a review of the poetry and poets of the present era, in which, after running over the gamut in the Cockney style, he surprisingly pronounces Mr Hazlitt incomparably the most original of modern critics. We should be inclined to say, "Aut Hazlitt, aut Diabolus," were we not fully persuaded that the Work is too respectable to countenance any such vulgar methods of self praise. All we shall say is, that this worthy lecturer has got a most flourishing imitator and pupil. These are blemishes, and others might be pointed out in particular parts of this publication, were we disposed so to do. It is not, however, a task in general very pleasing, and in the present case, we feel still less inclined to perform it. To conclude, then, we think the design of the Re very trospective Review is admirable, and frequently the execution so good, that we cannot but recommend it strongly to the attention of our readers. Presenting, as it does, so rich a feast for the gratification of the literary palate, a repast so various and so de lightful, we think that lover of litera ture ill advised who does not make it one of the staple articles of his li brary. Whatever may have dropped from us in the rapid review which we have here taken of its merits, we be lieve our readers can hardly consider our opinion of it otherwise than favourable, when we declare that we think it even an honour to the cele brated University from which it ori ginated, and that its encouragement or failure will decide, in our opinion, the healthiness or corruption of the national taste. THE PIRATE.* THE author of Waverley has taken the field this season in a new and unknown territory, and with forces of a novel description, but with as much skill, boldness, vigour, and, we may add, with as much certainty of success, as ever distinguished him at any preceding era of his career. Having already shewn himself the unrivalled master of Scottish manners and English character, he has now transferred the scene to the Isles and the deep; and the beautiful lines of Shakespeare, which he has partly applied to his hero, may be applied, without mutilation and without alteration, and every way with much greater propriety, to him şelf: Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. The encounter of new and untried difficulties has, as in the case of Ivanhoe, served only for an additional spur of his imagination; and if the Pirate be, from the nature of its story and subject, a less splendid, it is, we venture to say, not a less delightful effort of the first genius of our age, than even Ivanhoe itself. The essential fable of this romance is very simple, and, indeed, very slen der-so that a very few words may serve to give as full an account of it as is necessary for our present purpose. Availing himself of a true story, well known to many of his Scottish readers, (and shortly told in his preface), he undertakes to frame a romantic narrative out of the partly real, partly imaginary, adventures of a set of pirates, apprehended among the Orkney Islands during the reign of George I., though the author has chosen to throw the date of his fiction as far back as the end of the 17th century, Goffe, the captain of these pirates, and the hero of their tale, occupies, however, but a secondary place in the representation of the Novelist, who has thought fit to concentrate the chief interest of his fiction on the character and fortunes of a purely imaginary personage, that figures, at the opening of the romance, under the name of Clement Cleveland. The reader has, without doubt, remarked, that when the author avails himself of historical materials, he seldom fails to follow the same rule which is exem plified here. Young Milnwood, and Serjeant Bothwell, and Waverley, and The Pirate. By the author of " Waverley, Kenilworth," &c. In three volumes, Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable & Co. ue. vanhoe, are instances which must mmediately recur to one's recollection; nd if we may presume to hint what he author himself is no doubt quite ware of, this is much the best course e, or any author who converts such naterials to such purposes, can purIn order to bend the historical haracter of Leicester so as to furnish but the hero of a romance, the author of Kenilworth found himself obliged to commit faults of a sort which he had previously avoided with great caution nd great felicity. He was not only obliged to falsify dates and distort events which are or should be well known to the reader of English hisory; but, what was much worse, to rive, in many respects, a discoloured view of the historical being, the great Earl of Leicester himself. Now, Capain Goffe might, no doubt, have been lealt with after this fashion without exciting any such feelings of dissatisaction as marred and diminished our lelight in perusing the exquisite ronance of the days of Queen Bess; out there is no occasion to take any iberties of that nature even with such personage as Captain Goffe; and, herefore, the author has done wisely n refraining from them. We hope e will always follow the same rule in uture; and for this reason as much is for any other, that it is a rule of his own establishing a rule, the adhetence to which has stamped a value on his writings, which, if it had been neglected, even his genius could not have done-a rule, by