; after which, to the last moment of his life, he pever heard the least allusion to the story, in whatever voice or tone it was mentioned, without getting up and retiring into the darkest corner of the room, under an appearance of great distress. Then if you said, "The baker was well paid," or " the baker was not hurt after all," Camp came forth from his hiding-place, capered, and barked, and rejoiced. When he was unable, towards the end of his life, to attend me when on horseback, he used to watch for my return, and the servant used to tell him "his master was coming down the hill, or through the moor," and although he did not use any gesture to explain his meaning, Camp was never known to mistake, but either went out at the front to go

up

the hill, or at the back to get down to the moor-side. He certainly had a singular knowledge of spoken language.'-p. 408.

The following is also an admirable description of a Shepherd's dog. 'My dog Sirrah,' says Mr. Hogg,' was, beyond all comparison, the best dog I ever saw he was of a surly and unsocial temper,-disdaining all flattery, he refused to be caressed; but his attention to my commands and interests will never again, perhaps, be equalled by any of the canine race. When I first saw him, a drover was leading him in a rope; he was both lean and hungry, and far from being a beautiful animal, for he was almost all black, and had a grim face, striped with dark-brown. The man had bought him of a boy, somewhere on the Border, for three shillings, and had fed him very ill on his journey. I thought I discovered a sort of sullen intelligence in his countenance, notwithstanding his dejected and forlorn appearance; I gave the drover a guinea for him, and I believe there never was a guinea so well laid out, at least I am satisfied I never laid one out to so good a purpose. He was scarcely a year old, and knew so little of herding, that he had never turned a sheep in his life; but as soon as he discovered that it was his duty to do so, and that it obliged me, I can never forget with what anxiety and eagerness he learned his different evolutions. He would try every way deliberately till he found out what I wanted him to do, and, when I once made him understand a direction, he never forgot or mistook it again. Well as I knew him, he often astonished me; for, when hard pressed in accomplishing the task that he was put to, he had expedients of the moment that bespoke a great share of the reasoning faculty.'-pp. 145, 146.

ART. XIV.-The Christian Souvenir, or the Beauties of Blair and Jortin; consisting of Extracts from the Sermons of those eminent Divines. London: 1829.

WE are unable to find a reason how the editor of this little work should have fallen into the ridiculous error of giving it such a title. We have surely enough of Keepsakes and Souvenirs, in their proper form and at the proper time of year, without having every drab-covered book which may be given to the young, called by their names, or similar ones. If the compiler, also, had been inclined to publish a work like the present, likely to be really useful, he might have chosen from the mass of English divines two infinitely better adapted than Blair and Jortin for his purpose. He is the first person, we are inclined to think, who ever called Blair a great divine. His sermons are well written, and it is all; but Blair's theological erudition, so much of it as the world ever saw, never entitled him to rank among our celebrated divines. Jortin, again, was a much better writer and polemic than a practical expounder of religion. We should, therefore, have been better pleased with the editor of the Christian Souvenir' had he made a selection from the works of writers of a different class; and he had before him for that purpose, a greater quantity of rich materials than the theological literature of any other country in the world could afford. A page of Barrow, Taylor, or Hall is worth, at any time, fifty of Blair or Jortin.

3

ART. XV.-Stories of Popular Voyages and Travels, with Illustrations, containing abridged Narratives of recent Travels of some of the most popular Writers of South America; with a preliminary Sketch of the Geography of that country. London: Wilson. 1829.

A BETTER plan for the instruction of young persons could not have been hit upon than the one employed by the compiler of this little volume. Geography is, according to the tact of the teacher, either a very pleasant or a very dry and disagreeable study. As it is ordinarily pursued, we have no opinion of either its utility or fitness for children. The name of a country, even when presented with exact information as to its latitude and longitude, conveys no idea to the mind, and the descriptions contained in the grammars and manuals employed in schools, are necessarily too slight to improve the matter. The only method, it appears, by which geography can be taught, is to afford the pupil tolerably full descriptions of the countries, the situations, and boundaries of which it is necessary to fix on his memory. The exercise of the faculty will then be fraught with profit, whereas in the former instance, it was utterly barren. Very young students should never have to enquire, either of themselves or others, what is the use of remembering? let them have histories and descriptions before them, and this will not be the case. The publication on our table, if followed up, will be a useful and convenient aid to the intelligent teacher. The present volume contains an abstract of the most interesting parts of four very important works, and the narratives into which they are thrown, is pleasingly written. Some good lithographic engravings accompany the text, and the volume would be a very complete little publication, if a small map were appended to the geographical sketch which is given of the country.

ART. XVI.—A Glance at some of the Beauties and Sublimities of Switzerland, with excursive Remarks on the various Objects of Interest presented during a Tour through its Picturesque Scenery. By John Murray. London: Longman. 1829.

It is quite as reasonable that a book should be spoiled by a bad preface, as a man's fortune by a bad address. If this at all holds good, the author of the work before us has nothing to thank himself for in the composition of his introductory remarks. A more simple preface was never written by a tourist to any part of the globe, and had we not had more charity than is usual on such occasions, we should have decided at once that his book was a very ridiculous one. Mr. Murray gives us as detailed an account of his views, and opinions, as if the Glance at Switzerland' contained the most important truths; indeed, such as would so deeply interest the public, that every one must wish to know what Mr. Murray thinks on all possible subjects of religion and politics. With very bad impressions, as to Mr. Murray's ability to make a readable book of the size of even his small volume, we turned to his description of the places through which he passed on his tour, and had the satisfaction to find we were mistaken in our conjectures, and that he can really write in a very neat and traveller-like style. There is a great number of dif