S. Hesper, in the year 1811 (Commu Promotions and Appointments. 361 nicated by Professor Pictet of Geneva)306 | Births, Marriages, and Deaths........... 363. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, NO 17, PRINCE'S STREET, EDINBURGH; AND BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON; To whom Communications (post paid) may be addressed; SOLD ALSO BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. [Oliver & Boyd, Printers.] X. First introduc'd at Rome the pompous fudge: But now it is a standing vanity, From which no modern editor will budge; XI. Even we, (remark the tyranny of fashion!) XII. But let that pass there's nothing half so wise, As going on in the old jog-trot way; "Never no good doth come of novelties," We wish, instead of aiming to surprise, XVII. Were vanity our foible, (which it an't) XVIII. Behold the Thistle of our native land How soft the virgin coronal's purple sheen. XIX. After this prelude " Bion" will not stare, We had from our commencement been thus sober, Besides it is a trick of good "old John's," (Hang that confounded 20th of October!) XIII. Then had our course of life been smoothly gliding Nor whiggery's meteor dimly forced to twinkle XIV. No acid drop had tainted then the jorum Of them that love the Yellow and the Blue; Jeffrey had still been princeps criticorum, The undisputed oracle of gout; And plain Scots heads had boo'd more majorum, To that despotic democrat Review, That over-rated much, but smart miscellany, Which now we're boldly thrashing to a jelly nigh. XV. Then Hunt and Hazlitt, Haydon, Webb and Keats, Had quaffed at Hampstead currant-wine in peace, In gentle interchange of" fine conceits," Of" Laurel Garlands," and of mutual grease; Such, we may gather, are their Cockney treats.(Alas! that joys so heavenly e'er should cease; That envy such a paradise should visit, In the vile demon shape of crooked Z.) XVI. Then had Odoherty (mad bard !) not rushed Of differing from them all to make no bones. XX. There is no saying about things which lie But, 'spite of all the SCOTSMAN's boded gloom, We see not in the Magisterial sky Any such symptoms of a dismal doom; XXI. Heroic Provost !-Hast thou ever been With hand disarmed still daring Henry's bladeSuch awe was our's, when, on that real scene, Even in the front of Boyle, most bold Kincaid! In front of Craigie, Bannatyne, and Miller, Stedfast and stern, stood firm our civic pillar. XXII. The "Letter on Election" is too long, Too ethically, querulously sad; Bailies and Bailie's Wives have stomachs strong, And punch is, at this season, far from bad; And Candidates would do exceeding wrong To change old fashions to please any lad That takes't into his head he is their betters, Who do not drink green tea, or write dull letters. XXIII. It gives a Scottish Borough quite a spring, When civil gentlemen come hurrying down, With heads agog on schemes of canvassing They kiss the voters' spouses thro' the town, They kiss their daughters also, and they fling, To every boy they meet with, half-a-crown ;Hot dinners and hot suppers are the word, And every Deacon is as drunk's a Lord. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. No XV. JUNE 1818. VOL. III. OBSERVATIONS ON THE WRITINGS OF GEORGE BUCHANAN. It is very far from being our intention to enter upon any thing like a formal lamentation over the decay of classical learning in Scotland. And yet we are persuaded that, to an enlightened German, Italian, or Englishman, it must appear an almost inexplicable anomalé in the constitution and appearance of such a country as ours, that those authors whose works, in every other part of civilized Europe, are venerated and studied as the best fountains of philosophy, and the only perfect models of taste, should be almost entirely overlooked among a people whose habits and conversation are tinged, to an elsewhere unequalled degree, with the spirit of literature. The truth is, that we believe the unparalleled diffusion of education among all classes of our countrymen, however it may be entitled to our gratitude for having ele vated and ennobled the spirits of our peasants and artizans, has, nevertheless, been the means, in no inconsiderable degree, of degrading the literary habits of those among us, whose business and ambition it is to be not only the subjects, but the instruments, of cultivation. When all men read, authors soon find it to be their best policy to write for all men. Those elegancies of allusion and of expression, and those labours of patient research, whose merits can be estimated by a very few only among any people, are gradually dropt; and modes of excitement, whose stimulus is of a more universal application, come very naturally to be adopted in their stead. The tone of literature becomes every day more vulgar (we do not use the word entirely in its primary sense); its professors seek and obtain popularity by sacrificing, after the example of some other privileged orders, not a few of the most imposing, and therefore most obnoxious, of their distinctions. We doubt, however, whether this method of proceeding be, upon the whole, either a wise or a just one. It may throw a deal of ready money into the hands of the present incumbents; but does it not very manifestly tend to maim and enfeeble the resources of their successors? Nay, a democratic government is the most thankless of all masters; and may perhaps repay only with contempt or exile, those who have sacrificed the most, in order to purchase its capricious and transitory favour. The first race of authors who adopt this mode of courting popular applause, although they may, bona fide, wish and endeavour to follow it to its full extent, are seldom able to do so. The habits and prejudices of their earlier views and opinions cling to them, and fetter them, in spite of all their efforts to discard them. Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem, Testa diu. A certain tinge and flavour adheres, and betrays the old liquor in the midst of all the drugs and adulterations to which its receptacle has been exposed. Besides, those who set the dangerous example are sometimes not unwilling that their followers should go farther than themselves; or, it may be, do not scruple privately to take the advantage of old guides and steppingstones, which they affect to consider as useless, and advise their pupils utterly to despise. We strongly suspect that somewhat of this kind has occur |