observing which he has in fact made himself one of the greatest of national historians, as well is of national novelists. For who, after all, can doubt, that, when the manaers of Britain, (which express the soul of Britain much more forcibly than even the events of British hisory,) shall have passed away, it will be from his pages, and such as his, that the students of after generations will collect their best and truest lights? Cervantes, not Mariana, is the true historian of Spain-and there is more to be learned of Scotland from three of this author's novels, than all the industry of all the Chalmerses could ever extract from all the folios and quartos, printed and MS., that are or ever have been in existence. Captain Cleveland and Captain Goffe command two pirate ships, which, after a successful cruise in the Spanish Main, find it necessary to sojourn for a little among the Shetland Isles before they make for the English port where they hope to deposit their booty. The navigation of the stormy seas in that region is, however, less familiar to them than that of the Atlantic, and the ship of Cleveland, who cannot prevail on his crew to obey all his orders, is lost off Sumburgh-head, a fearful promontory, with a no less fearful description of which the romance commences. The whole crew. are lost, except Cleveland himself, who drifts ashore with the wreck of the vessel, while the sailors, who had abandoned their ship, and their duty, and their captain, go down, within his sight, in the long boat. The violence of the surf, however, had exhausted his last exertions, and he is about to die on the very threshold of safety, when his situation is observed by a young man who is walking with his father on the summit of the cliff, many hundred feet above that perilous and foaming beach on which the relics of Cleveland's ship have just been dashed. Trained to the dangerous sports of the islanders, young Mor daunt Mertoun, although himself a stranger, and the son of a stranger, fearlessly descends the precipitous rock, and saves Cleveland's life at the imminent risk of his own. The father of Mordaunt, a melancholy refugee, who had for some time tenanted a lonely mansion-house on a sequestered extremity of the island, has habits which prevent the rescued mariner from being carried home by his gallant preserver; but Cleveland, who has nothing of the bearded buccaneer in his aspect, is con- · veyed to a cottage in the neighbouring village, where he personally receives every sort of kindness, although it is by no means an easy matter to protect any part of his shipwrecked property, even the chest containing his clothes, from the rapacious hands of these islanders, who, it is scarcely necessary to add, were not without some share, at that period, in the inhospitable_reproach of Cornwall, where, according to the old song, "Shipwreck'd mariners were slain, Cleveland and young Mertoun are thus brought together under circumstances of the most interesting nature, at the very commencement of the narrative. Throughout the whole of it, their interests, characters, actions, and manners, are opposed to each other in the most skilful manner possible; and yet the interest of this contrast is never at its height till the last volume of the PIRATE is closed in the reluctant hand of the reader. Young Mertoun, educated under the roof of a misanthropical and solitary father, and holding converse with none except the plain, open-mannered natives of Zetland, has grown up to the verge of manhood, not, indeed, in happiness, but in simplicity. He is naturally graceful and high-spirited-circumstances have kept him ignorant of the world, and alike ignorant of the real vices, as of the external blandishments, of worldly characters. Cleveland, on the other hand, is graceful and high-spirited too, but his course of life has left many of its natural traces behind it. He is hot, fierce, careless, desperate, like one whose trade has been too much in blood; but guilt has not seared him to the core, and, with the sins of a pirate on his head, he still bears in his heart not a little of the real kindness, as on his brow not a little of the open gallantry of The British Sailor, whose character he assumes. that young Mertoun is to marry He was a lovely youth, I guess; Was not so fair as he. Upon the Tropic sea. From the time when this adventurer finds access to the domestic circle of the Udaller Magnus Troil, Mordaunt Mertoun begins to perceive a remarkable falling off in the attentions he had hitherto been accustomed to receive from the kindness of Magnus Troil and his family. No little mes sages, no invitations-in short, it was evident that something was wrong; and Mordaunt, knowing that Cleveland had become an inmate in the house, could not avoid connecting that circumstance with his own disfavour in a manner that raised within him many very angry, and, perhaps, revengeful thoughts. In particular, he is astonished and perplexed by hearing of a great annual feast about to be given by the Udaller, to which all the Zetlanders, beaux and belles, have been summoned himself alone excepted. When he is perfectly sure that this is the case, he steals out to the desert, and seats himself beside a lonely mere, on whose bosom the wild-fowl are All the world of Zetland has said screaming, in a state of the most per Scorning the limited acquirements and views, as well as the home-bred innocence of Mertoun's character, Cleveland speaks and acts in a style, which by no means tends to rivet links of affection between him and his preserver. But jealousy comes in to tear far asunder what gratitude had never been able to blend, and Cleveland and Mordaunt Mertoun are enemies from the moment when the former first sets foot on the threshold of MAGNUS TROIL, a wealthy Zetlander, under whose hospitable roof Mertoun has been accustomed to spend all his blithest days -in the company of whose beautiful daughters, MINNA and BRENDA, he had from infancy been taught to sooth or dismiss those melancholy thoughts, which the nature of his father's residence, his character and his demeanour, all together, had been, at other times, well calculated to nourish within his breast. *Wordsworth's Ruth, urbed and melancholy feeling-when uddenly there stands by his side an ncient woman of the island-a lady y birth, but a solitary in her life-a laniac -a sorceress-the heiress,so, in her delusion, she believes, and in their superstition, the islanders elieve her to be)-of all the mysterious ower of the old prophetesses of the Torse-the last of the true breed of candinavian Rheim-kennars-Norna f the Fitful Head. This woman has ften before shewn kindness to young Mordaunt, who, again, without being ltogether a believer in the unnatural re-eminence of her powers, is too oung to be able entirely to divest imself of some reverence and awe, hen he finds himself in her imposing resence; and has, moreover, learned, om many singular incidents, to acnowledge the extraordinary shrewd ess and sagacious wit-if not witchraft, of Norna. This strange woman dvises and commands Mordaunt Merun, in spite of the coldness he has bserved-nay, in spite of the nonrrival of the expected summons-to ndertake his journey immediately cross the wastes of the island towards le mansion of the old Udaller. Love, uriosity, jealousy, wrath, and some ixture of superstition to boot, make im obey the dictates of the Rheimennar; and Mordaunt Mertoun arves in the neighbourhood of Magnus 'roil's habitation, at the very moent when all the throng of his exected visitors are pouring towards the ene of expected jollity within his ospitable gates. On the way he falls with a most ludicrous couple-an Osurd creature, half-farmer halfedant-the deputy of the lord-chamerlain of those isles-a sort of Scotsh agricultural-society-hero of the 7th century-and a penurious old cots maiden, his sister. These wornies, who have been transplanted rom the farm of Cauldshouthers in ngus, for the hopeful purpose of imroving what Mr Coke and Sir John inclair call "The first of human ciences," among the natives of these yperborean islands, furnish admirale relief to the indigenous manners of 'hule, and afford a great deal of exellent mirth throughout a considerale part of this romance. Bryce Snailsot, an Orkney pedlar, who chiefly eals in the sale of shipwrecked garhents and the like, is also present at this great feast: and he, too, is a character of great comic power. But the chief source of merriment is unquestionably Claud Halcro, a Zetlander, and a laird-a "dandy of sixty," and a poet of no contemptible order. Claud Halcro, in his youth, had sojourned some space among the wits of London; and his Cheval de Battaille is nothing less than the story of his having once been so fortunate as to be permitted a pinch from the box of Dryden himself-or, as he commonly styles him, "Glorious John." This insular literateur is a great man at the residence of Magnus Troil-it is he who sings, plays, dances the best: his judgment is without appeal in all matters of festive arrangement:-he is the Arbiter Elegantiarum among the "barbarous folk" of Zetland. For the rest, he is a kind-hearted old gentleman, and contributes considerably to the carrying on of the incidents in the romance. His literary conversation is, throughout, a perfect resurrection of the dead. The moment he speaks, the reader can never doubt that he is listering to one who had taken a pinch of snuff out of the box of Dryden. Magnus Troil is very much surprised, it is evident, at seeing Mordaunt Mertoun arrive an uninvited guest; but, quoth he, "when Magnus Troil says welcome, his summons takes in all who hear his voice”—and, therefore, he constrains himself to receive Mertoun with some civility. The young ladies receive him in a style equally remote from what had formerly been usual. Minna, the dark beauty, is cold and stately-Brenda blushes as she turns away; but even in her demeanour it is easy to see the traces of some secret pique. Mertoun is totally unable to account for these severe changes; but Cleveland is the declared favourite of the fair sisters, and, as all men see and say, the lover of Minna: and Mertoun may be pardoned for suspecting the person who has supplanted him of having done so by not the most legitimate of means. In a word, he is jealous, and Cleveland is haughty; and it requires all the skill of old Halcro to prevent them quarrelling openly in the presence of the guests of Magnus Troil, while they are engaged in emptying an enormous punch-bowl, the fragile relique of some foundered East-Indiaman. Next day, after breakfast, the whole company are summoned to assist in the capture of a whale, that has suffered itself to be left behind the tide in the shallow water of a small arm of the sea, or voe; and Mordaunt Mertoun and Captain Cleveland are, of course, among the most active in this singular species of diversion. "Then you might have seen such a joyous, boisterous, and universal bustle, as only the love of sport, so deeply implanted in our natures, can possibly inspire. A set of country squires, about to beat for the first woodcocks of the season, were a comparison as petty, in respect to the glee, as in regard to the importance of the object; the battue, upon a strong cover in Ettrick-forest, for the destruction of the foxes; the insurrection of the sportsmen of the Lennox, when one of the duke's deer gets out from Inch-Mirran ; nay, the joyous rally of the fox-chase itself, with all its blithe accompaniments of hound and horn, fall infinitely short of the animation with which the gallant sons of Thule set off to encounter the monster, whom the sea had sent for their amusement at so opportune a conjuncture. "The multifarious stores of BurghWestra were rummaged hastily for all sorts of arms which could be used on such an occasion. Harpoons, swords, pikes, and halberts, fell to the lot of some; others contented themslves with hay-forks, spits, and whatever else could be found, that was at once long and sharp. Thus hastily equipped, one division under the command of Captain Cleveland, hastened to man the boats which lay in the little haven, while the rest of the party hurried by land to the scene of action. "Poor Triptolemus was interrupted in a plan, which he, too, had formed against the patience of the Zetlanders, and which was to have consisted in a lecture upon the agriculture, and the capabilities of the country, by this sudden hubbub, which put an end at once to Halcro's poetry, and to his no less formidable prose. It may be easily imagined that he took very little interest in the sport which was so suddenly substituted for his lucubrations, and he would not even have deigned to have looked upon the active scene which was about to take place, had he not been stimulated thereunto by the exhortations of Mrs Baby. Pit yoursell forward, man,' said that provident person, pit yoursell forward—wha kens whare a blessing may light ?-they say that a' men share and share equals-aquals in the creature's ulzie, and a pint o't wad be worth siller, to light the cruise in the lang dark nights that they speak of-pit yoursell forward, man-there's a graip to ye-faint heart never wan fair lady-wha kens but when it's fresh, it may eat weel enough, and spare butter !' "What zeal was added to Triptolemus's motions, by the prospect of eating train-oil, instead of butter, we know not; but, as better might not be, he brandished the ru ral implement (a stable-fork) with which he was armed, and went down to wage battle with the whale. "The situation in which the enemy's ill fate had placed him was particularly fa vourable to the enterprize of the islanders. A tide of unusual height had carried the animal over a large bar of sand, into the voe or creek in which he was now lying. So soon as he found the water ebbing, he became sensible of his danger, and had made deperate efforts to get over the shallow water, where the waves broke on the bar; but hitherto he had rather injured than mended his condition, having got himself partly aground, and lying therefore parti. cularly exposed to the meditated attack. At this moment the enemy came down upon him. The front ranks consisted of the young and hardy, armed in the miscella neous manner we have described; while, to witness and animate their efforts, the young women, and the elderly persons both sexes, took their place among the rocks, which overhung the scene of action. "As the boats had to double a little headland, ere they opened the mouth of the voe, those who came by land to the shores of the inlet had time to make the necessary reconnoissances upon the force and situation of the enemy, on whom they were about to commence a simultaneous attack by land and sea. "This duty the stout-hearted and experienced general would entrust to no eyes but his own; and, indeed, his external appearance, and his sage conduct, rendered him alike qualified for the command which he enjoyed. His gold-laced hat was exchanged for a bear-skin cap, his suit of blue broad-cloth, with its scarlet lining, and loops and frogs of bullion, had given place to a red flannel jacket, with buttons of black horn, over which he wore a sealskin shirt, curiously seamed and plated on the bosom, such as are used by the Esquimaux, and sometimes by the Greenland whale-fishers. Sea-boots, of a formidable size, completed his dress, and in his hand he held a huge whaling-knife, which he brandished, as if impatient to employ it in the operation of flinching the huge animal which lay before them, the act of separating, that is, its flesh from its bones. Upon closer examination, however, he was obliged to confess, that the sport to which he had conducted his friends, however much it corresponded with the magnificent scale of his hospitality, was likely to be attended with its own peculiar dangers and difficulties. “The animal, upwards of sixty feet in length, was lying perfectly still, in a deep part of the voe into which it had weltered, |